You can see the dad just above my screen.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs I sit here, there is conversation going on all around me. \u00a0Most of it I don\u2019t hear, or at least don\u2019t comprehend, but there is one family sitting at one of the tables closest to me that I can\u2019t help but notice. \u00a0It\u2019s a middle-aged couple sitting with a young man having coffee together.<\/p>\n
After a couple of minutes, it becomes clear the young man is preparing to begin college and the parents are preparing to say goodbye. \u00a0I don\u2019t know where they are from, but it\u2019s clear they don\u2019t live here. \u00a0There is a sense of excitement in the conversation, especially as the young man is talking about this new chapter in life, but overshadowing that are clearly mixed emotions lingering softly over the table. \u00a0It\u2019s something that I\u2019m beginning to instinctively pick up on. \u00a0Perhaps that\u2019s why I can\u2019t pull my attention away from them.<\/p>\n
As the mother gets up to go inside, it\u2019s time for Dad to encourage his son to \u201ccall your mother at least every Sunday. She needs to know that you\u2019re thinking about her.\u201d \u00a0I find it interesting that he only said call your mother because a few minutes later when the boy also went inside for one reason or another, I could have sworn I saw the glimmer of a tear in his eyes. \u00a0Unmistakably, there was pain on his face.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to deal with…children growing up and moving through stage after stage of life. \u00a0It seems as though we don\u2019t have time to adjust to one that they\u2019re already moving into the next, one series of painful joys after another.<\/p>\n
Maybe I\u2019m thinking so much about this because I\u2019m moving through yet another with Jacob. \u00a0For the last two days, I\u2019ve ridden to his\u00a0new school with him…in his own car…driving. \u00a0Wow, how could this little boy already be at this stage of life! \u00a0Somewhere along the line I blinked and found he is\u00a0not so little anymore. \u00a0As he, himself, pointed out yesterday morning with a smile as he tied his shoes on the steps getting ready to leave for the first time in his own car: \u201cWow, Dad. \u00a0It doesn\u2019t seem that long ago that you were teaching me how to tie my shoes.\u201d \u00a0Now, I\u2019m teaching him how to drive on his own.<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t even write this without feeling the lump in my throat. \u00a0With every passing day, I\u2019m experiencing the series of heart-aches I know my own parents went through, usually without my ever being in tune with enough to make it easier for them. \u00a0Heart-ache that never really goes away. \u00a0How could it? \u00a0Your kids are always your kids.<\/p>\n
So, it\u2019s the mist of mixed emotions gently floating above that table that I identify with. \u00a0It\u2019s painful to think of your kids growing up so fast, but it\u2019s so amazingly gratifying to observe…and maybe even play a small part in…the development of their wings. \u00a0I\u2019m so grateful to God for giving me two wonderful, talented and loving boys and the privilege to pour my life into and do all I can, through His power, to instruct them and nurture them, to correct them and train them in learning how to fly.<\/p>\n