42 and Graduation

I am 42 years old. My son Eli will be graduating from kindergarten in a few weeks. He will be 6 years old. I will go and proudly witness his transition to "real school" and out of early childhood. I will weep and hug and thump my chest. He is growing up so fast.

When my dad was 42 years old, he attended my graduation -- from college. I was 22 years old.

Little difference in perspective and significance, don't ya think?

But I hope he proudly witnessed my transition to "real life" and out of adolescence. I hope he wept and thumped his chest. I don't remember the hug. Our relationship at the time could best be described as a cessation of hostilities to reload.

Things are better now, and I think Eli has a lot to do with that. Grandparents relate to their grandkids differently than they did with their kids. We all know that.

I think they relate differently to their kids, too.

It's SUPER Moon

Only every 18 years or so, the full moon appears on the moon's perigee. This perigee marks the closest distance from the earth in the moon's orbit. Pseudo-astronomers call it a Super Moon.

As family leader, I pull us toward nerdy activities. My wife, though glamorous and fantastic, has the heart of a nerd, too. So all day Saturday we talked up the Super Moon to our 2 children. We together worked them up into an almost Christmas Eve frenzy of anticipation and expectation.

As the sun sat, we all began looking eastward. As heavenly shades of night were falling, we loaded into the fam van and crused around looking for a high place to see the moon above the beautiful, but obstructing West Virginia hills.

We drove to one high point but could not see the moon. We drove to another. Still no clear view of the moon. Momma had googled that the moon appeared biggest when just breaking the horizon or tree line. But it was still behind the hill and we were now Bedtime minus 10 minutes! The static charge of tension was palpable in the famvan -- and growing...

...then on the last hillock, we spied through the trees the Super Moon. Momma and I "o-o-o-h-e-d" and "a-a-a-a-h-e-d" dramatically. The kiddos strained to see. Then the excitement faded as the moon did not appear in any way "Super."

Later that night, about 10pm, we could easily see the Super Moon from our kitchen window. We laughed about our family adventure and how un-super the moon turned out to be. Like so much we experience...

I'd Like to Be Saved

Last night after E and I finished a couple of key chapters in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," we said bedtime prayers and lay down to sleep. Then in a small, trembling voice, E says, "Hey, Dad, I'd like to be saved."

I'D LIKE TO BE SAVED!!!!!!!

So I held down my euphoria and asked, "What do you think that means?"

"I'm not really for sure."

So at this point I wanted him to be clear so I shared the meaning of an intimate/personal relationship with God. Our reading of Edmund's treachery, Aslan's trading places and dying (then coming back to life) had been used to soften his heart and were great connecting points to talk of our sinful selves (doing wrong things), Jesus trading places with us and our need to trust Jesus to be our savior and king.

Having talked through these issues, I asked, "Would you still like to be saved?"

"Yes. Will you do it for me?"

"I can't do it for you. You have to choose for yourself. You have to trust Jesus for yourself. I will help you if you want to."

"Okay, Daddy. Let's pray now"

And we did. As we finished our prayer, I told E he was part of God's people and should always remember that. Then I rushed out of the room to tell Momma.

When I came back with Momma, he told her the story of what happened. I walked Mom out and then returned to the room.

He was grinning from ear to ear. "You seem happy," I said, "what is making you happy?"

"I get to go to heaven now, Daddy!"

"Yes, boy, you do and you get to live with Jesus all the days of your life here, too!"

"Daddy, can we get to heaven another way?"

"No, Jesus says He is the only way."

"Okay, Dad. Goodnight."

This is the greatest joy of my life! This was my greatest privilege: to lead my own son the last few steps into trusting Jesus for himself. It was awesome!

Binkys and Tennis Shoes

Being a parent is a tightrope walk of balancing rules and relationships. There has to be norms for any society to function. A family must have such structure. And children need to learn some of life's basic principles so they can function effectively as adults, some day.

Yet mercy overrules law. Just a look or and indication that the heart was in the right place though the actions violated a norm at times vetos rule-breaking/consequence thinking. Take Monkey see, Monkey do for example. Clearly the boy's heart was in the right place although the Windex wasn't!

Well, this morning we were having a DEF-COM LEVEL 5 situation. Eli was crying, refusing to wear his tennis shoes. He wanted Daddy shoes. Sister was crying. She needed a binky. I wanted to cry. I think even Momma wanted to cry, too. The departure for schools was being delayed.

We usually don't send Jilli out the door with a binky. I usually wear brown dress shoes with professional pants and shirt. But when we left the house, Sis had a binky firmly escounced in her now quiet mouth and Eli was happily skipping along in his tennis shoes. I was hansomely attired in a pair of tan pants, blue striped button-down, blue and tan striped tie and WHITE tennis shoes!

Boy...the delicate balance is hard to find!