My Boy

Today is my son's 13th birthday. It is hard to believe that he is entering the teen years already. The picture to the left is his 6th grade picture, and just from then to now, he's changed so much. Less the chubby cheeked little boy and more the chiseled out face of a man starting to show. The one thing I am so grateful for is the smattering of freckles across his face. He will never truly look old because of these cute little tan dots. So, I get to hang on to a little piece of his baby face as he grows! :)

A lot of people have warned me how very tumultuous the teen years can be. I am not so far removed from the teen years myself that I don't remember the things one goes through. However, I also know my child. I know that I have invested 13 years of love into his life and whether he makes some bad decisions or whether he has a pretty uneventful set of teen years, I will still love him all the same.

It is my belief that many adults underestimate teenagers. If you haven't already done so, I highly recommend buying a copy of the book Do Hard Things and reading it. It is a book that my family and I have been reading through. It was written by two teenage twin boys who call out teenagers to live with a purpose that glorifies God. The Harris twins challenge all who read to go beyond the societal norms and low expectations for teenagers and to do hard things with their lives. I believe that both of my children are capable of great things, therefore, I will expect no less of them just because they enter the teen years. In fact, I plan to expect MORE of my children as they grow. How else will they become Godly, responsible young people?

When my children were just toddlers, my husband and I had a paper route to earn extra money. On the nights we delivered papers, we would turn on a radio program called Focus on the Family and listen to the wise words of Dr. James Dobson. Even though my children were so young, I remember his admonitions of not loosening your parental grip on kids as they grow. He explained that the older a child gets, the more that child will want to exert his or her own will and try to replace the parents with the peers. Dr. Dobson recommended that the more the child pushes for freedom, the more the parents should hold on for dear life to their child for, at the heart of each child, they desperately desire boundaries. I have never forgotten those words, and I plan to continue to hold on tightly as my children grow. Not in a way to control or smother them, but in a way to show them that I am here, that I love them, and that true love has boundaries. I honestly look forward to those challenging times when they come, because so far, each challenging time has taught me something new about my child and myself, and together, we have grown.

It has been a joy to walk my son through the first 13 years of his life. He has never given us any problems and that is unusual. I don't say that to glorify myself because everything good in my children is a gift from God. God blessed my husband and I from the start with obedient, respectful, and lovable kids. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank God for that, because it wasn't deserved. I am looking forward with great anticipation at the future and how many wonderful things God has in store for my son. Again, may GOD be glorified!