This week I went to Siloam Springs, Arkansas— home of the beautiful John Brown University. We dropped off our twin daughters for their freshman year of college. My, how time has flown! It seems like just yesterday they were toddling down the hallway after a nap looking for some snuggles and story-time. Now here they are: Beautiful, accomplished, and competent young women – ready to take on the next challenge. I couldn’t be more proud of them.
I guess I just want to encourage you moms and dads this week — keep up the good work! I know how exhausting parenthood is. And how daily that exhaustion is. The sheer volume of practical, recurring domestic duties and the way they pile up — dishes and laundry and cooking and shopping and sweeping and bathing and feeding. It’s a LOT. And then there’s the weight of responsibility of raising a tiny little helpless soul to be a functioning, upstanding citizen and by God’s grace a thriving, maturing disciple of Christ. It’s daunting. it’s challenging. It feels unending. But it’s not.
I’m here to tell you: that level of parenthood not only has an ending but that ending sneaks up quickly on you. I’m a country music lover and so in the words of the incomparable Brad Paisley, there’s a “Last Time For Everything.” And you usually don’t know when it is happening.
Somewhere along the way my kids climbed off my lap and never climbed back up. I don’t know when the last bedtime story was. The last bath. The last tuck-in.
But I do know when the last meaningful conversation was: their last night home. Until 2:00am. We talked about college and money and church and love and responsibility and friendships and how unbelievably blessed we are. They are two of my favorite people on the planet. They aren’t just my kids—they’ve become my best friends.
Of course I will always be their mom. But this transition to friendship has been satisfying and incredible. It is literally the cumulative result of all those tedious, exhausting, difficult, challenging parenting days and weeks and years. so keep up the good work parents! The payoff is worth it.
And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9
