'If I grow up and forget you and dad, you must come to my house and slap me. Okay. And. How does that happen?' She was so earnest that I didn't laugh at her 'my house' and 'slap' comment. We had been driving home and chatting about nothing at all...
'You know, some teenagers make friends and don't want to be with their family, just with their friends.'
'Well baby girl, the heart doesn't change overnight... you grow up and grow apart and you make memories and knit your heart with other people over time, you see. And some kids have a difficult home life.'
'I never want that to happen.'
Lacking the means to express fully and feeling my heart ache, I tried to explain that sometime in her future, deep ties will be foraged with other people and that it is good and healthy but that some other relationships are less sound and I pray that she is wise enough to choose carefully what to nurture and what to be wary of when the time comes. And it will come... a day when the wings will flap and fly...
When we got home we sat on the couch. I told her that she would choose well if she lived her life by the plumb line of the Word and always look to Him to be her source of all sufficiency and truth. And for sure, as long as we were here... we would hold each other's hand through it all and that we were bound with a ribbon on this journey, as she would always be my daughter and I would always be her mama.
Honestly, some days are not long enough... I want to hold the ones I love for long enough so that the warmth goes down deep enough to flow into all the secret chambers of their hearts that they are strong enough to stand brave in this crazy world.
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