Answers.com (that mostly reliable resource) defines “ballast” as “heavy material that is placed in the hold of a ship or the gondola of a balloon to enhance stability. Having just returned from a week in Atlanta and Greenville with the grandkids, that word surfaced in my mind as a pretty good analogy to the role of grandparents. Ballast shouldn’t determine the course of the flight, just add a little stability. Not that visible, just a sense that it is there. Or…since I spent most of the time at Lyle’s, our electrical engineer, maybe I should define it in an electrical sense: something that maintains a constant current of electricity flowing through despite variations in voltage or changes in the rest of the circuit.
Someone else may have thought of this first, but that’s my way of saying what a joy it is to be a ballast in our married children’s lives and in the lives of their children. It is our heart’s desire to see them follow their dreams, offering wisdom of years (only when asked, of course), serving as a spiritual presence and most of all prayerful cheerleaders. We pray for that Shikinah glory around them in their own worlds--that they would honor us in their spiritual heritage and grow in following their internal spiritual compasses in knowing how to navigate their own journeys so that someday they will be a ballast force themselves.
Spiritually speaking, it’s interesting that the meaning of “glory” is heavy. Hmmm…the Spirit is without a doubt a stabilizing force in high seas or a regulator in times of power surges of tough turns of event. What would any of us do without You?
Someone else may have thought of this first, but that’s my way of saying what a joy it is to be a ballast in our married children’s lives and in the lives of their children. It is our heart’s desire to see them follow their dreams, offering wisdom of years (only when asked, of course), serving as a spiritual presence and most of all prayerful cheerleaders. We pray for that Shikinah glory around them in their own worlds--that they would honor us in their spiritual heritage and grow in following their internal spiritual compasses in knowing how to navigate their own journeys so that someday they will be a ballast force themselves.
Spiritually speaking, it’s interesting that the meaning of “glory” is heavy. Hmmm…the Spirit is without a doubt a stabilizing force in high seas or a regulator in times of power surges of tough turns of event. What would any of us do without You?
No comments:
Post a Comment