Email Your Kids

Children mark the passing of time. I’ve never been as aware of the passing of time as I am now.

Adult life is a mighty oak, creeping skyward, growth in fractions of an inch. But children—children! They are sprouts rocketing from the ground, growth so rapid and perceptible that you can literally watch it happen.

As a parent, I want to pause, savor every age and every moment; but as my son reminded me last night when I told him to stop growing so fast: “Dad, that’s the way God made me—to get bigger.” He’s right. That’s the course of things: “Nativity, once in the main of light, crawls to maturity.”

While I cannot (nor would I) stop his crawl to maturity, a friend of mine suggested something to me the other day that can help mark the passage of time in a meaningful way:

Email your children.

Set up an email account for your kids and email them every day. Tell them about what they’re like. Tell them about funny things they’ve said or what they want to be when they grow up. Tell them what you think they’ll be like or what they’ll do when they grow up. Tell them about things you’re going through that they may not understand right now. Talk about the future and the past and everything you’ll probably forget when they’re older.

Then, when they’re old enough, give them the password and let them read the letters you’ve been writing them through the years.

I can’t think of a better gift for my kids than a chronicle of my love for them. (Not to mention a biography of their childhood!)

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