To be Engaged

When your grown children decide to marry, there's often a period of time preceding the wedding. It's called engagement.

What does it mean

... to be engaged?

By definition, engaged means to be pledged or betrothed. There was another definition that struck me - to be in gear and interlocked.

Isn't that what we want for our grown children and their spouses? To be interlocked and in gear -together- all the rest of their lives.

If we're to encourage our grown children, then maybe we need to remind them that the engagement period can last longer than just the time before the wedding.

Engagement -

To be meshed
To be interlocked
To be embedded, built into or attached to another part

can last their entire lives!

Shift Happens

Our little ones were so sweet when they were born. Then they got into the terrible twos, and progressed to the teenage years. Now they're grown.

I think of the book by Robert Munsch - I'll Love You Forever - the stanza that's repeated by the mom as her little boy grows is "I'll love you forever, I'll love you for always, as long as I'm living my baby you'll be."

They may still be our little ones in our hearts, but now they're grown-ups. Wow. How did we get here?

This blog is about one way to continue to positively influence their lives - our ability as parents to encourage them.

Encouragement is more than the "ra-ra" of a cheerleader.

Encouragement is deep and powerful. Using hope, faith, love, prayer, zeal, new insight and intimate knowledge you'll be able to touch your grown children. It's a new and different way to parent an adult child.

Encouragement can transform your relationship with your grown children - as the weeks go by, I'll give you some practical, and simple actions to begin your journey as an Encourager to your adult child.

*photo by Lisa Kong*