The Unofficial Firstborn Turns 16

This is the Unofficial First Born.

And today he turns 16.

And he's all the things I wanted to be as a kid.

 He's a risk taker and a go getter.

And he takes very few things seriously. 

Except playing.  He takes playing very seriously.

I hold this kid pretty close to my heart.  Because he was my unofficial firstborn.  I practiced bottle feeding and diaper changing and wrestling and tag all on this little guy.  And even though I had to sit through 6 hours of Barney videos everytime I babysat him I didn't mind.  Because he made Barney awesome.


And now, now this boy has become a man.  And I'm scared for him.  Scared he will go and make some of the same mistakes I made. 


Because I was 16 once and had all this life at my fingertips.  But I often sacrificed the permanent at the altar of the immediate. 


I cared more about possessions than people.


More about myself than anything else.


And now those feel like wasted years to me.


So I pray for this kid. I pray that he doesn't waste a minute of his life.  I pray that he will love wisdom and humility.  That he will be eternally minded.  I pray that he speaks the gospel truth to himself and to the large circle of people around him that he influences. And I pray that he will be successful.  Not as the world sees it, but as His Father does.  That he will be a man of integrity and substance and unwavering faith.

I'm so proud of this guy.  I'm so proud of the man he has become and is becoming.

And I love him.

I love him so much that when he goes off to college in a few years he better believe that I will be keeping tabs on him and should he go and start screwing up his life I will totally break bad and come down there and bust his head.  Because I didn't watch 6 hours of Barney every weekend just for you to go act the fool.  keep him in my prayers.

Me and Jesus are watching you.   May God be with you.


Happy Birthday, Unofficial Firstborn.  This Yahoo crew loves you!