Becoming an Empty Nester!

It has been over four years since I have written in my blog.  I have written in my journal almost daily but I have kept my writing to myself the past four years.  I feel like it is time to share a little about what has been going on the past four years!

Today was one of those milestone days.  My youngest son moved out of the house into his new home and Beth and I are now empty nesters.  While that sounds like it is great and that you finally after 26 years have the house to yourselves, it also means that you have completed a stage of your life and you are moving on to the next one.

The past 26 years have been spent preparing for children, raising children, watching them move from kindergarten to grade school to middle school to high school and then move out for college to then come home as they prepare for the rest of their adult life.  You spend years feeding, clothing and helping them get ready for this time in their life, but when it happens it is bittersweet.  You have prepared them the best that you can for life.  You tried to teach them values and integrity, a work ethic and morals, but until you release them you never really will now how you have done.  As a parent, we strove to raise our children to love God and to love others and to have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  We wanted them to get an education, find good jobs and find a spouse to love and one day raise children of their own.  When the day comes when they have all moved out of the house, you can’t help to ask yourself “where have the years gone?  How did we do?  What could we have done better?”  But you realize that the time you had to raise them is over and now you hope they will remember what you have taught them and still want to come home for home cooked meals and maybe a little wisdom along the way.

And now the house is a little quieter and little less messy.  There is less noise and questions about “what’s for dinner?” but there is also a void you feel.  Your purpose in life has been to provide for your family and to be their for them for whatever they needed.  But now you are not needed in the same way.  You have provided for them and launched them on their own, but what does that mean for yourself?  How do you find a purpose that is bigger than just doing a job and paying the bills?  How do you take all the time and energy you put into raising and providing for your kids into something that adds value to your own life and the life of others?

Thankfully during the years of raising our children I never stopped dating my wife.  I love to spend time with her and we have done some amazing things together.  But we both have to find what is next for us.  We have to identify how to spend our time and energy into what adds value and not just consume our resources on ourselves.  I do not fully know what that will be for me, but I look forward to spending the next several months working to figure that out.

As I start to blog again, you are welcome to come along with me on the journey.