Kindergarten & Third Grade. Hard & Beautiful.

 

 Sometimes you have the right words to express exactly how you feel.

And sometimes you don't have words at all.

And when days like when your little baby boy starts kindergarten happen- 

that is one of those days that you just don't have words.

Especially when you don't expect it to bother you too much, 

because you've done this before when his big brother started kindergarten.

You've stood in these shoes before.

And you still have one more baby at home that will start kindergarten someday {too soon}.

So this one really won't bother you because you've done it before, and you'll also do it again.

But then you drop him off at school,

and he's so big and so brave,

and you pull away doing the ugly cry and not caring who knows it.

Because your little baby boy started kindergarten today,

and life will never be the same.

 And his brother, the crazy-tall, handsome, suddenly grown up looking child?
He started third grade today too.

And you're not sure how you got here so quickly either.

Because it was just yesterday that you were doing the ugly cry when you left him at kindergarten for the first time.

And now he's this grown up kid.

And he is a light in this dark world.

And you couldn't be more proud of him, no matter what.

So, sometimes you have words.

But sometimes you don't.

And sometimes you need to borrow words from someone whose words are better than yours.

 "So, yeah, parenting is hard & beautiful,

and very, very hard & very, very beautiful,

and sometimes you just get down on the floor and weep 

and there's no shame in it--

tears just saying we're loving deep.

 

Parenting is hard, not because we're getting it wrong,

but because we're getting to do holy work--

holy work is the hard work.

That's the miracle of parenting--

labor never stops & we never stop having to remember to breathe.

 

Maybe brave & beautiful parenting comes down to us all being in this together,

us all needing grace together.

Parenting is this way of bending over in humility to help the scraped child up because you yourself know it takes a lifetime to learn how to walk with Him.

And all the parents exhaled...

and our every breath calls for You to come, Lord, please come.

Come help us to labor over these beloved children, 

that they'd deliver into the whole expanse of Your fulfilling grace-

& never forget their name: Beloved."

-Ann Voskamp

 

Yea, because sometimes you have words.

And sometimes you don't.

But this Mom thing? It's almost always hard.

But it is assuredly always beautiful.

I couldn't be prouder of you kids.

Let your little lights shine like there's no tomorrow.

I'll be cheering you on!