He pulled the little box out of his pocket and opened it for us to see.   “Mom & Dad, what do you think?  Do you think she’ll like it?”

And there he stood.  This little boy of ours, now all grown up.  Wasn’t it just yesterday that he was pulling rocks and shells out of his pocket?  Wasn’t it just yesterday we watched him take his first steps?  Now we were watching him take THIS STEP.  Stepping out.  Stepping into marriage. Starting his own family.

“Ohhhh!!!  It’s BEAUTIFUL, John!  It looks just like her,” and my joy and tears flowed freely together.  “Wow, John. You chose a good one, Son,” as Steve clasped his shoulder.

And our joy overflows and our prayers begin to rise, “Oh Father, bless them as they begin this journey.  Bless their marriage and help them love well.  Bless the foundation they are laying and building to begin a family of their own.”  

FAMILY.   This is where we are, this season of rejoicing and reaping and remembering.  This season of, ‘Wow, God.  How did you do this?  We have been so imperfect, made so many mistakes, and yet You have been so faithful to bring us to this.  This season.’    This season of realizing that this is how Family works – you pour out your lives to see them grow, and steady them as they learn to walk, and rejoice when they succeed and cry with them when they fall …  until the day they stand alone, and choose another to become one with, and they walk steady out of your home and into their own.  

Family.  It took me a few years to see it as Father does:  that while it ‘felt’ like we love them and raise them to simply see them leave us, the REALITY is it’s that they only ‘leave’ as a branch shoots out of a limb, branching out to become a new line of the Family Tree.  The old adage is true, we’re not losing a son, we’re gaining a daughter!!!    This is not subtraction, it is is multiplication!   

And it begins to hit us again:  this really matters!  It matters what we give our lives to, for it will multiply!  It matters what seeds we sow, for that is truly what we will reap.  It matters how we spend the minutes and hours and days while they’re young, for the culmination of those creates years. And sons.  And daughters. 

And though I’m looking at our grown son holding the little box, I’m suddenly seeing the nights we knelt by his bed, and read their bible stories, and clasped our hands to pray.  I’m seeing each birthday party that Steve would silence the joyful chaos long enough to gather the big family into a big circle, lay his hand on his son, and pray:   thanking God for who this young man was becoming, declaring the good things we saw God had made him to be, and asking Father’s blessing on his life for the following year.

Funny how fast those birthdays came.  And went.

Miraculous how God answered those prayers. 

Could it be – they really matter?   

We’ve come to believe they do.  They matter.  It all matters.  Because Family was Father’s idea, and Family Matters.

So as our sons are establishing their own new households and marriages, my Momma heart is spilling over:  and so I blog.

There’s so much I wish I had done differently!   There’s so much I’m so thankful we did!   There’s so much I want to tell them I’ve learned and that I’m praying for them and that God is able to do…  There is so much joy awaiting!  There’s so much that will be hard.     There is so much blessing in doing this Father’s way, and so much pain when we do not!   There is so much I want to say, so many insights I want to share…   poor kids.  Their mom ALWAYS has so much to share!

So I’ve decided to blog again, instead!  And if family matters to you, you’re welcome to join me!  I’ll continue to share about marriage – the foundation, of course; but we’ll also talk about being parents and raising families and why it matters and what Father might have to say about it all. 

So no matter where YOU are in the Family, whether son or daughter or father or mother,  maybe something shared here will encourage you, help you, and at the very least remind you that YOU matter;  for you have a Father who loves you, His child; who longs to help you grow, steady you as you learn to walk it out, celebrate with you when you succeed and cry with you when you fall.  This Father is the One who formed you and fights for you and remains faithful to remind you that you belong… for you are in the Family.  You truly matter.  

For family was Father’s idea:  and Family Matters.