Wes' First Day

Well, here we are again with another "first" for the year. Wes had his first day of preschool today!





(The boys here are comparing underwear! ;) )



He was so excited and as we walked up he asked if he could go everyday! That makes my heart glad, and is such a flip reaction to Gracie's "I don't want to go to school!" every morning. (Still trying to figure where that is coming from since she has always loved school . . . I think it's her strong will not wanting to "do so much stuff.")

Wes' thoughts before school . . .


Just guess what was his favorite part . . .
(Those who know him best can easily guess!)



He has Gracie's former 3's teachers so I know he will LOVE it, plus he is so social! I must admit, though, that it was hard leaving him; I cried all the way home. Was it because I am still grieving Gracie's move to "real" school and the fact that the shelter Wes was going to be receiving was no longer with her? Was it knowing that I had an empty house to go back to? (Although how many times have I wished just for that very thing?!)



I know in my heart both will have good years and learn a lot. Both have great teachers who are loving and sensitive, although both in their own way. Both are more than ready to continue in their independence toward adulthood with a life built on the faith and trust in Jesus, which is the basic description of my and Greg's job as parents. But is still stinks. The cliche is true when we say they take a little piece of our heart with them everytime they go without us.



It also made me realize that truly, we will not take ANYthing to heaven and in the end, our faith in the Lord is all we have. If our life is built solely around our children, then we will become lost when they leave home (As they should if they marry! "For this reason a man shall leave his mother and father, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh." Gen. 2:24) . If our life is built around our husband or wife, if something were to happen to them, then we will be lost. If we lose a job we love, a house and possessions to a fire, investments to a crash, it is all for not!

"But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life."

Jude 1:20-21

The ONLY thing that will always be with us in every circumstance is Jesus and our faith in Him and our assurance of our place with Him in heaven when we leave this earth.

"Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For everything in the world—the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever."

1 John 2:15-17

So my job is clear now as stated in Deut. 6:6-7 :

"These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up."

I am to train up my children "in the way they should go" and pray that as the Bible promises "they will not depart from it" (Proverbs 22:6). I'm still trying to figure that one out since I know people & friends who seemingly have departed from what their parent's taught them about the Lord. But God is faithful, so I too must be faithful, teach my children about Him, model as best I can how Jesus modeled, and pray, pray, pray!!

And learn to let go, no matter how my heart hurts.