One month from today my Elliott will turn 18 AND graduate from high school!  That hurts to even type!  If someone had come in to my hospital room at Brookwood Hospital in Birmingham, AL 18 years ago and said, “Congratulations on the birth of your baby boy….oh, and 18 years from today, he will graduate and leave home!”  I believe I would have jumped out a very high window!  But, no one told me that.  It just happened.  No one told me, that it would hurt so bad, letting go. Oh, I am sure someone told me, but I ignored them! Our human nature does not like letting go!  I have kept all of my kids pictures, projects, papers.  They are all neatly labeled in boxes, probably because I hate letting go!

As I have tried to process all that is going on in the Potter home, I have thought if God just might know a little of what I am going through.  He never had anyone move out and go to college.  I think His was a bit worse.  He knew from the start that His boy would one day move “out” !  Not just move out and go 3 hours to a university, where he can come home anytime he wants.  No, God was sending His son out into another “planet” where Jesus could not come home for bi-monthly visits, or even at holidays.  When Jesus left Heaven, it was for 33 years!  I think in the scheme of things, God knows exactly how I feel…. like a part of me is dying inside.

Elliott just went on a choir trip to Boston.  He was gone 5 days.  I could talk to him, whenever he felt it convenient :).  I could text him anytime I wanted.  He would text me back, whenever it was convenient! ;).  While he was gone, I felt it would be a great time to clean his room, closet, bathroom, etc ( clean like I clean, not as a 17 year old cleans!!!)….I found papers, notes, drawings, clothes that were way too small.  All the while, wishing he was just starting junior high again!  But….this is what we have been training him for!  The big game!  LIFE!  Did we coach good enough?  Did we explain the opposing teams strategies well enough?  Will he know how to do laundry correctly, if the need arises?  Will he be homesick?  All of those questions keep coming through my mind.   I know that Jon and I were not the perfect parents, but I also know that God is a REDEEMER!  We all can count on that!

I know that a lot of you have lived through what we are going through.  It is part of life!  So, that being said, please keep up in your prayers.  I want to at least” look”  like I am handling this gracefully, because inside I am kicking and screaming!

God knows what we are going through.  He truly cares!  Whatever we go through, He has already been through and He has made a way of escape for us!  His son didn’t just move out temporarily….He died!  For us!!!  How can I ever doubt His plans?  I am thankful that God knew when Elliott was born that he would graduate 18 years to the day.  I am more thankful that He didn’t share that with me…then!

Lisa

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“In Psalm 139:17 and 18, David says God’s thoughts towards us outnumber the grains of sand on the Earth…Professor Glenn Mackie, the head of Astrophysics and Supercomputing at The University of Swinburne in Australia, says there are more than 2000 billion billion grains of sand on the earth.

Obviously God is a big thinker, but what’s on His mind is even more amazing…You are my friend, He’s thinking about you…apparently quite often” –

Taken from Jon’s new book 8:19, A journey Back to The Father’s Heart.

Well,

I am finally in the 21st Century, or at least I think I am.   This is my first post and I am so excited that I can now share my heart, quips, quotes, or whatever The Lord would lead.  I have been riveted by something I recently heard that I want to share with you.  “There are 2 days in a persons life that hold tremendous significance…the day which he or she was born, which they will never recall, and the day when they realize why they were born, which they will remember for the rest of their lives.”

Do you know why you were born?  Do you know what God has uniquely gifted you to be that no one else in a million lifetimes could ever achieve as uniquely as you could?   I urge you to find out as He is awaiting your inquiry.

J