“Now that I am an adult, I can share these things with you.” Ugh, like a punch in the gut! Had my daughter really just said that? An adult? Really? When did this happen? This year had been like a one-two punch. First, my daughter turned 20. (How could I possibly have a daughter in her 20s?) If that was not enough, my youngest, today, began his last semester in high school. Like a puff of smoke, the years had evaporated before my eyes. Now 18, no longer that little boy nervously beginning his first year of kindergarten, a 6-foot man with a beard now stood before me, and I simply wondered, “Where did the time go?”
I thought back over the years—so many things had happened, so many memories, so many joys, so many sorrows, so many opportunities, and yes, even some regrets. Being a parent has been the greatest journey of my life, and at the same time, the most challenging. As a young man, young dad, and young husband, so many things seemed important at the time: my image as a parent, what others thought of my children, providing for every need and want of the family, sports, grades, building a successful career, securing our future, making sure my children were ____________ (fill in the blank with any number of nouns or adjectives). None of these things were necessarily bad. In fact, many were good, but as I look back now, I sometimes wonder: Did I really see and focus on what was most important during those times?
