When you get to be 52 1/2, you find, or at least I have, that this age makes you enjoy and appreciate some of the simple things of life. I am working to put my phone down more and be “All IN” wherever I am, especially when I am reading, studying or face-to-face with someone. But the other morning, my phone was buzzing away on the table so I picked it up even though I was reading.
The call was from a young man who I have helped mother since he was in diapers…haha. He is now a senior in college and stands 6’5″ or 6’6″. He wanted to bring their lab over to run with our two. I loved it. That meant I got to see and hug him. :o) He had no idea, none, what a treat that was for me…just to lay eyes on him. Made my day.
I love young people and when they grow up to the point of going off to college or entering the working world…life takes them farther from me. I greatly value the time with the ones I have known since childhood…that I have been blessed to watch grow up. I’ve had the privilege of witnessing how they have developed, persevered, tried and failed and gotten back up. I have memories of their victories and defeats…their struggles…their passions…even their mannerisms.
When Will came over with the lab, it brought back so many memories. He has no idea that when I see kids like him, kids that I have known their entire lives, flashbacks flood my mind. It is a RUSH of ENDORPHINS for me. Will is such a great young man. I can say he is a friend to all three of our kids, much like a brother to them and a child of mine.
Last May, when he was playing on TV for the University of South Carolina in the finals for the NCAA’s in golf, we were all on pins and needles as if it were our own flesh and blood standing over those shots. His sister, Melissa, his cousin, Sara Parker, and his Aunt Boo Boo were all in our den with our kids as we watched…with “butterflies”.
This was the kid that I buckled in a car seat…to go to Christmas parades… went on picnics with at the State House when squirrels were the main attraction, and many times jumped in my car to announce he had beaten Thomas in a match of golf when they were 9 and 10. LOL…the memories…I have. :o)
Point of post…no matter where you are in life…no matter the age…investing in the lives of others brings blessings. It can be “simple” ones or it can be “tremendous” ones. They all add up…to BLESS our lives when we least expect it, just like when a dear friend delivered a piece of homemade bread to my door.
Let Philippians 2:1-5 nourish you today as you seek to nourish others.
“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.”