Accept New Phases

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This post is part of a series of 31 Day to Cultivating Heart Connections with Your Child as part of the 31 Days of Five Minute Free Writes Challenge.

Birthdays punch me in the gut leaving me doubled over with emotions so strong they rip me to the core.

Not mine—they just pass me by without much of a ripple in the emotional pond.

But my kids’ birthdays—they are more like a tsunami.

No matter how old they are turning, it always seems just days ago I held them for the first time, gazing into their silver-blue eyes and bonding as only a mother and child can.

Birthdays remind me that time flies.

The good days and the bad days pass in the blink of an eye until I am staring at another candle on their birthday cake. The days between this birthday and the last are ones I can never relive.

Birthdays point me to the future.

What a blessing to see the growth the past year has fostered! What delight new skills bring! What marvel the next year will reveal!

Birthdays remind me that this motherhood marathon is not run on a treadmill with never changing scenery.

Instead, it is a beautiful mountain path with terrain varying from year to year as our children grow.

Part of succeeding as we journey along the trail of our children’s childhood is learning to accept each new phase and being present in it. Not looking back and longing to relive the previous leg of the journey, nor looking ahead with a desire to skip over the part we are on.

But being present, truly present with our children in the phase they are in today.

And maybe that reminder to be present is like a birthday present from God each year on the days my children were born.

Maybe I need that sucker punch of emotion so I can be the best mom I can be as I accept each new phase and all God has planned for this time and season.

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