Life is a continuing series of transitions. We grow from babies to children to adolescents to adults, and we look back at pivotal moments that set the course of our lives. Sometimes we call those moments “rites of passage”—memorable experiences that nudge us into another stage of growth and development and leave us forever changed.
For example, our first day of school officially marks the end of early childhood. We get on the school bus for the first time, and we come home a little older and wiser. Years later, we go to our first dance. We dress up; we learn our steps; we practice asking someone to dance—and then somehow we muster the courage to do it. We’re never quite the same after that.
All of the “firsts” that lead to adulthood help shape us into the adults we become. Some of those firsts are painful, like not making a team or getting turned down by someone we like. Some firsts are joyful, like our first job or our first kiss.
Then, as we get older, we relive these landmark moments with our children and grandchildren, and they become a new series of landmarks in our lives. Part of being a mother is getting a lump in your throat on the day your son graduates from high school. The same thing happens to a father when he gives his “little girl” away on her wedding day, and to a grandmother when her first grandchild moves across the country to “follow her dream.”
These rites of passage are important markers of growth, for our loved ones and for us. Some are hard, but we move on; others we cherish and celebrate. If they go unmarked, we might miss some of the growth and joy they invite. Each stage of life has its place and purpose. Acknowledge them, enjoy them, and remember that “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven.”¹
Program #4045
¹Ecclesiastes 3:1.