On the Flipside

Then there's the other side of that last post about raising your older children, the awesome part, the part where you begin to see your children growing up into people, people with unique personalities and gifts, and you find yourself really enjoying their company (most of the time ;) and actually missing them when they're not around. Not to mention, they can team up and do the whole dinner clean up together!

And there are those moments, like when your sixteen year old son sitting beside you offers to give you a neck rub, and tells you something he heard in the sermon that you hadn't realized he had the depth to appreciate or understand and your heart inwardly leaps for joy; or when you're making apple pies with your fourteen year old daughter, one peeling and cutting the apples, the other making the crusts, and you are suddenly surprised by the fact that you are in the middle of a really interesting conversation with your own daughter, and laughing, and having a good time.  Who could have imagined this? And you get a tiny glimpse of the deep friendship, God willing and we live, and He grants, you will have with him and with her in the years to come.

Those times make you realize it's all worth it. The pain. The conflict. The battles. The nights of crying and praying like mad that God will win their hearts and give them a fear and a love for Himself of their own that will keep them through the difficult years to come.

And you smile when you think that, as far as your relationship with that "teenage" child goes, the best is yet to come.