An odd start to an important message
Sometimes I find myself confused with the way I go about things… uncertain why I must do things the way I do. Take for example the beginning of this post. I type several lines of thoughts, over and over again they were deleted and my screen bright with an empty white background once again. I couldn’t decide the music to play and the sound alone confused me. I closed my eyes, put on headphones to block out the silence that had become so loud, and began to write. Began to spill my thoughts onto this digital notepad. The annoying thing for you, the reader, is thinking that this is a post about my habits or disgust with my slow start to a simple post… but you’ll soon realize this is a post about the night I’ve recently experienced, the night of musical memory.
Few Knights remain in our world
Many years ago I had the privilege of babysitting for a dear friend of mine, Brian; though I would of referred to him as Mr. at the time. I had never baby sat for a single person before. You could try and say that I’d watched over my brother and sister in the past, but in reality it was more like a violent anarchy. Regardless, I watched over two young boys, one of which was named Brandon. It was the dream job, play video games and eat pizza. I’m not quite sure why more men haven’t realized the secret benefits of babysitting. Brandon was a young kid; we played Legos and pretended to live in the medieval times. I’d love to tell you I won the sword fight, but I wasn’t quite gifted in the art of swordsmanship.
Brandon and Andrew last year... One year later we had an encore.
This afternoon I understood the expression, “don’t blink.” It seemed like yesterday that a friend’s boy, wielding a painfully strong plastic sword, was chasing me. Today… well today he showed the world he was a young man of God and someone likely to make a mark in this world. Brandon and his father Brian sang in front of many family friends. He was once a young boy but today… knocks on the door of manhood. Brian has shown Brandon how to be a Knight in a world nearing the absence of chivalry. They have grown together, developed a passion together, and most of all a love for each other.
Four childhood friends, become four Godly influences in our world.
The families that gathered tonight haven’t known each other for many years, before some of the kids were even born. We grew with each other through childhood, the awkward teenage years, and now we begin to enter the world as adults. Andrew, Gracie, Maddie, and Curtis have known each other longer than they could likely remember. I’m sure their parents have those embarrassing pictures we each try to pretend don’t exist. They’ve gone through life learning their strengths and passions, they’ve learned how to excel in the gifts God has given each of them. Each of these remarkable people took a God given gift of childhood friendship, and turned it into a life long experience.
Only yesterday were these four dear friends absent of my social life. I’ll admit it. I was older and more “mature,” why would I of been spending my time with the younger crowd. I talked with the other family friends, more towards my age. These people have grown to be remarkable friends, and will become true men and women of our Savior. They each have an understanding of their God given gifts, and intend to impact the world using those skills.
Blink if you must… but life waits for no one.
If I were to post about the amazing people I’ve come to know and be greatly influenced by, I would be writing on an hourly basis… perhaps I’d need a thesaurus to avoid over using the words remarkable and blessing. The point isn’t how blessed I’ve been with the friends and family of my life, its how fast times change and how quickly we go from innocent children in a small world, to adults in a far from innocent and very large world.
Every time I look back on the memories I’ve been given, it seems so much has passed by already. Blinking is a necessity of life and obviously I cannot avoid doing what is humanly necessary; but I hope and pray for nights like these. I saw my family bound with the families around us. My “spiritual uncles invest such love in their kids, love that they’ve also invested into me. I saw friends who used to run around in diapers or drop my camera into a river; become some of my most valuable “possessions.” Perhaps you doubt me, but you heard it here first… these names will be known in the years to come.
Life is like the wind… we cannot see it or truly understand it… it’s swift, coming through one window only to leave through the next…. Cherish each gentle breeze that influences you and how you flow through life.
Josh Flom 