Time to Fly!

Sometime around 18 years ago I was sitting in a seminar about the Christian home. The speaker read these verses:

‘Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb is a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, so are the children of one’s youth.’ Psalm 127:3,4

I don’t recall much of what he said that day, but one thing really stood out to me. He said that arrows are made to shoot, and a goal in parenting is to shape them and prepare them to fly straight.

For 20 years that so much sums up most of my life. When God gave us the gift of little lives to care for, to nourish, to disciple, to mold and shape, to help them discover who God made them to be – I remembered those verses any time I was tempted to shelter them away from the sorrows of the world. I came back to that whenever I was scared to let them try new things.

Raising little disciples was scary sometimes. It was stretching many times. It was fun and thrilling, exciting and challenging. There were times I needed the gentle reminder that I was not to be raising my kids to be like me – but Someone far greater! That I was not raising disciples of ‘Lynn’, but disciples of the cross of Christ! It was a HUGE blessing to have a husband who would pray that our children would go farther for Christ than we ever did. It was exciting to know that God had a perfect plan for who they were to become: for the gifts and abilities He gave them to use for His glory; for the opportunities He would provide them that I would never have thought or imagined.

Parenting showed me so many weaknesses in myself, and made me so disgusted with myself at times. And parenting gave me some of the biggest blessings and joys far beyond what I anticipated!

As of Wednesday night, we are officially ‘empty nesters’. It’s a little scary, because that’s been so much of my identity for so long. It was hard leaving our firstborn at college two years ago, and it was hard to watch our youngest drive away on Wednesday.

I have to admit, I ‘ugly cried’ all the way to church that night after watching my not-so-little-girl turn the corner in her car, most likely never to come live back at home again. I spent so many years preparing her to fly, yet my heart was not prepared to actually let her go do it!

I’ve been so content with being known as ‘Danny’s mom’ and ‘Rebekah’s mom’ over the past years – it almost feels like I have to find a whole new identity. I praise the Lord I still get to be known as ‘Scott’s wife’ – and am thankful for that constant truth with everything else in my world changing at the moment! He’s stuck with me for a long time!!!

Don’t misunderstand – I am SO thrilled to finally shoot those arrows – that’s what we’ve been working on for years! I am SO excited to see them fly and become all that God made them to be. I am SO blessed to be able to watch God’s perfect plans for them unfold over the next years! I am SO pumped about the possibilities God has for my future as well – it’s going to be an adventure.

But, I’ll never stop being a mom. I’ll never get tired of those texts they send me, (thank you Lord, for technology!), and I’ll never mind their special ring-tones going off on my phone. And if you want to, I won’t mind if you still call me ‘Danny and Rebekah’s mom.’

~Mrs 😀

p.s. – I found it interesting that although I don’t ever recall sharing those verses with my daughter, that she chose this song for her senior video!