Saturday Confession: But I Want the Bedbugs to Bite
Okay, so don’t take the title literally.
I’m thinking of the nighttime ritual I have spoken with the kids as a contest for over ten years. It started with our son, almost 17, and then our daughter, nearly 12.
“Sweet dreams, don’t let the bedbugs bite, goodbye!”
That’s our thing. We would pray after tucking in, I would shut off the lights, and somehow it became a contest to see who could say this the fastest and first. Somewhere in the contest instead of goodnight someone, probably me, got confused and said goodbye. And there we were.
Night after night, week after week, month after month we said it. When he was on the threshold of teen years I could tell the game was winding down. And I was okay because his little sister was finally able to verbally join in. And the baton was hers.
Last week she was part of a ceremony where she was crowned for completing a three year program in girl’s ministry. She wore her hair in a bun, a fancy dress, got her crown and sash. She turned her head and it hit me.
I was looking at a young lady.
And whether it was that night or soon after I heard her, exhausted, but still, just say, “Goodnight.”
No sweet dreams. No bedbugs. No goodbye. No contest.
And a part of me felt empty.
Since then she’s kept up with it but I know soon it won’t be the child I’m putting to bed, but our routine.
I’m not quite ready to say goodbye to the bedbugs that is our fun game.
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