A Vision For The Next Phase Of Life

I'm writing this on my 55th birthday. Though I don't feel any different than I did yesterday, 55 is my entrée into a new phase of life. I'm now officially old enough to retire at my place of employment. And as I gaze across this important threshold, my mind is looking back... to another significant transition in my life.

Our son was turning 13, a giant step for any young man--and his father. Pondering his passage into manhood compelled me to record my thoughts, and I share this abbreviated version with you.
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Barrett was 13 this week. It only seems like yesterday that he was a red, wiggling baby with all of life ahead of him. And now, 13 full years have whisked by. Though I've tried to stay involved with him, I've missed so much as his youth has too quickly given way to manhood.

If he ever reads this, I pray that he will comprehend the depth of commitment and love that we have had for him these past 13 years. And though we still do, we are moving more into a role of guiding rather than leading. He will begin to make more of his own decisions now, and I feel that I've fallen short in fully equipping him. But time and opportunity have a way of suddenly being depleted in spite of our efforts to the contrary.

I already miss not having a little boy--one who cries when Daddy goes to work and anticipates his return for a walk or play. How many times I've failed him in these tender moments by being weighted down with the worries of this world. How short and sharp I've been in trying to correct some of his childish actions.

I do have some goals and visions for him. Even today, time does not permit me to think through them completely, but here are a few for this next phase of his life:

1. To love God and to keep His commandments.

2. To choose good friends and companions.

3. To accept what he is and not wish for things which cannot be changed.

4. To stay morally pure and to save himself for God's choice of a mate.

5. To live in the light of Christ's second coming and God's certain judgment.

6. To honor his father and his mother, that his life might be long.

Even as I try to bring this unexpectedly-lengthy writing to a close, I realize that it's not complete. There's so much more that could be and probably should be said. But I feel compelled by other responsibilities to move on and leave it as it is: an all-too-brief crystallization of a father's thoughts of his son's passage from childhood.
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And as I ponder my own passage today, I see that these same visions would be important for the next phase of my life. They are timeless, and I would do well to pay them heed.

Copyright 2001 James McAlister

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