This past year has been a new season for our family. Our son Isaac entered his senior year of high school. This meant a series of “lasts” – last season of varsity football, basketball, baseball, and track and field; last homecomings; last prom; last high school classes. Along the way, he made the decision to enlist in the Army National Guard in order to pursue his career as a physical therapist.
Needless to say, there have been lots of competing emotions for Aryn and me (as well as Reagan and Elijah): thankfulness, joy, sadness, pride (not in the bad sense!), and a little trepidation about the future. Isaac is our firstborn, so this is the first time that we have gone through these events and emotions. Putting together the photos and such for his open house caused us to laugh and cry (good tears!) as all of those memories flooded in.
It also provided us with an opportunity to praise God for His gracious provision to our family over the past eighteen years. Almost immediately following our wedding, Aryn and I prayerfully decided to put the potential for a family into God’s hands and accept whatever His will was for us. We celebrated our first anniversary on May 15, 2005 and the arrival of Isaac on June 23, 2005. Over the following years, the Lord saw fit to allow us the privilege of becoming parents two more times, with Reagan and Elijah. We have always tried to remember that before these precious children belonged to us, they belonged to the Lord. Our responsibility has been to raise them in the fear and admonition of the Lord. While the primary responsibility has been ours, we readily confess that God has given us a wonderful, loving, and supportive church family here at Faith who have had a tremendous influence on not only Isaac, but Reagan and Elijah, as well. There are too many of you to list here, but know that Aryn and I give thanks for the impact each of you has had and for how you have always treated our kids.
We have probably all heard that old proverb about how it takes a village to raise a child. I appreciate the sentiment there, but there’s a much richer way to understand this: it takes a church to raise a child. Please don’t hear me suggesting that this in any way supplants the role of the father and mother, because it doesn’t. But if the Bible has called us to live our lives in a community of faith (and it does), that includes our families. I think of those who have faithfully served in our nursery over the years, telling our little ones the Good News from the very beginning of their lives. I think of the Sunday School and Wednesday night teachers who have faithfully taught the lessons of Scripture to our children, not as morality stories, but as stories of grace that point us to Christ. I think of those who have led and volunteered in VBS each summer, using a multitude of avenues to share the love of Christ. Then, there’s all of you who, even if you did not have a formal role in any of these ministries, still loved the children of this church enough to show them Christ in your interactions with them.
Yes, this has been a season of “lasts,” but it is also a season of “firsts.” As our oldest prepares to step out into the next chapter of his life, we give thanks that he does so knowing Christ as His Lord and Savior and the love of the Body. For that we are thankful.
Pastor Roy and Aryn
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