Moving into new opportunities

6:29 p.m. Today's project was to help Heidi and Pavel move the queen-sized bed from our guest room to their new house via his dad's truck. We loaded up several other large items like her bedroom desk and chair, clothes and toiletries on this busy day of return from their Maui honeymoon.

Steve and I prepared by taking off the bedclothes, since they have their own, and moving many of the piles of gifts to her bedroom to ease the path of the mattress, pad, and box spring. As parents, I think Steve and I have prepared our minds and hearts for the day our last child left home, not for a few years for college or the military, but to set up their own home.

Sean left home for the Marine reserves in 1993 upon high school graduation, married a few years later, began his family, and has spent only short periods of time here since, and lives nearby. Kriss left for Cal State Long Beach as a freshman in 2001, graduated, and has now been married to Marisela, who was raised there, for almost two years. Heather married almost three years ago; she and Nick live a few miles west of us here in town. Steven has been living in Fresno the last two years, and has made a life for himself there in school, work and ministry.

So middle child Heidi is a newlywed of one week's duration, so cute! She and her husband are now in their adorable little house in Redlands, not far from my dad, and across the street from my old high school.

As Dr. James Dobson always taught, parents raise our children to leave. There's no sense in trying to stall the inevitable moment or act shocked and at a loss--you knew the day was coming! Since Steve and I have had 30 years of child rearing and the limited privacy that all parents cope with, last night after our grandsons left, we high-fived each other at our quiet evening and the actual choice of what to watch on tv! What will we do with all this freedom and autonomy?

First off, the Lord showed me a really good business opportunity. I had Steve take the twin bed that was in the office downstairs to the upstairs bedroom, freeing the entire office for my Mary Kay inventory, paperwork, supplies and displays of new products. Thus, I can write off the entire room as office space next tax year. (And our entryway is a lot less cluttered). Next, I set up the guest bedroom decently, with an extra light and the made-up twin bed so Steven has a place to sleep when he comes home. Once we open Heidi's wedding gifts with both families Sunday afternoon and they take them home, Lord willing, I plan to clean up and straighten up her bedroom and bath, preparatory to renting them out.

If these plans don't meet with God's approval, then He will show me something else, on that I can rely!

God has a plan for every one of us who chooses to follow Jesus, that will more than suffice for every stage of our lives; in fact, His plan is immeasurably superior to anything we can come up with. While our plans are for the day, month or year, His plans for us began before we were conceived and stretch into an infinite eternity! And God's plans for me are always fresh and exhilarating, if challenging and intense--His plans are all that and more.

Psalm 139:15-16 says (NLT),

You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in Your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

As to guidance for a senior citizen and empty nester? Hear Psalm 73:23-26 (NLT):

Yet I still belong to you; you hold my right hand. You guide me with your counsel, leading me to a glorious destiny. Whom have I in heaven but you? I desire you more than anything on earth. My health may fail, and my spirit may grow weak, but God remains the strength of my heart; he is mine forever.

Thank you, Lord, for all of my tomorrows!