My older son, Andrew, is coming home tomorrow for a Christmas season visit. Andrew is our second child and left us at the end of March for his new Army career. We saw him in very early June at his boot camp graduation, but have not seen him since that time. He is stationed out west.
There are a lot of things to think about with him coming home. First, of course, we have to find a place for him to sleep (having emptied his room of his stuff), but that is not a big issue. As he says, he is a soldier now and can sleep just about anywhere.
More importantly, this is his first visit home as a grown-up. He was a legal adult when he left, of course, but had never lived away from home. He comes back as a grown-up. He left as a skinny kid but has had months of physical training and can pass military physical tests, so he is certainly going to look different. He has lived nine months away, with different people, doing different things, so he will be different.
He is our second child to leave home, so we are not totally out of touch with the situation, but it remains interesting.
How quickly people change. I think we forget this as we go through life. We see the same people all the time and their changes just seem natural to us, so we don't think about it. I have a friend who was single when I met him, now he is married with two children. He has changed a lot.
Andrew comes "home" to a very different place than he left, just nine months ago. Our second daughter has been in college since June (so she has changes, too) and the second son (our last child) is now 17 and driving, with a job, so many things have changed.
Nine months.
As you get ready for your Christmas time, spend some time thinking about how you have changed. And, especially, remember this: change is what you want.
As Christians, we are never at the end of our changes. God is in the process of making us like Christ. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Gal. 5:22.
Are you more loving this year? Is your joy greater, your peace more consistent, your patience more steady? Is your life (your every day) filled with your kindness, your goodness, to others? Are you more faithful, more gentle, in greater self-control.
If so, then rejoice in a good year. Peter tells us that these qualities make us useful and that if we lack these things, then we are "blind or short-sighted." 2 Peter 1:8-9.
It will be nice to see Andrew again. I am curious about what I will find in my son, but, to be honest, I am also concerned about what he will find in me. Will it be the great things of God coming true in my spirit and life? Or will it just be the same old me he left?
Tomorrow could be interesting for both of us.
There are a lot of things to think about with him coming home. First, of course, we have to find a place for him to sleep (having emptied his room of his stuff), but that is not a big issue. As he says, he is a soldier now and can sleep just about anywhere.
More importantly, this is his first visit home as a grown-up. He was a legal adult when he left, of course, but had never lived away from home. He comes back as a grown-up. He left as a skinny kid but has had months of physical training and can pass military physical tests, so he is certainly going to look different. He has lived nine months away, with different people, doing different things, so he will be different.
He is our second child to leave home, so we are not totally out of touch with the situation, but it remains interesting.
How quickly people change. I think we forget this as we go through life. We see the same people all the time and their changes just seem natural to us, so we don't think about it. I have a friend who was single when I met him, now he is married with two children. He has changed a lot.
Andrew comes "home" to a very different place than he left, just nine months ago. Our second daughter has been in college since June (so she has changes, too) and the second son (our last child) is now 17 and driving, with a job, so many things have changed.
Nine months.
As you get ready for your Christmas time, spend some time thinking about how you have changed. And, especially, remember this: change is what you want.
As Christians, we are never at the end of our changes. God is in the process of making us like Christ. The Holy Spirit is producing fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Gal. 5:22.
Are you more loving this year? Is your joy greater, your peace more consistent, your patience more steady? Is your life (your every day) filled with your kindness, your goodness, to others? Are you more faithful, more gentle, in greater self-control.
If so, then rejoice in a good year. Peter tells us that these qualities make us useful and that if we lack these things, then we are "blind or short-sighted." 2 Peter 1:8-9.
It will be nice to see Andrew again. I am curious about what I will find in my son, but, to be honest, I am also concerned about what he will find in me. Will it be the great things of God coming true in my spirit and life? Or will it just be the same old me he left?
Tomorrow could be interesting for both of us.