What no one prepares you for...

This is the first day of school photo when your son is a senior. No cute chalkboards or posed photo. Instead, it’s a photo of your child confidently and casually walking away. It’s a metaphor for this season of life too. We’ve cared for them, protected them and now it’s time for them to begin the process of walking confidently to their future.

But it is not easy. It just seems like yesterday that we were packing lunches with cute sandwiches and their favorite treats. Today my son took leftover Chuy’s and some protein bars, and he’ll eat another 2nd lunch when he gets home from school, right before he eats a huge dinner.

No one prepares you for this. When your kids are young, people will say things like “treasure every moment,” but in the midst of sleepless nights and long days, it’s hard to truly appreciate it. You spend many years looking forward to when they’re older and don’t need naps or help to get dressed or whatever other milestone you are focused on. Then one day you start looking backward because you realize how little time you have left. And what you wouldn’t give to have one hour with your kids at the age when they would run to you, happy to cuddle or play.

We’ve spent the last 18 years keeping them in our safe bubble of protection but now they’re about to venture into new territory with new adventures where they will make mistakes and have failures and we pray we’ve adequately prepared them for what lies ahead. And yet we let them go because we are confident in a big God who loves them far more than we do, who will be with them even when we can’t.

Even if our heart breaks a little…