Rite of Passage

I was taking Stanton's little jeans out of the dryer last night and noticed something that gave me pause. I saw a worn place (almost a hole but not quite) in the knee. "He is a real boy now", I said to myself. I knew this day would come, but already? Just yesterday I was standing in this exact same spot, very pregnant, folding little onesies that I had received at my shower thinking, "Very soon there will be a baby filling this out!"

This near hole in the knee of his jeans tells me so much about him and what he spends his time doing these days (as if I didn't know already!) The work of a four year old boy is almost entirely done at either a full speed run or while scooching along on his knees. I looked at this hole and realized that my baby is now a boy, a real boy. His activities, his habits, are forming who he is and what he does. This hole also tells me what he values, what he gives time to.

Let's take this to the grown ups, shall we? If God were to look at my jeans, would he find holes? Would my habit of prayer be frequent enough to make an impact on the knees of my jeans? Now, we know that prayer doesn't have to be on one's knees (in fact, it might be a bit painful for some of us these days!) but we could take this analogy to heart anyway. Am I praying so often that there is a "worn out" path leading from my heart to God's ear?

Just as Stanton's jeans have let me know he has passed into the world of boydom, so should my prayer path demonstrate that I've graduated or am at least progressing in my journey to become a better Christian. What are my habits? How are they shaping how I spend my day, cope with problems, celebrate joys? I want my daily dealings to be deepening that path to God so that I become accustomed to doing all of these things with Him and not on my own.

Take a look at your "knees" and see if you could spend a bit more time developing a worn out spot there. I know I can.