Growing Pains

This week has been full of mixed emotions. My youngest, John Gordon, is officially a teenager since he turned 13 on Tuesday. I honestly didn’t think him becoming a teenager would have an impact on me.  He is only a year older. Once the birthday celebrations were over, I was reflecting on the fact that he is no longer a “child”.  I think most parents can relate to the challenges that teenage years can bring upon parents. This year and more specifically, in past few months, there have been a quite a few changes for my family.  My oldest went off to college and my youngest is now a teenager. It’s a strange feeling as a parent since you never want to see your children grow up and move away from the nest.  Yet, I have enjoyed watching them grow and mature into independent people.

I know that life gives you changes and a lot of times they seem to all occur at once.  I feel like all the emotions tied to these changes of late are growing pains and hardships of letting go.  I know that all parents go through this stage of the realization that their kids are becoming adults.  It is something that I am slowly growing ‘accustomed’ to – if you truly can become accustomed.

One Bible verse that I constantly look to and pray over my children as they apply lessons and morals I have taught them while growing up as they continue their journey to becoming adults is Proverbs 22:6 – “Train up a child in the way he should go; and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”