yesterday

we drove to boone with a great deal of mixed emotions.  yesterday was the day we dropped philip, my younger son, off at college.  his brother was already there since he's an r.a. in a dorm. now it was philip's turn.  he was clearly more excited than we were, but i don't blame him.  it's a very exciting time in life and one which i absolutely loved when i was in college.  now it was his turn.  and he was really pumped.

a year ago we dropped taylor off at appalachian state to start college and it was challenging for us to get used to not having him here.  but, at least, we had philip and anna.  now both of them are gone and it's just anna, bonnie and i.  it is really quiet around the house now.  don't get me wrong.  i love both of my girls, but i'm really not used to being in the minority around the house.  and to be perfectly honest i think it may take some getting used to for them to not have the boys around.  boys provide a lot of liveliness to a household, usually with quite a few bumps and turned up music.  there would be friends over a lot and so there was lot's of people talking and roaming around.  we enjoyed that.

so, yesterday anna, bonnie and i had mixed emotions as we drove to campus to drop philip off at school.  i was thoroughly impressed with the school.  as we drove to the dorm an r.a. stopped us to give philip his room assignment which was written on an index card and placed on our dashboard.  as we got to the front of the dorm we were surrounded by 5-10 older students who grabbed everything in our vehicle and carted it off to philip's room.  it was awesome.  then we made our way to philip's new home and helped him set up everything.  after we did that we all left and went to retrieve some of taylor's stuff left at a friends house and took it to his room.  that was fairly easy and didn't take too long.  but at the end of the day we made a walmart run and then back to philip's dorm where there was a student cookout for new residents that was beginning.  we wanted him to get to that so we didn't have a lot of time.

we took all the goods we bought to his room and it was time to say good bye.  i think it helps that we used to live in boone and still have plenty of connections there.  in some ways it felt like we were dropping him off at home, but this time we had to leave.  so i thought of the words i had rehearsed several times during the day and i placed my hand on his shoulder and told him that he was the man i had been praying for this year.  that God has answered my prayers and i was proud of him.  and i encouraged him to continue to walk with God and continue to "play the man"(see below).  it was a moment of time that was significant, but brief.  no shed tears, but perhaps there were eyes ever so slightly more moist than was normal.  i spoke fast so i didn't have to feel too deeply and could get out the door in one piece.  but it was, nevertheless, a significant moment and one which i pray is burned into his mind.  i pray it will come up on those lonely nights when he might feel homesick or when someone offers him something they shouldn't or when he stands at the crossroads of a difficult decision.  i think it will.  he is really a man and has learned much.  he knows what it feels like to choose poorly.  but he also knows how thrilling it is to reap the fruit of good decisions.

i hope and pray that he and taylor know how immensely proud i am of them.  i hope that fact inspires and motivates them.  and most importantly, i hope that they fully embrace that the heavenly father loves them more than i could ever love them, and i desperately want them to especially draw from that.  God is indeed amazing and i am more grateful to him than i could ever, ever express.  i have two men in college and i am so proud to call them my sons that it would be impossible to express.   if i died today i would die a happy man.

as i drove home last night with anna and bonnie i was exhausted to the bone.  but i had the energy to ask the Lord to direct these men.  that they would trust him.   that they would experience the thirst quenching love that only he can provide.   and there is no rational reason i could not express thanks for God's answer even before i finished praying.  after all, he provided these men in my life out of his goodness.  he has his design on their lives.  why would he not also answer these simple but deeply heartfelt prayers.  after all, he is good.

we drove to boone with mixed emotions.  we left boone the same way.  but we slept well last night.

neale



"play the man" was a phrase uttered by hugh latimer who spoke to his friend, nicholas ridley, as they were burned at the stake for their faith in october of 1555.  he, nicholas ridley and thomas cranmer were burned at the stake for not submitting to the pope under the orders of queen mary who was headstrong and staunchly catholic.  in the course of a five-year reign, she lost all the english holdings on the continent of europe, she lost the affection of her people, and she lost any chance of a peaceful religious settlement in england. of the nearly three hundred persons burned by her orders, the most famous are the oxford martyrs: latimer, ridley and cranmer.