I MISS THE CHILDREN 

My boys all live close by but I miss them. I miss the children they used to be. I miss their ‘little boy’ ways and all of the noise, activity and dirt that was part of who they were. It’s not that I am wishing away the men they have become or the lives that they now lead but I really do miss them as children.

 

I don’t think we know the wonder of the babes God gives us until they are grown. Before they are born, we wonder who they will be. When they get here, we wonder what they will be like. When they go to school, we wonder how they will get along. When they are in those awkward teenage years, we wonder if they will emerge. When they go away to the university, we question if they will survive. They come home after college, then we wonder when they will leave.

 

They get jobs, get married, have children and before we know it, they are fully into their adult lives. It feels like one day, we look around and they are gone.  They have changed and we have changed.  We are no longer the heavy weights on the scale of opinion and involvement.  They are the adults. We are the older generation.

 

Then it happens, they have children of their own.  That is a gift that can soothe the ache for the children we no longer have. Their children give us a chance to do it again. Our children are gone and grown but their children, our grandchildren, seem to be the revealers of all the magic and wonder that we over-looked in our busyness to get our own from the cradle out the door.

 

I always smile when a new grandparent is born into the sisterhood. I’ve never known one to say, “Oh, I knew how wonderful having a grandchild would be.”   Instead, I’ve observed their slacked-jawed amazement that the child of their child could be so interesting, so wonderful, so brilliant, so beautiful and such a delightful gift. We move from being mothers to becoming grandmothers and it really is like this: “Grandmothers are the people who take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone.” Unknown

 

We don’t have to get to know them or learn their ways to appreciate them. They just capture our hearts with who they are. They win our allegiance because they breathe.  They have our attention because now our eyes can see the unbelievable wonder in the being of this child, our child, once removed.

 

Yes, I really do miss the children. They will never again come running in the door to show me what they have discovered, but in the fullness of time, God in His wisdom, made me a grandmother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I MISS THE CHILDREN  –  JAN SILVIOUS

 

My boys all live close by but I miss them. I miss the children they used to be. I miss their ‘little boy’ ways and all of the noise, activity and dirt that was part of who they were. It’s not that I am wishing away the men they have become or the lives that they now lead but I really do miss them as children.

 

I don’t think we know the wonder of the babes God gives us until they are grown. Before they are born, we wonder who they will be. When they get here, we wonder what they will be like. When they go to school, we wonder how they will get along. When they are in those awkward teenage years, we wonder if they will emerge. When they go away to the university, we question if they will survive. They come home after college, then we wonder when they will leave.

 

They get jobs, get married, have children and before we know it, they are fully into their adult lives. It feels like one day, we look around and they are gone.  They have changed and we have changed.  We are no longer the heavy weights on the scale of opinion and involvement.  They are the adults. We are the older generation.

 

Then it happens, they have children of their own.  That is a gift that can soothe the ache for the children we no longer have. Their children give us a chance to do it again. Our children are gone and grown but their children, our grandchildren, seem to be the revealers of all the magic and wonder that we over-looked in our busyness to get our own from the cradle out the door.

 

I always smile when a new grandparent is born into the sisterhood. I’ve never known one to say, “Oh, I knew how wonderful having a grandchild would be.”   Instead, I’ve observed their slacked-jawed amazement that the child of their child could be so interesting, so wonderful, so brilliant, so beautiful and such a delightful gift. We move from being mothers to becoming grandmothers and it really is like this: “Grandmothers are the people who take delight in hearing babies breathing into the telephone.” Unknown

 

We don’t have to get to know them or learn their ways to appreciate them. They just capture our hearts with who they are. They win our allegiance because they breathe.  They have our attention because now our eyes can see the unbelievable wonder in the being of this child, our child, once removed.

 

Yes, I really do miss the children. They will never again come running in the door to show me what they have discovered, but in the fullness of time, God in His wisdom, made me a grandmother.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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