The Parentals

It's been sixteen years since I've lived close to my parents. I haven't been home for more than a week or two at a time since sometime in my early college years. A looong time ago.

Now that I'm living an hour from my parents, well, it means a lot of really good things. 

• We get to celebrate special days together- I had a birthday dinner with my parents for the first time in 16 years. That's crazy.
• At a time when I've kind of forgotten who I am, I get to be with people that love me and know me, no matter what version of myself I am that day.
• I get to see them once a week or every couple of weeks. That's a BIG deal. It used to be once a year or every couple of years.
• They're fun. My parents are really fun people. When I used to come visit for days at a time, I would occasionally forget how "fun" they were. But now, seeing each other in less intense spaces of time, we get to just enjoy each other.
• They speak truth into my life. My parents have been around the block. They've experienced more hard things in ministry than almost anyone I know. It's really wonderful to have them near enough to know my life and be able to point me to Christ even in the hard things. And they always seem to know what to say.
• They delight in me. Maybe this sounds self-centered but they do. They just enjoy being around me and it's obvious. And that's really nice. It's nice to be wanted.
• They cook for me and take me out to dinner and almost kill themselves to get washers down in the basement and such. It's lovely to be taken care of every once in awhile.
• I get the opportunity to get to know them. It's hard to really know people when you've always lived thousands of miles away from them. It's fun to see the real side of them and not just the vacation version.

I am really thankful for them. And I'm so very glad that God moved me close to them. It was time.