We Can't Go With Them…

We go through some interesting cycles in this life we live. Our children arrive helpless in infancy, completely dependent upon us. We love and cherish and nurture them, and in large measure control their lives and the environment in which they live. then they begin to walk and move about, to move away from us somewhat, maybe only next door, but the lines of control are longer. Even then, even that early, other influences enter in. But still they are ours. We know where they are, and make most decisions concerning them. Then comes school. Others teach them. Others increasingly occupy places of importance. Yet still they are home much of the time. And still we know where they are at almost all hours. The years move on, and they become less dependent upon us and acquire more outside interests and activities. Then comes a day when still more they leave our lives — for school, for work, for other things that take them away — beyond where we can follow, beyond where we can go. When they were with us we worried about their goings and their comings, their health, their moods, the lateness of the hour, and many other immediate matters. We worried because we were hourly aware of the living of their lives, and watched them as they formed habits and attitudes and shaped their decisions. But as they move beyond, we become acutely aware that we can’t check on their every act and entrance and exit. then we can only follow them with our love, with our prayers, with the hope that our teaching has somehow become so much a permanent part of what they are, that what is true and right and good and safe will shape their decisions, their character and their conduct, wherever they are. And acutely we come to know that the time to keep close to children is when we can; that the time to teach them is while still they are near us and can be taught. Then we come to know that the intangibles they take with them are among life’s most priceless possessions, and we hope and pray that the best of all that we have been, that the best of all we have taught and told them will reach out where we can’t go, and bless and guard and lift their lives.