Look at Me, Mom!

Remember when your children were small and every time they did something new they called out, "Look at me, Mom!"? Maybe this is still happening.
There were times when my kids did this so often that I honestly got tired of it. I would be in the middle of trying to get a task done, and stopping every thirty-seconds so I could 'look-it' made my task seem like forever to finish.

But then the kids got older, and the requests for me to look at their new trick, or show, or whatever, seemed to vanish.

Until last week.

Joshua just started football practice. This is his first time playing football on a team and he has been receiving lots of instruction. He's been particularly fond of the tackling lessons. And last week he invited me to come early to pick him up from practice - so I could watch him tackling.
Once I got over the shock that my son - who has been pushing me away so much recently - just asked me to come see him, I realized something. After years of silence, my son just said - in his adolescent way - "Look at me, Mom!"
And it was wonderful to hear.

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Just to give a fair picture, the day after this incident Joshua invited me to come early to practice again. He waved at me from the field when I got there. I was thinking it was so cool that he was happy to see me.
But when practice ended and I thought he would come over to me, instead I found him walking with a friend a good 20 feet in front of me.
Ahhhh, adolescence. The battle between needing mom and not wanting to be seen with her. The battle between holding on to my baby and letting him grow up.

Thank You, LORD, that You have promised to never leave me. I know I won't be able to make it through this without You!