Skip to main content

A Letter to My Son




This is my grandson (I know. He's pretty dang cute, right?)

His daddy, my son, posted a picture of him on Instagram with a caption stating that he could not love this baby any more. What he doesn't know, what he can't possibly know right now, is that he will...




Just wait, my dearest son, just wait.

When his kindergarten teacher mistakes his inability to sit still for rebelliousness.
When she pulls you aside on a daily basis to tell you all that he's done wrong that day.
When she gives him eleven demerits in just three hours of school.
When she keeps him in from recess day after day, although recess is what he needs most in his structured day.
When he's in trouble so often that you find him lying on his bed sobbing and wondering why God made him, and he says, "I should just kill myself" - in kindergarten.

And your heart breaks.

When his best friend finds a new best friend.
And your heart breaks.

When you walk by his 5th grade classroom, and the teacher is using his name in a derogatory sentence under the guise of teaching sentence structure.

And you are infuriated beyond words on his behalf.

When his heart is broken.
And so is yours.

It seems impossible now to love your son more than you do, but life will happen, and when it does, you'll be there for him, and you will fight for him to believe in himself, to stand tall, to succeed when others can't see success. You will be his greatest warrior, defender, example, and the one who trains him to make his way in this world without you. And each moment, each event, each circumstance will cause your heart to expand and the roots of your love to reach deeper into your soul.

You're right. You can't love him any more. But you will. Unbelievably, you will.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 25, 2016 at 9:34 PM

    I hate the choices for reactions. Really, that's all they could identify as a reaction to such an endearing post? "funny, interesting, cool". How about "perfect"!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lori GalaskeMay 26, 2016 at 3:38 PM

    I'm humbled by your response. Thank you.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Do You Wait?

The barren one is now in her sixth month.  Not one promise from God is empty of power  for nothing is impossible with God. Luke 1: 37 The Passion Translation I've never thought that much about Elizabeth. Gabriel speaks here to Mary - the mother-to-be of none other than GOD Himself! Who has a thought to spare for this side character in THE story of divine visitation? God come to earth. Wow. Talk about a headline for the New York Times! Why does Gabriel even mention Elizabeth? I don't know, but I'm glad he did.  I read these verses with a different perspective this morning.  "The barren one." Elizabeth is now past childbearing years. It's not a secret. Everyone in her community knows she's barren (it's obvious). The life part of her life is over. There is no hope for her to have her dream - a life like her friends have. She's different from her family, her neighbors. In a time when children are everything, she has nothing.  And now it's too late...
1 comment
Read more

Rethinking My Rightness

I used to label myself as a conservative Christian. Used to. Lately, I'm almost ashamed to even be called a "christian" (that lowercase "c" is on purpose). It seems that over the last eight to ten years, being "christian" has become more about being right than about being Christ-like. It's more about enforcing a perceived level of moral behavior that has nothing to do with a person's heart (what was that Jesus said about a "whitewashed tomb" in Matthew 23:27?). Being "christian" has become more about power, control, and supremacy than it is about loving your neighbor or your God. I'm deeply saddened by the current "christian" focus on the sins of others (LGBTQ anyone?), by the lack of humility, by the pain inflicted (knowingly and unknowingly) on those who are unlike us. I've recently seen the ugliness of my own whitewashed tomb. I don't like it. I cried to see that my heart contains such haughtiness an...
1 comment
Read more

Kippy Is Born

I awoke in the middle of the night or so it seemed for it was still dark outside my window. I was groggy, but I knew I'd heard something. What was it? The puppies! I was awake in an instant. Glady was having her puppies! I scrambled out of bed as fast as I could and ran down the two flights of stairs that took me to where my mom and one of my three sisters sat and watched Glady, lying in an open box filled with old blankets. She was licking one of three tiny black puppies. I'd never seen anything so small that was actually a real live puppy! They were so small even I could have fit one in the palm of my hand - and I was only 7 years old. They were cuter than any stuffed animal I'd ever seen. I wanted so much to hold one, but my mom said that Glady wouldn't like that very much, so I just watched as she licked them (Mom said that was her way of giving them a bath) and as they snuggled with her. They couldn't even open their eyes yet. It wasn't too long before the ...
1 comment
Read more