Realizing that I will soon be an empty nester gives me mixed feelings and emotions. For one, I have a difficult time figuring out where all the time went. I remember my 20 year old being a baby as if it were yesterday. My 17 year old was my shadow and followed me everywhere I went. Somehow my sweet 14 year old son stretched to 5’11 and gained weight to become a 185 pounder. I understood that they would all grow into mature adults and would leave the nest one day, but what I didn’t realize was how I would feel about it.
Some days I feel as if I am in a dream where I’m being swallowed up by a whirling tornado where nothing looks or feels the same. Other days I feel as though I am at peace with their growth and maturity and I can even picture our house being empty with just the two of us. It’s hard to imagine such a life but I know that the day will come where the nest will be empty and the days that I know now will be no more.
I try to embrace it as we are taught to embrace the positive, the good, and the changes that life brings. Though difficult, it is real and somehow I will learn to sit back and appreciate their paths and the journey that God has ordained for them.
I am reminded of Ecclesiastes where it says in Chapter 3 verse 1 (NIV).
“There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens”
This time of my life is for growing and planting. I am beginning to realize that just as they are preparing to leave the nest, I must also prepare for this stage of life. My hope is that when they leave, I would have instilled in them the very foundation of our belief. I will pray that it will be so deeply rooted that in their older days they will remember and adhere to it.
“Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.”
Proverbs 22:6 KJV
Walking By Faith 