It happened on our eight minute drive.
DJ Shuffle was playing in the car as we drove down that one road on our way to preschool. I was half awake and mostly consumed with getting back home to get the end of the year teacher gifts in order.
What wasn’t on my mind was this was my last morning drive to preschool.
It wasn’t until our first stop light when I realized the last moment I was actually experiencing. The last morning to transport my son to school in the safety of my own vehicle before he transitions to the school bus.
My heart broke a little.
Just five years ago I was working as a first grade teacher figuring out childcare for my new baby and counting down the days I could be at home with him and pour into him before he went off to kindergarten.
Two moves and three siblings later here we are wrapping up preschool and I’ve realized that time is gone. Everyone tells you it goes by quickly but you can never know just how fast “the blink of an eye” is until you’ve experienced one for yourself.
I’m not going to tell you how fast it goes by. You’ve heard that before. What I am going to tell you is a story of the most important thing you can do for your preschooler and it has nothing to do with play dates, alphabets, numbers or trendy pottery barn monogrammed backpacks.
On our last drive to preschool I turned DJ Shuffle down and I just did the one thing I can do for him as a mom on my way to school.
I asked him, how can I pray for you today?
This one phrase has gotten us through the last two years on that eight minute drive to preschool. Sometimes he is not sure how to respond so I ask if there is something he is worried about or something he is working really hard at learning.
Then, I pray in the car. Then and there.
We have prayed for his safety. We have prayed for his social relationships. We have prayed he would obey his teacher. We have prayed he would have self control over his body. We have prayed he would count his teen numbers correctly and learn to color his entire coloring page. We have even prayed he would remember not to color on other’s clothes with markers.
On our last drive to preschool he just replied, “Mom… Today, I’m just really nervous about kindergarten.”
(Sigh and small tear.)
Me too.
I told him we would have all summer to pray about that and for today we can just ask God to help us enjoy what he has for us this day.
So we did. We forgot about what lies ahead and focused on that last day. That last blink of an eye and we covered it with prayer.
The prayer is both for me and my preschooler.
That little prayer in my minivan on my eight minute drive to school helps me remember that I am not the one controlling his “blink of an eye”.
So whatever transitional stage you may be in as a parent, remember to pray. That blink of an eye should be covered in prayer. You all know and have heard before it goes by too fast.
Cover it in the simplest way. Cover those mornings and those “blink of an eyes” in prayer.
Rachel Craddock 