Climbing the Mountain of Life

Spending the week working together to pack up this house, added to all this talk of college, made me realize something...we are at the peak of a mountain in our family journey right now.

I started to think about this as my "team" and I have been bull-dozing through this house packing things up. I must say we do make quite an efficient team; so much so that this is going far faster than I expected it to. While going through one of the rooms I looked around and thought about the fact that we are at the peak of our family's work force. For 17 years we've been climbing the mountain - adding kids to the family, watching the first ones grow bigger and more independent. We're at the point now where everyone is capable of helping out in some way or another. When we put our minds' to it, we can really accomplish things.

Next year, the face of our family will change. Ms 17 yo will venture out from the fold and begin her own mountain climbing experience. She will still be climbing within the same mountain range, but it will be her mountain. A few years later, Ms 15 yo will be doing the same, and thus it will continue (as it should, of course!).

For right now, we are all still on the same mountain, nearing the peak, ready to cheer on the first one to leave the fold. It is quite a sobering thought. What will the future hold for our children? Are they ready to face it? How many times will they lose their foothold? Thankfully they have the rope of faith that will hold them secure to their mountain in the event they stumble. I pray it is a strong rope because I think they will need it.

I also think about what it will look like on our mountain as our climbers continue to leave to conquer their own territory. I don't think it will ever be lonely, as I have a feeling all of our climbers will come back to journey with us from time to time. Hopefully they will always stay within our view (even if we have to use binoculars :).

Anyhow, that's the kind of thing I've been thinking about as we pack up and put a close to one part of our life and move on to a new adventure. The journey may not always be easy, but, thanks be to God, the view continues to be spectacular!



Thanks, Dad, for the great photo!