Time Marches On

   For some of us it’s a memory; for others, you’re facing it now.  Sending your child off to school for the first time!  I was twenty-six years old.  In the words of a good friend of mine, “I could sort tigers!”  I could handle anything.  Nothing rattled me.  … Until I saw my little girl all dressed up in her new dress with a new book-satchel (before the days of backpacks), with this huge smile on her “big-girl face”- ready to go to school.  If someone had told me that I would have teared-up, I would have laughed.  But I wasn’t laughing!  … Time marches on.

   And then, about 12 years later, we made a trip to Searcy, Arkansas to drop her off at college.  The feeling came back.  Maybe worse.  The epitome of mixed-emotions!  We all knew it was going to be tough.  She had told me, “Daddy, I know I’m going to call you and beg you to let me come home.  Don’t let me.”  Easier said than done!  … Time marches on.

   This year, Janis and I have two grandchildren starting college.  Their parents will have to remind themselves, like we did- “As much as this hurts, it’s the way it’s supposed to be.  It would really be sad if they were never willing/able to ‘leave the nest.’”  It’s hard when emotions get piled up together, isn’t it?  Happy… Proud… Sad- all at the same time.  … Time marches on.

     So, as someone who now has all these experiences under my belt, let me give those of you who are on the front-end of this journey a bit of advice.  The one thing that is the most important from where Janis and I are now is, did you teach them to love the Lord?  If you did, then all that other stuff that you would worry about… it’s taken care of.  Things like, Will they go to church faithfully?  What kind of clothes will they wear?  What will they do when they are on a date?  What will they be doing for entertainment?  What will they do when their friends want to do something they know is wrong?  What kind of person will they choose to marry? 

   That little girl/boy with that so-cute-I-can’t-stand-it smile standing there with their new backpack ready to go to school for the first time is either going to make you the proudest person in the world, or they are going to break your heart like no one else could! 

   What are you doing to ensure that they love the Lord more than anything or anyone else in the world?  Remember… Time marches on.  And you can’t back it up!

                                                                                                                                                     

Ken Stegall