Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Growing Up Mom



Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
- Elizabeth Stone



Motherhood is tough on a girl!


Last weekend was Mom’s Weekend at my son’s university. He’s just a freshman, and it’d been a month since I’d seen him. That boy owns a king-size place in my heart. I’m ridiculously crazy about him. I drove four hours in eager anticipation of seeing his smile in person and of getting one of his bear hugs. But, I also drove with apprehension. Great apprehension. You see, Mom’s Weekend wasn’t the only reason I was heading his way. I was also going to meet the girl…why-is-it-soooo-hard-to-say…friend.

Yep, his girlfriend.

For eighteen years he’s successfully avoided the ups and downs of romance due to some very strong convictions that he didn’t want to date while he was still young. He’s looked right past all the adorable daughters of my closest friends, the sharp young ladies from his youth group, the fun girls he’s grown up around.

BAM! Until he met this one.

This one whom I’d never even met. This one who was stealing a piece of my boy’s heart.

I’ve never really had a problem with sharing. But…sharing him? Are you kidding?! There was a piece of me who really didn’t even want to like her. Isn’t that awful to admit? Oh, What if she didn’t like me? I couldn’t help but wonder. That could be colossally awful! The closer I got to his college, the more I thought, This could change everything, and I didn’t know until that moment how very much I really didn’t want anything to change.

I liked things the way they were.

As the clock ticked faster and the college loomed closer, I prayed hard that God would get my heart where it needed to be. That He would help me to embrace the changes in my world. I quoted verses to myself and prayed some more.

Wouldn’t you know…she was a delight!

After all the gymnastics my heart went through, the visit was a lot of fun and I left feeling like maybe I could embrace this new adventure after all.  I mean…I don’t want to rush it, or anything. But maybe, just maybe, I can learn to share. A little.

Growing up really is hard to do. Even for us Moms.



REALLY RELATING
What is one thing you find hard about growing up? How is it affecting you today?

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

SPRINGfever


 It's *spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

Don’t you love that after every Winter there comes a Spring? 

There’s only one thing that gets me through Winter. Seriously. Not Hot Chocolate. Not Christmas. Not cozy fires or freshly fallen snow.

It’s the promise of SPRING.

That’s what Spring is to me – God’s promise. It’s His rainbow in the sky, promising me that gray and dreary days will NOT last forever. That Hope IS on the way. Literally and figuratively.

No winter lasts forever; no spring skips its turn. – Hal Borland

Spring is the future I count on when life gets cold. When fun ceases to happen and reality bites.

Spring is what my heart hopes for. And counts on. Always. Spring is HOPE.

Keep your eyes open…Spring is coming for you too. Hope is just around the corner. The trees are about to burst into bloom!


Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life. 
- Proverbs 13:12, ESV



REALLY RELATING
What is your favorite season of the year, and why?


*This is the poem that made the phrase “spring fever” famous J.