By the Time You Read This

  • by Trish Berg
  • May 28, 2014
  • 397
                        
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. By the time you read this, you will be a high school graduate. You will have adorned the cap, gown, mortarboard and tassel and walked across the stage to the rest of your life. By the time you read this, you will have experienced a once in a lifetime accomplishment that will remain in your memories for many years to come. You will have laughed out loud with your friends, hugged each on more tightly than before knowing that it might be the last time you get the chance to hug them for quite some time. You will have shed some tears at the thought of growing up, leaving home and moving on to the next stage of your life. By the time you read this, we will have taken more pictures with you and every family member imaginable. I hope that you have felt all of the love and support in each and every hug, and know that even though it seems scary, you will never walk this journey alone. By the time you read this, you will have entered a new stage in your life – high school graduate. And though it feels very much like an ending, it is most certainly more of a beginning. By the time you read this, we will have gone through your entire box of childhood art projects, drawings, paintings, hand prints, homemade cards and letters of love. We will have giggled at your poor spelling, big-head horse pictures and creative story-telling. Who would have thought your favorite meal used to be mac and cheese? By the time you read this, we will have remembered some very special times, like in Kindergarten when you drew the picture of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center with a heart above the buildings and a tree sprouting up in between them. I thought I had protected you from all of the bad news back then. I guess I can’t protect you from everything. By the time you read this, we will have baked homemade cookies and spent hours going through family pictures from the last eighteen years, remembering those who have gone home to be with the Lord and looking back at the silly moments of our lives with giggles and snorts. You will have pulled out your favorite pictures to display at your graduation party in a timeline of memories that bring me to tears every time I see them. By the time you read this, we will have spent time sitting on the porch swing dreaming about your tomorrows, what your major will be and what friends you will make. You will share your hopes and fears and I will remind you that we all were scared at eighteen, and we all figured things out along the way. I will have reminded you that the only thing that stays the same is change, and that change (as scary as it is) helps us to grow in our faith. By the time you read this, I hope you will have felt all of the love we hold in our hearts for you, and know how very proud we are of who you are, your faith in Jesus, and you determination to make your way in this world. By the time you read this, I will be reminded that I can’t stop time, but wish that I could slow it down just a bit once in a while so that I could remember to cherish each moment before it disappears. By the time you read this, this moment will already be gone.


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