Don’t Forget Who You Are
As we pulled out of the beach house for another year, sticky salt spray blew up from the beach adhering the fine red sand of our cherished Prince Edward Island to our black mini van This thin layer of memories and everything summer would linger with us just a little longer.
“Wait! Wait!” He pulled up alongside the dirt road and hoped out of the van grabbing my phone camera behind him. What had we forgotten? I wondered. We’d scoured each room at least 3 times, not to mention the endless sweeping, sand in every crevice. The van was laden with 2 weeks worth of living, minus 2 weeks worth of groceries and we were anxious to get the goodbyes behind us, the open road and our home before us.
He kneeled, imprinting his knee in the red dirt behind the hot back tire of the van. Intentionally, he captured a photo of our license plate, the beach house and Island coast blurred in the distance, just out of reach.
Why did we get a “Team B” license plate you ask? Certainly not to avoid detection in the slightly possible event of a lawless or questionable driving infraction in town! No, it’s because of something bigger we are trying to engrain into our family DNA.
With this thought heavy on my heart I crawled cozy into bed with my second born last night. This night before she would start Middle School, this night before she would begin a new chapter. Her hands were clenching and unclenching, gold glitter nail polish dancing on her fingertips from the flower and butterfly lights over her head. Her beautiful smile was shaky with excitement while her eyes glistened with unspoken worry.
“Don’t forget who you are.” I whisper into the golden curls that frame her womanchild face in the lamplight. And her face relaxes. She knows.
Hours later, freshly cooked blueberry muffin smells wafted through our sleepy home and I laid my head in the crook of his arm and sighed. “I just feel like I’m sending my kids into a potential snow storm with no snow suit or mittens.” No carefully checked list or intentional line of book bags, lunch bags and face masks were going to abate this Mama feeling, especially after months of pandemic lockdown and vigilant protection. Only late night heated discussions, we will call it prayer, with my maker would give me the peace I was needing.
“But they know who they are.”
Because they are beautifully crafted individuals with complex and amazing personalities crafted by an Almighty maker of heaven and earth who decided “I want you, uniquely you.” Who whispers to them daily “I delight in you. You are mine and I am yours. Here, with me, you are loved and belong.” Who surprises them with His creativity and beauty, presence and peace. Whose purpose and plan for each one of them was simply that their existence is an expression and reflection of His love and longing for relationship.
And maybe this can be imperfect Team B too. Maybe, as they unfold before our eyes each day, each month, each year, we are in awe of the persons God created and chose for our family. Maybe we whisper to them daily “I delight in you. You are mine and I am yours. Here, with me you are loved and you belong.” Maybe we cheer and applaud and correct and guide each one praying that we help rather than hinder their development into the persons he’s created them to be all along. Maybe each one is an expression and reflection of our love and longing for relationship.
In a world where deconstruction is the word of the day, and parenting with any morals or guidelines or parameters are questioned and frowned upon as restrictive, typecasting, hurtful and limiting– darlings, your father and I give you the imperfect gift of Team B. May Team B be a place of belonging and hearty laughter, where permission to say it wrong trumps saying nothing as we fight for relationship, where we support and challenge each other, cheer and cry together, a place where together is celebrated even a tad bit more than individuality, where your individuality fits into something greater than singularity and we see Him, ask Him and thank Him in it all. Today, my children, if nothing else, don’t forget who you are.
All your children shall be taught by the LORD, and great shall be the peace of your children. ~ Isaiah 54:13
