Do you own a gun? Can I borrow it?

Either way, I think I’ve got your attention, right?  Here’s my dilemma: we have birds.  Not in the “pick them out at the store, name them and let them poop on newspaper” kind. More like the “wake you up at 5am chirping for momma to feed them cuz they live in your roof” kind.

You can see why this is a problem.  As you can imagine, I’d prefer to not have this daily interruption as part of my life.  I didn’t choose it.  I don’t want it.

Yet, as I am frustrated by this bird family’s decision to treat my home as their own, I am reminded of something.  Just as I long for these birds to leave the nest, I sometimes think longingly of the days when Holly and I get our house back, not from birds, but from our kids! 

This might be too honest for a blog post, but there are mornings I’d rather not get up to dealing with taking my 2-year-old daughter to the potty because there’s “poop in her bowwom” or helping my 4-year-old son tie his shoes while he screams that “he wants to do it all by himself”.

But then over the last few weeks I have attended weddings and graduations, and I wish I could just stop time and hold my kids forever.  I am reminded of the birds in the nest in my attic, and I am amazed that I can find myself simultaneously wishing for my kids to leave the nest and stay in it forever.

Maybe that’s the true dilemma of parenting.  We can’t have it both ways. Proverbs 22:6 tells us to “train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.” So we must lead our kids with passion and purpose now, while they are in our home and care. Then be ready to help them fly out of the nest into a wonderful world of opportunity.

But, truthfully, I’m not ready for them to leave just yet.  I should probably get the potty and shoelaces situation taken care of first.

Now, what to do about those pesky birds…..