Hi Friends,

I hope you are having a fabulous start to the summer! In 2024 my oldest son graduated from college and we ended up doing a seventeen day stretch together, spanning a wedding in Virginia, Olympic Trials in Indiana, and a family vacation in Michigan. We were mostly with lots of friends and family, but had quite a bit of one-on-one time amidst those seventeen days driving from place to place.

This year my middle son graduated from college and although we didn’t do much of a multi-state tour, we did have some sweet one-on-one time. One day we drove to Fort Lauderdale (just an hour south), hopped on a high speed ferry and spent the day in the Bahamas. The weather was perfect, the seas were calm and we will never forget it.

This new era with our sons being in three different places this fall feels like an invitation to make special memories with just them. Whether Will and I both pop in for the weekend, or I go for just a night, I can envision doing things that each would specifically enjoy. It’s fantastic when we can all be together but I hope to make the most of this new season.

Plus, it’s biblical. God has made us in His image but also as individuals, uniquely reflective of His glory. We should love and affirm our sons as the one-of-a-kind men that they are.

Do you find it easier to engage with loved ones as a group or one-on-one? We can always grow in the grace of loving others by more fully understanding how we are loved without condition and beyond all measure.

This passage from Ephesians 3 conveys such tender, one-on-one love from a faithful God.

“…so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith — that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may filled with all the fullness of God.”

May we be rooted and grounded in Love that surpasses knowledge enabling us to pour into others!

With Love,

Kristie

P.S. The throwback is from ten years ago today — the last day of school in 2015. The beach picture is from Bimini on May 28th.