Recently, Steve and I hosted the middle school’s Wyldlife Club gathering in our home. It was so fun and easy – we just had to feed the [fabulous] leaders and then stay very invisible. Got it. We kept ourselves out of sight during the entire 4.5 minutes that 50 kids arrived and scurried to the downstairs family room.
Once the trampling seemed to be isolated safely below, I stealthily peered around the corner into the foyer and was met with a sight that struck me as moving and daunting; poetic, sweet and wildly important.
I pondered and prayed silently over this goofy and random and expressive pile of big-little shoes.
Can they confess safely
Ask freely
Leap confidently
Dance wildly
Follow good leaders
Lead others kindly
Know their maker
Climb mountains of dreams
with limitless possibilities
Stand firmly in an unconditional love that’s alive in their homes and their communities?
These shoes will soon be too small for the really-loud kids that are downstairs right now. They’ll be abandoned in a closet and donated to more kids. Will they be lined with smiles or insecurities? Can we launch them with nothing but confident love? No baggage, just good, sturdy “shoes” that give foundation and flight…
Pastor Pete Wilson wrote this week about suicide among young people and our role as parents.
It is up to us, the ones on whom they can rely to give them the safest, most Godly love we can. More than we can on our own. It’s the most important job we have. Each age shapes and forms; Middle school is where we realize we are individual and decide if we’re okay.
Have you allowed your child to feel “perfect in every way exactly as they are” and loved beyond comprehension today? Safe and without fear in their own home? Excited for the future?
Who else possibly can?
I think that’s what leads to an honorable life.