The day is Yours, the night also is Yours;

You have prepared the light and the sun.

You have set all the borders of the earth;

You have made summer and winter.

—Psalm 74:16–17

It’s hard for me to believe, but today is the first day of my children’s summer vacation. Many of my mom friends with older children told me that once my kids started school, the years would fly by. However, I didn’t know exactly what they meant until my oldest entered kindergarten. My friends were absolutely right!

The beginning of summer often leads me to reflect on the vast difference between my kids’ summer experiences and my own.

I had a free-range Gen X childhood. I’d wake up in the morning, scarf down some Cheerios while watching TV, then hop on my bike and ride to my friends’ houses to see who was available to play. We’d usually do a mixture of things: Wander the woods surrounding our small town and work on the forts we never seemed to finish. Use empty Parkay margarine containers to catch minnows and crayfish in the creek. Swing for hours at the playground. Go on long horseback rides through rolling fields. Ride our bikes to the next town over and buy nickel candy at the Lock, Stock & Barrel general store. Try to draw the world’s longest hopscotch grid on the sidewalk.

If there were enough of us, we’d play kickball or wiffle ball at the park.

Lunch was usually a PB&J sandwich washed down with some warm hose water.

Afternoons were for cooling down, whether flying off a rope swing to splash into the creek or visiting a secret swimming hole we’d discovered.

The only “rule” we had during the summer was to be home for dinner.

In the evenings, we’d go outside again and ride bikes until the streetlights came on. Or we’d play Nintendo or watch a movie at someone’s house. But those latter options were never as appealing. Why be inside when you could be outside?

My children’s summers are markedly different. Although they still spend a generous amount of time outdoors, the free-range aspect of their experience is nonexistent. They swim at a pool with a lifeguard. We generally don’t allow them in the woods because the ticks are so omnipresent. People’s tendency to speed through our neighborhood without paying any attention prohibits us from letting them ride their bikes on the streets. And there aren’t any parks or playgrounds within walking or biking distance from our house. Adult supervision at all times is the norm rather than the exception.

I could wax nostalgic about how much better my childhood summers were; in some ways, they were. I experienced a level of freedom my children will never have. Yet that freedom also came with tradeoffs, such as a lack of parental involvement or concern for my whereabouts or well-being.

While I might wish we lived in a time when I felt comfortable sending my children alone into the world, that would mean denying the present reality in our sinful, fallen world.

My husband and I have to strike a balance between allowing our children the freedom appropriate for their ages and obeying our responsibility as parents to keep them safe. This isn’t always easy, and we must be in constant prayer to seek God’s wisdom on these matters, in addition to discussing specific situations with one another.

Whether your summer break has already begun or is still on the horizon, I pray that it’s a blessed time full of adventure and drawing closer to one another and to the Lord.

With love in Christ,

Amanda

xoxo

P.S. In my book, I wrote about our human tendency to cling to a notion of the “good old days.” That devotional, “The Lord Appoints,” is based on Ecclesiastes 7: 10, 14. Check it out if you often find yourself longing for bygone days. Don’t have a copy of One Nation Under God? It’s available wherever books are sold! 😊

Scripture taken from the New King James Version^®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.