Taking Flight

Lately, with our youngest child just six months from leaving for college, I have been thinking about home and what it means. It seems like just yesterday my husband and I got married and started our life together, creating a home and welcoming our three children into it. But now that our youngest is ready to fly off to find his future, I wonder what our home will be like.

Although our home is a physical place, I think it is also a feeling—a feeling of security, a feeling of comfort, and a feeling of love. I hope and pray we have created that feeling in our children’s hearts. I want them to know the comfort of home, but I also want them to have wings to fly.

Many of us were blessed to come from homes that gave us that feeling and encouraged us to fly, but many were not.

We all have the choice of whether we want to create that feeling in our own homes today.

Maybe your safe place is not your physical home—maybe it is in a classroom with a particular teacher, at work, or at a place of worship. Wherever it is, that home should give you a feeling of comfort and security.

When we have the confidence that comes from the comfort of home, we are able to grow wings, leave home, and take flight.

The beauty of home is that no matter how far we fly or how long we are gone, we know it is always there when we return.

How can we make the people in our lives—both personally and professionally—feel like they are home, that they are secure and safe and comfortable? This is a job for every one of us.

I, for one, want to be the spark that lights a flame—that shows people they can fly. I hope I have done that for my children.

And when they are ready to land, I want them to know they are safe to land back home.

But more than that, I want them to have created a safe home of their own, wherever and with whomever, they choose.