Ordinary Time
with Pat Gohn
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Pat Gohn
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Countdown to Launch
By Pat Gohn
We have counted down the days until this one. This morning, my youngest son made his own breakfast, tied his own tie, grabbed a book bag, and met me in the driveway with our dog on the leash. Meanwhile, I found my travel mug, poured my coffee and low fat creamer, grabbed my keys and pocketbook, and rolled the car out of the garage.
Then I drove my new prep-school freshman to orientation.
I took the dog with us for moral support. Not that my son needed any. The dog was there for my sake. I knew how the drive home would be. A dog has therapeutic value when lump-in-the-throat-itis hits.
Ah, the bittersweet joys of watching a child grow up! For me, the milestones my children pass usually spark some reflection on my ever-transitioning parental role, as it should be. For years, my goal in child raising was to put myself out of a job. Now that's on the horizon. I have to wonder, what will I do then?
Since this time last year, our family has been all about launches: Older Son into college; Hubby into a new career path; Daughter into her own college search, and now, her senior year; and finally, this Youngest Son into high school.
All along, I have been like NASA’s "mission control" center—sitting here "in Houston" monitoring the progress, and providing real-time guidance and support services, while my family members are out in their respective orbits. It is a role I have played for many years. For many reasons, I have delayed diving back into the ocean of career options, even though wonderful job opportunities have come and gone. In part, that decision had to do with being a breast cancer-surviving mom, and with that uncertainty, a career outside the home no longer held any luster for me. I just wanted to be around my children for as long as I could. Another part of that choice came from the fact that I married a frequent flyer. (Fortunately, these days, he travels a bit less.) But now we are deep in the teen years and want to keep a parent around the house as much as possible.
The blessing now is that I'm seeing acorns turn into oak trees. That's another way of saying I have lived long enough to see the return on my investment from my years at home. I'll give you two quick examples.
I routinely get compliments on the graciousness, integrity, and maturity of my teens. (Don't get me wrong, we are far from being parenting experts and have made mistakes. But we have always valued the content of one's character over the height of one's achievements.) I am convinced that having a parent around has helped shaped our teens and given them the confidence to launch out into God's great big world.
Another benefit is that I do less laundry. Each teen does his or her own. As far as delegating household chores go, in my accounting, that's probably about the best one.
But most significantly, my years of at-home status have taught me that I, too, am an acorn. God the Father has been coaxing me into an oak. My vocation as a mother has frequently been the attention-getting device the Father has used to call me higher. As I have strived to parent my children better, I have better understood the loving discipline and remarkable forbearance with which the Lord parents me. Even more surprisingly, the Lord has challenged me to dream about the future. (Which for busy mothers might seem hard to do! And for a cancer-surviving mother, it might seem downright unbelievable! But God sees where we cannot and therefore deserves our trust.)
Home life during these teen years has been about encouraging my children to think and learn and dare to dream about their futures and finding a field in which to best use their gifts. Funny, the Lord has parented me in much the same way. In some sense, I have been challenged to dream anew—right along side of my children—about new opportunities, places, and people to meet. After all, you can't be running mission control without some proper inspiration and vision and hardcore planning—even if some plans take years to execute.
One dream for me was earning a Masters in Theology. Six years in the making, I am poised to, hopefully, graduate next year. I have been a slow rolling acorn… I started out truly fearful that I would not be able to cut it, not to mention graduate. But little by little, class by class, paper by paper, the thing is taking shape and sprouting. Just like the process of watching my babies pass each milestone on the way to young adulthood.
Here’s what’s remarkable to me: while I was busy helping my family members launch off into new directions, my own launch pad for my future mission is under construction. All because I dared to dream a little, and took one baby step, then another, and another, with loving nudges from God, in much the same way I have nudged my own children forward.
My own countdown to launch is ticking. I’m in contact with the Ultimate Mission Control. The time is not quite yet, but soon. When that day comes, I will be ready to launch.
"Take delight in the LORD,and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act." Psalm 37: 4-5 RSV.
|  Pat
Gohn is married to Bob for almost 25 years, with three children,
ages 14 thru 20. She is currently pursuing a Masters in Theology,
while writing from home in Massachusetts.Visit Pat’s blog “Write
in Between” at
http://writenbtween.blogspot.com/. Contact
her at pat.gohn@comcast.net
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9/02/07
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