Keep your eyes on the ball!

Today was the day, I drove my oldest child to her first home away from home experience.  For the next four days she will be sweating it out, learning like never before, being stretched and pushed out of her comfort zone, and most likely people will be getting on her nerves while she gets on theirs.  She loaded the bus without a single look back and I almost lost it.  As several of the mothers stood outside the bus waiting for them to depart my big brown eyed girl looked out the window at me and waved her farewell.  I blew her a kiss and she reciprocated!  Oh how my heart fluttered and I fought back the tears.  It seems like only yesterday that I myself loaded a bus off to a college campus for a grueling several days at camp.  What an experience it always was for me and now my daughter is doing the same.  I couldn't help but pray hard that she would survive and blossom during this time. 

My boys have been playing baseball lately like nobodies business.  So it is no surprise that I have baseball on my brain!!  It's funny how life throws those curve balls at you and sometimes the pitch may get a little wild and you have to move out of the way.  I feel like I have been in that batters box for a long while.  I have seen some balls, made a few strikes, and foul tipped several times.  The pitches have been coming and coming.  Life has thrown some wild pitches and not many things seem to be like I thought they would be.  I am quiet appalled that I am old enough to have a child entering the 9th grade.  Lol!  I remember Janet White, our song ministers wife, always saying that by the time your child has reached the age of ten they have already begun to form their own little selves.  You as a parent will mostly likely not be their idol any longer and their desire to be their own person is beginning to flourish.  My heart aches as I now have an eleven, twelve, and fourteen year old.  How in the world did this happen?  And where in the world has time gone?  I look back and see so many of those wild pitches that were thrown and I just stood there and let them smack me in the face!  And boy the consequences of that have left some scars.  Those are the times I wish I could have had a DVR on life to rewind those moments and play them again as to maybe react differently.  You know what I'm talking about...your child that is just like you in so many ways and you clash on numerous occasions, but instead of being the "adult" you chime in and then before you know it, it's too late, there's the ball hitting you hard where it hurts! Or maybe it's three strikes and you're out!!  You haven't seemed to learn what it is that pitcher is throwing or how to react? Whose following me?

All those mess ups, pitches that were thrown and I reacted not so great, as a parent seem to have flooded my mind today as I watched my little girl get on that bus.  Oh now don't get me wrong, I refuse to let Satan win any battle in my mind or defeat me in my sin but, the Lord wanted me to see those things so I can be reminded how precious each moment is, to not sweat the small stuff, to stay focused on Him, and learn to react well.  I believe God wants us all to stay focused.  Just as a batter is on the pitcher, watching his every move as to know how to react.  If we don't act quick enough or wise enough we may just suffer consequences. And if we do react in the right way, well, we might just knock the ball out of the park....we may just make that lasting impression on our kids that are life changing, those ones that help them to become their own person for the Lord!!

Oh how I pray that my reactions to life will draw my children to Him.  I know that ball has smacked me between the eyes on too much of a regular basis lately.  Thankfully, we get to bat again after getting out.  I pray today my eyes will stay focused on the pitcher, MY GOD, so that He can show me what needs to be my next move to soar!  Encouraging you today that as each moment passes with your children or in life in general that you can keep your eyes on the One that controls the game of life! That by His movement, His speaking, you will be ready to react in a way that will be life changing for yourself and all who are watching on!!

Teach me your way, Lord, that I may rely on your faithfulness; give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name.  Psalm 86:11