It all started with an invitation.
My heart had been feeling empty. Longing for connection. For friendship. For a sense of purpose and belonging. For so long, I had been a military wife, a mom, a leader…but that season has changed. My husband retired from the Navy 3 years ago. My kids are now teenagers, and the volunteer work in Hawaii that filled my life dissipated when we moved to Nebraska 3 years ago.
What is my new purpose?
What now?
Gone are my days of leading family hiking groups, little kid church groups, and being the elementary classroom school mom. I no longer have birthday parties with fun cartoon themes to decorate and plan for. Team snacks have evolved from goodie bags with Capri Sun and fruit snacks to bringing 105 bananas to the high school locker room for the football boys to quickly grab as they rush off to the team bus for a game.
This is a season of life I wasn’t prepared for.
I expected the loneliness to set in when we became empty nesters and the kids moved out… not when they became teenagers.
I feel we don’t talk about this enough. When our kids are younger, it feels easier to make mom friends. You take your kids to the park. They play…you chat. You feel a connection. As our kids get older, we no longer have “play dates” as a reason to get together with new “friends.” Instead, we see each other at the kids’ sporting events, but then what? I find myself awkwardly saying, “See you next week!” And that’s that. No real connection whatsoever.
So, when I received an invitation to join a Life Group at church, I jumped at the opportunity. I didn’t even care what the topic was-I just wanted to be around potential friends. A space where I could be with other adult Christian women that wasn’t focused just on my kids and their activities. A place where I could be ME, not just mom or wife. I attended these weekly meet-ups for a few months, and then the group was over.
A month or so later, I received another invitation from a lady in that group to meet up for coffee. Through our conversation, it opened my eyes to the fact that I needed to focus less on making friends and more on growing my relationship with God. Through all of the busyness of raising two teenagers, I’ve lost that deep, fulfilling connection with God through spending time in His word. I still read a devotional every morning, listen to Christian music, and serve at church. But, I haven’t been going DEEP into his word like I had done in the past. I have been going through the motions but craving more.
It was time to take a leap of faith and dig deeper.
When I think back to when I felt closest to God, it was years ago when I was actively blogging about my adventures of raising kids in Hawaii. I often shared my faith, and it gave me a reason to not just READ my Bible but to really dig in and apply its meaning to my life. I blogged as a way of processing what God was telling me, and I used it as a platform to share that with other moms. For whatever reason, I stopped blogging, and I’ve recently felt this tug to come back.
So, for those of you new here…welcome! And to those of you who followed me before…I’ve missed you!
Pray for me as I start this journey of finding myself in this season of being a mom to teenagers. Come along as I grow in my faith and grow as a mom, wife, and sister in Christ.
With love and aloha,
Lacy
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