Appropriate Clothes and Adult Children

This morning I had two things on my mind--scratch that three. First, it was 4:30 am and the dogs, for the first time in a week, weren't barking. Now, you might think that is a good thing and most of the time I would agree. But see, I had to be up at 4:30 to get ready to drive to C'ville for a cortisone injection, so now that we have finally defeated the dogs being out of routine, I was disturbing it AGAIN! (Oh, and this is my feeble attempt not to write about the other two.....)

Second, I was trying to decide if I was going to be brave and transparent and vlog about standing by and watching your children make decisions you either question, don't agree with, or downright fear. I was going to talk about how hard it is to keep your opinions to yourself (you can read myself if you'd like), and how sometimes I do well and sometimes, well remember we've always agreed to pay for their therapy....

And finally, I was grabbing a pair of jeans and t-shirt to throw on to head out the door after a little coffee. I wanted to grab them quickly to keep from having to turn on a light or flashlight and jingle (charm bracelets were on) around the bedroom waking up my soundly sleeping and overly tired husband, but I froze because I heard a voice in my head. No, not the kind of voice I need to report to my therapist--my mother's voice! (Well maybe...)

Anyway, I heard the voice "reminding" me that when traveling on an airplane or going to the doctor, you dress appropriately, and by "appropriately" it means jeans and a t-shirt are not included. As I let the dogs out (again, disrupting their schedule), I let my mother's voice and my desire to not awaken my husband have a full-on WWE wrestling match. Spoiler alert--my mother's voice won. Now if you are wondering why a 54-year-old woman lets her mother's voice in her head terrify her to the point of possibly sacrificing her husband's much-needed sleep, you have never sat on a fully made bed at her
house! (Can I get an "Amen" Lynn Barton?)

As I was looking for a dress and getting myself "doctor's office appropriate," it suddenly hit me. We rear our children the best we can. Chris and I spent a lot of time talking about what we wanted to make sure our children took with them into adulthood, and we spent time in prayer with the children, with each other, and individually. I thought about Proverbs 22:6, "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."

I get that doesn't mean our children will make decisions exactly how we want or think they should. They may even make some decisions, say and do some things we totally disagree with--and in the spirit of transparency, they have, but this morning I had a sense of peace. Peace that we did the best we could. We showered them with love, with faith, and yes, with the confidence to be independent and think for themselves. 

I'm now sitting here thinking two things. First, there is definitely the possibility some of the decisions adult children make that we don't think are good decisions may indeed be good decisions. I also hope they do sometimes remember some of the things we taught them. But the second is this--right after getting to the doctor's office I had to take off my very appropriate clothes and put on a hospital gown, so WHY does what I wear to get there really matter? 

Pretty sure next time I go to the doctor, I will still follow those directions--some things are harder than others....