by Coye Bouyer
PLYMOUTH, MI – We pulled away slowly, siblings with tears in their eyes, a mother waving expressively shouting the words “I love you,” and a father trying desperately not to make eye contact looking forward out of the windshield of the van. As the van rounded the curb and Sierra was no longer in sight, our family began to realize that our once household of six had suddenly become a household of five.
In Psalms 127:3 we read, “Children are a gift of the LORD…” and understood appropriately a parent knows that their children are not only a gift from God, but also on loan to us while here on earth, for our children, just like us ultimately belong to the LORD. However, as loving and committed parents we can’t help but feel at times as if these precious, yet dependent sometimes perplexing and imperfect little people grow up to become independent young adults who will go off to college, pursue professions and fulfill the purpose(s) in which their Heavenly Father created them for in the first place, actually belong to us.
In certain moments of their lives, such as their first day of school, first athletic, academic or public accolade, a driver’s license or high school graduation, we as their earthly parents are overwhelmed with emotions as proud parents who not only experience the excitement of their growth but also reflect on where the time has gone.
In each of their first steps (walking, graduation, getting married, buying their first home, or having their first child), our roles evolve over time from that of parent and guardian with complete control over where they go, what they do and when they will be home; to parent and friend no longer in complete control but like cheerleaders watching them grow and mature into adulthood.
It is at moments like these that we as parents must be willing to embrace the new relationship we will have with our children; as well as remember that this was the intent from the day in which they were first given to us by God. This reality really begins to hit as we move them into their new dorm room where we spend an afternoon getting them organized, buying sheets, towels, bedding, dishes, soap, hangers, shoe racks, portable refrigerators, microwaves and anything else we think they will need before we kiss, hug, cry, wave and drive off leaving our babies behind (who are no longer babies by the way) to begin their journey of taking on the world without our daily provision and protection.
Now they have to depend on the daily provision and protection of their heavenly Father, who has been there the entire time working through us but will reveal Himself to them in a more personal way.
As the we drove off, rounding the curb where we could no longer see the firstborn of the children God had put on loan to us, I remembered the words of Proverbs “train up a child in the way that they should go, and when they are older they will not depart,” (v. 6).
I was encouraged by the voice of the Holy Spirit and I said to myself, I/we have done our part LORD, and I know that your daughter is in Your hands, for as one journey with Sierra ends, a new journey for Sierra begins!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Coye L. Bouyer is the founding pastor of Kingdom Life Church in Lansing, MI where he has served since March of 2010. Pastor Bouyer recently stepped into the Diversity Ambassador role for the BSCM and firmly believes that he was not only called to Preach the Gospel as part of the process of reconciliation of man to God, but also using any platform as a bridge of reconciliation of man to man, and even more so amongst the brethren. Pastor Bouyer and his lovely wife Keturah (Gen. 25:1) have been married four over 20 years and have four children; Sierra, Seth, Cayla and Coye II.