A recent Tuesday marked a milestone, one of those signposts along the way that life is nothing, if not fleeting. Our little girl turned 30 and it seems almost beyond belief. It is enough of a shock when your baby births her own, but when you have your very own thirtysomething offspring, it is reason to pause and reflect. I remember well my own arrival at the big 30. I was divorced and childless, something I would have never foreseen. My life had taken twists and turns that took me down roads I would not have chosen or presumed for myself. The perfect picture of life as I had planned was flung far into left field and I was left standing in unfamiliar territory. I was a child in my father's house, a child bride in my husband's and then a young woman alone, wondering how to be a grown-up. My own child turning 30 is a fitting occasion to ponder the varied events that have carved my own life's path; and while it is an undeniable fact that the world has steadily become more complicated and challenging since I was at her stage of life, we all must tread our individual mine fields. No one's road is always smooth, and hers will include it's own share of bumps and craters. Not the least of these will be raising children in this "new normal" of the post 9.11 world, where bombings and shootings have become mind-numbingly common. Yet, the life of this beautiful young woman, wife and mother that my daughter has become, bears witness to the fact that God remains sovereign and good, His love is enduring and He has a perfect plan for each of us. And the most comforting and irrefutable fact of all, as He has proven over and over, is that the prayers of the faithful are the most powerful and effective weapons we have.
