Not the End of the Story

This is my son with his wife and their son (taken over a year ago - note to self: take pictures of your children, not just your grand children at family gatherings!)

My son's birthday is coming up, which as birthdays do, causes me to reflect on him and on his life. If you read my last post, A Letter to My Son, you've probably figured out that he wasn't the golden child that all his teachers dreamed of having in their classroom. At times, I feared that he wouldn't graduate (at least not with his class). I shed a lot of tears during those first eighteen years of his life. So did he.

At the end of this month, he will turn thirty. Thirty. (Yikes!)

Not only did he graduate high school with his class, he graduated college too - in four years. He's married to a wonderful woman who is totally crazy about him (and he, her). They have an adorable son. She is a pediatrician. He is a well-respected audio engineer - the type that gets called out of the blue and offered jobs because of his reputation. He is wonderfully, gloriously happy, responsible, loving, fun, and kind.
 
You see, his growing-up years weren't the end of his story.


My daughter had a much easier childhood. She was the golden child that every teacher wanted in their classroom.

However, adulthood hasn't been so pie-in-the-sky. She's had some hard knocks. Really hard knocks. They've come at her from every direction, sometimes in rapid succession. Hard knocks that at times, haven't let her catch her breath between them.
 
But this isn't the end of her story.

And if you're alive to read to this, it's not the end of your story either.

If you find yourself in a hard place, a place of struggle, where your burden seems heavier than you can possibly bear one more day, or your dreams have been shattered or unrealized for so long that you've almost forgotten what they are, remember this: your story isn't over, and the One who is the Author of your story is faithful, kind, and true. He has the perfect story arch, plot line, protagonists, antagonists, and supporting characters, not to mention an unbelievably fantastic ending!