Turning Twelve

Our oldest son Brandon has just turned twelve. There is some sadness in realizing his childhood is slowly fading away. He no longer cuddles in my lap to watch “Elmo’s World” like he did when he was two. The toy box has long left his room. In fact, the only toys that remain are his G.I. Joe and Star Wars collections. He is no longer writing the alphabet and is instead writing research papers and even his own fictional story.

Thankfully, some things in our oldest son’s life have not changed. Brandon loves music as much now as he did when he was a toddler. As soon as he could talk, he was singing all his favorite songs. Now we are most likely to hear him rapping along with his favorite singer, Toby Mac. He received his first guitar around age 6, started taking lessons from his Daddy last summer, and continues to enjoy this musical pastime.

He still loves to play games, although he now chooses Monopoly and Stratego over Candy Land or Chutes and Ladders. He has always enjoyed sports as well, recently deciding that basketball is his favorite. He continues to like to read, perhaps more now than ever, with his reading choices progressing over the years from “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” to Dr. Seuss to the Sugar Creek Gang and Peter and the Starcatchers.

There has also been the continuing presence of God in Brandon’s life. We have prayed for Brandon since before he was born and have not neglected to lift him up to God each day of his life. One of our favorite answered prayers was when he invited Christ into his life at age 5, understanding his sinfulness and Jesus as the only way to be saved.

We continue to pray for Brandon’s spiritual growth, his health, and his relationships and are pleased to see him growing in his walk with the Lord. He recently completed nine years in the AWANA program at church, learning an unbelievable number of Bible verses. He can still recall many of them and is like our living concordance, able to point us in the right direction when we are looking for a specific biblical reference or a verse for a certain occasion.

For the past five years, he has been reading the Bible almost daily. He began the book of Matthew when he started 2nd grade, completed the New Testament sometime in the 5th, and is currently in the book of Esther, working his way through the Old Testament.

We praise God as we see Brandon growing into a responsible young man, taking on extra jobs, lending a hand when his dad is working on projects, assisting with chores, and helping his brothers with their school work. In Brandon, we see self-control, obedience, loyalty, and a remarkable wisdom for his age as he evaluates situations in light of Scripture and unhesitatingly chooses God’s way.

We are incredibly thankful to God for the blessing of Brandon in our family. We are proud of the boy he has been and the young man he is becoming. Our continued prayer for him and for each of our sons is that, like Jesus, they grow, “… in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) It is a joy to see God answering that prayer!