I have
to admit that I’m a fairly positive person. In the exception of when evaluating
my own performance, I can almost always see the best in things and find reason
to hope for better tomorrow. So I’m warning you ahead of time that I may be a
little sappy, sound a bit corny, and a perhaps come across a tad too optimistic,
but this past weekend reminded me of some precious opportunities we have in
front of us.
Saturday
morning we wrapped up our first ever middle school only summer retreat. We were
back to the church shortly after noon and students were headed home with their
parents. After grabbing a quick shower (always a post-camp priority) my family
and I went to celebrate the holy union of one of my former baseball players and
his beautiful bride. We then changed out of our fancy clothes, grabbed an early
dinner, and ventured to the snow cone stand.
“Well
Matt, we appreciate you telling us about your “exhilarating” day and all but
couldn’t you have just tweeted about it or maybe posted a quick vine vid?
What’s the point?!” The thing I want to share is how the Lord seemed to be
speaking to me through each of these events.
Our
oldest child is heading in to our middle school ministry next fall and actually
attended our retreat this past weekend with a bunch of his buddies. That fact alone
is both exciting and unbelievably scary. How in the world can he be that old
already?! Where has time gone? How much longer before my wife and I are
officially “uncool” in his eyes?
But as
I spent time with our students over the weekend and heard them share
testimonies of what they learned and enjoyed most at the retreat, I became
encouraged. These youth are energetic and fun and still quite impressionable.
In ways that they would struggle to articulate, they long for relationships,
consistency, and a sense of belonging. If we’d be willing and able to meet them
where they are and endure this awkward stage of life with them, I think our
collective future is really bright.
At the
wedding Saturday afternoon, I watched this young man exchange vows up in front
of a bunch of his family and former teammates, and I couldn’t help but recall him as a high
school kid just trying to learn how to hit a curveball. Wow – he sure has grown up!
Then of course, I visualized each of our three children standing in that similar place
one day. Yikes!!
While that honestly is a frightening thought, it was as if the Lord reminded me of how that’s
supposed to happen. If we fulfill our call as parents, our children will one
day move out of the house and start their own families. So rather than dreading
a day that’s pretty much inevitable, how about we make the most of each hour
and year between now and then? Let’s engage our children with truth. Let's work diligently to help position our children to be successful, to choose a spouse wisely, and pursue a career that's fulfilling. Let’s
share our hearts with them so that we have no regrets when the day of leaveth
and cleaveth cometh. May we point them to Christ and demonstrate our daily
reliance upon Him so that the faith they profess might indeed become their own.
Our
long day concluded at a snow cone stand… Something about eating flavored ice
under the warmth of a June sun just seems right. For our family, it signifies
that summer is officially here, now may the brain freezes commence! We
deliberated for a while before finally landing on the flavors we would try. Oh
that the Lord might give us enough days to taste them all! May I encourage you
with this thought: although many chapters have already been written, each day
starts anew and tomorrow is a blank page. With that in mind, what experiences
will be recorded? Who might help you format these next many years? And who will
be seen as the hero when the conclusion is penned?
Remember, I cautioned you that it might come across sounding this way… May we see Christ’s
preeminence in all things (Colossians 1:15-20) and point our children and families
to the author and perfecter of our faith (Hebrews 12:2), King Jesus. Perhaps
the question isn’t whether you see your snow cone as half full or half empty,
but rather, do you notice there is still something left?
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