Seth walked around the house today in disbelief, “I can’t believe I’m done with school. I feel…different.” 😉
Now that he is a 7th grader I suppose the glimpse of high school emerging over the horizon is a bit like experiencing awe and wonder. I remember ‘awe and wonder’ as my favorite of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. When I first began to get involved in youth ministry the parish I volunteered for had a youth minister that focused a great deal on memorizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Wonder and Awe always got my attention because I felt it is exactly what I’d experienced, at that time, not long before I began to volunteer at the parish. It was not a sight or a sound but a feeling. It was an absolute truth, sense of peace and moment of grace that fluttered through my body snatching any doubt that hid in the crevices. A moment in time is all it took but what remained was a knowing of change to come and a willingness to let it be.
After a few times of voicing out loud the disbelief of his first year of middle school being behind him Seth began to talk about missing his friends and then asking questions about how tall did I think he could grow over the summer and even thinking ahead to college and what type of engineering degree he should study. So many unknowns but I can see that he feels a change within him, a good change, one that is ready to show what he has to offer the world.
It is exciting to witness my children become the young men God had created and planned them to be. It reminds me how similar we are in so many ways despite the decades of wrinkles between us. So many questions I have on what could possibly happen despite the knowing that change is still to come. Ever changing.
What wisdom has taught me (and I keep having these moments to remind myself) is that despite what I might ask for I would much rather have what God has planned. I’d sell myself short otherwise.
Don’t hold onto the simple requests, put it out there as a seed to plant, a desire of the heart, and see the crops that rise before you.
Blessings
Shannon