A Beginning or An End...You Choose!

I love pre-schoolers! They are so open and they are like little sponges, ready to soak up life and learning. I guess that is why this week has been a very special week. In the area where I live, almost without exception, it has been the first week of school. It also was Promotion Sunday at our church. I had the opportunity to observe a brand new group of Kindergarteners who experienced a deluge of "firsts" in their lives this week. It was the first time many of them attended the adult worship service and on the following Monday, most of these same children were entering a neighborhood elementary school for the very first time as a student! I can easily predict what happened almost universally in kindergarten classes across the country!

There were a few tears...more shed by Moms and Dads than by children. There were lots of smiles and giggles and a few anxious moments, but all in all the transition from "baby" to child went smoothly. As I thought about it, I remembered back to a time more than 25 years ago, when my little girl and later my son both had their first day experience. At the time, I recall thinking that somehow this was the end of something and it somehow made me sad to be sending those two little ones out into a world that could be dangerous and scary. However, mostly I was sad for me, because I knew that this was only the beginning of what would become a long period ending finally when they completed college and "were on their own." Being a parent is one of the few tasks in life where you practice your skills over and over and when you finally get the hang of it, you find yourself standing on the curb waving and watching your child drive away to follow their dreams!

As I thought more about it this week, though, I realized that as with most things in life, the end of one thing lead to the beginning of another. And with the end of "babyhood" begins a time when that "baby" is learning to interact with others and is hopefully learning about the love of a God who knows them individually and personally! It is the beginning of "the turning loose process" and just like the butterfly, until that child turns from the captive caterpillar to the beautiful butterfly, he or she is not what God intends for them to be! So, Mom and Dad, do you want to see the first day of school as the end of you "baby" or will it be the beginning of a life filled with learning and growing into the person that walks with God and yes, that becomes not only your child, but your friend! You get to choose, but I offer one more inducement for you if you are still uncertain...eventually those children will grow up and nothing you can do will stop that, but when they are grown up they give you grandchildren! So, think about it ...and you choose!