Amy's 'momentary trouble'

Well, it came and went; the first day of school that is. I’m the one who normally drops the older two off, that is unless I’m out of town or need to be in the office early, and today was no different. Except it was, different that is, as both Brittany and Trevor are older…bigger and one could hope, somewhat wiser. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got great kids and they seem to have their heads screwed on straight, at least for the moment! But as we’re getting closer to school, we start passing kids who are walking and I notice the newness. Shiny white tennis shoes, clean new clothes, sharp new hair-cuts or hair-do’s and even new backpacks that are bulging with supplies. Down underneath the white, the clean and the trim, each kid is basically the same as they were when they left 3 months ago. It’s the experiences, the individual happenings accumulated during those 3 months that can affect or influence a child, even set them upon a course that they will pursue for the rest of their lives. Have you ever found yourself doing that? I know I have. We shine ourselves up, put on the fancy dress or new suit and head off to church. We put on our fake plastic smiles and our veneer exteriors and pseudo-gladly greet people we only talk to once a week. All the while, God sees through the plastic and veneer. He sees our faults…our weaknesses…our pain…our sin and He loves us still. He’s not interested in how fancy we look or how shined we appear, He want’s to breakthrough our plastic exterior and get to the real you, the real me. He wants to draw us out into real fellowship and close relationships, starting with himself.

Do you know what your kids did this summer? Do you know what the single most important decision they had to make for themselves was? Do you know who they hung out with the most and what kind of person they are? I’m not implying or even suggesting anything negative here, but do you know? If there is one thing I learned this summer, it was that the more time I spent doing things with my kids, the more they wanted to do things with me.

Invest a little time in your kids…the harvest may surprise you!

This is Amy's story as seen and told by me – V