When I was a little girl I used to love to fly kites. Once, my mom bought me a kite that was supposed to dive and do tricks and it "dove" right from the air and hit her in the eye and gave her a huge shiner. I'm sure it hurt, but I remember her laughing and saying that it had done exactly what the package had said it would.
Lately I think about flying kites a lot, but in a whole different way from when I was little. I have always thought flying kites was similar to parenting because you have to experiment to know just how much string to let out so that your kite can fly high and be successful, but not so much that your kite flys out of control or gets so high that the string breaks and you lose your kite to the wind. At times, when the wind is blowing hard, it takes a lot of patience not to just reel all of the string in and decide to just fly your kite another day.
This past year I have added 2 more kites to the ones I was already holding and that is my parents. I have found that helping them to be able to maintain their independence as they age is a lot like helping our children to obtain their independence; challenging but often fun. I like to think that I am getting better at flying kites as I get older, but the truth is, some days I am still tempted to just reel in all of the string and try again another day.
All of these thoughts make me so grateful for the opportunity that Heavenly Father has given me to be able to fly any "kites" at all, given my inexperience. It also testifies to me that He loves us and knows us individually and is a very patient "kite" flyer Himself.:)
1 comment:
I love this analogy. I think it's my new favorite. There is another one that I like about children being like sand. The tighter you squeeze the sand to hold onto it, the more you lose it. It's only when you gently hold the sand that you can hold the most and support it. I bet your mom is a fun lady.
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