Growing Up

Lately I've noticed just how much our oldest son, Gabe, is growing up. As you may recall, he turned six awhile back, and it has recently become very apparent to me just how much this milestone has meant.

Maybe it's just me thinking of holding a newborn again soon, and realizing how many years ago that Gabe was a newborn. Maybe it's the fact that it's summertime, meaning Gabe is home everyday from school, and while his brother and sister nap, he's gotten too old for nap time. Maybe it's the fact that my little boy, who was not too long ago deathly afraid of fireworks, now wants to light them on his own in celebration of the fourth of July. Maybe it's the helper he's become, often offering without being asked to assist me with chores or taking it upon his own to be such a blessing to me.

Maybe it's a lot of things.

I know it's inevitable. We all grow up. No one stays a baby, or a toddler, or a little boy forever. But that doesn't make it any less sad for a mother, letting go of her oldest child being a child. And it doesn't make me long to preserve the memories of his childhood any less, which I hope this blog helps me to accomplish.

One thing growing up does do is make me realize the vast need for me, as his mom, to pray for him all the more. As he begins to understand more and more of this world we live in. As he begins to let go of the innocence of childhood. As he matures. My prayer is simply this: that He may choose to follow the ways of the Lord, to hold tightly to God's Word and to Christ's example of how to live in this world. And that I, as his mom, may be able to provide him with every tool and every example I can to enable him to walk the straight and narrow road.

It's not easy in this world, where we so easily conform to the earthly ways demonstrated all around us. But God tells us in His Word not to conform, but to be transformed in Him, so that we may know His Will. I pray this for Gabe, and for all my children, and I pray each one of them can be a light in this all-too-dark world as they grow.

I took some photos of Gabe while he wasn't napping, and while the other kids were. These photos really reinforced how much Gabe is growing up. He looks like a young man, not a little boy.
And oh how I love this young man.