17 Again

  • by Trish Berg
  • July 30, 2014
  • 359
                        
Struggling with loads of laundry, clutter in the kitchen and chaos in your life? Stress can easily steal our joy. Trish Berg reminds us to simplify the small stuff and find Joy in the Journey. Tomorrow you will turn 17, and I can hardly believe the years have gone by so fast. When we brought you home from the hospital with your pitch black head full of hair and bright blue eyes, I felt utterly blessed. Today, I am even more blessed to see the young woman you have become. That first night you surprised me and scared me to death by sleeping through the night, a rarity for a newborn. Today, you surprise me with your kind heart and gentle spirit, and still can shock me with your boldness at jumping into life head first. I remember when I was seventeen, and I can honestly say I would never like to go back and relive any of those teenage years. I made friends, lost friends, and thought I knew what love was only to discover that love was far more complicated than I could ever have imagined. At least for a young girl with big dreams and a soft heart. These years you are living are difficult at best, and maneuvering through the ups and downs can give you whiplash if you are not careful. But you are this amazing seventeen year old with confidence and kindness, a rare combination. You take the field with the Dalton Bulldog Marching Band as a majorette twirling your baton with that beautiful smile on your face and show so much confidence it always give me goose bumps. And when there is someone being left out, you are the one who walks over and talks to them or invites them along. You run cross country like a champion always giving your best. And just when I think you might not have inherited my competitive spirit, I see you spring in front of another runner to edge her out across the finish line. Once again, goose bumps. I see your faith in Jesus grow deeper with each passing year, and I know He is working in your heart and through your life. I see His light shine through you as you traveled to Haiti and worked with the children there and in the little ways you play with the preschoolers at church on Sunday mornings. I like to imagine that if I were seventeen right now that you and I would be best friends, BFFs forever and ever. That we would hang out at the Dariette on late Friday nights laughing so loud people would stare at us. We could text each other day and night with #highschoolrocks and #bestfriendsrule. But God had a different plan. I am forty-five years old and you are my daughter, and for now, that is how it has to be. But I know that someday, when you are all grown up and on your own, we will get the chance to be more than mother and daughter. We will get to be best friends, BFFs for ever and ever, laughing so loud people might stare. So I won’t get to be seventeen again, which is probably a really good thing for me and for the world. But I will get to be your mom for the rest of my life and that is definitely #bestblessingever. So tomorrow, when you blow out your seventeen birthday candles, wish for something spectacular, sweetie, because you deserve the world. And know that when the candles go out, I will be there smiling, waiting to hug you with…once again….goose bumps galore. Happy birthday, Sydney. Dad and I love you more than words can express.


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