The Launch

As parents you know it's part of the deal. It's what is supposed to happen.

As parents, in the day-to-day, you lose sight of the deal. The forest gets lost in the trees.

They are supposed to leave.

Our role is to shine a flashlight down a path, hold hands on occasion, whisper in the ear every now and again...

...and then entrust them to God.

I currently have friends who are going through this with their graduating seniors. Their kids "to-do" list after graduation involves colleges far away, majors that don't appear to have financial gain on the heels of it, missions work in developing nations, military service in unstable places, learning trades that will make them happy but not get a lot of esteem from the masses, and some with no real list to speak of.

I currently am seeing that more and more in my own home. The preparation for the launch is very real at this point in my life. 4 and 6 years according to the calendar.

Unfortunately for my kids, the coffees and lunches we have seem to have agendas attached. I've still got some time for holding their hand, shining the flashlight and and whispering in the ears.

It's the entrusting them to God part that seems so urgent and difficult today.

And the mere fact that I tend to focus on the hands, the light and the ears (the stuff I can affect) than I do the One Who Loves Them Most and Knows Them Best scares me.