The Bollingers! (a while back)
Jason and Holly Bollinger are amazing parents and pastors. For the last several years Erica and I have grown very close to them as we have pastored side-by-side in San Marcos, TX. We are a bit sad because they will be moving and we won’t see them as much. We asked them to send us a post for our blog. Here are Holly’s thoughts:
THE FAITH OF A TWEEN-AGER!
Every once in a while in parenting, you are caught off guard by your kid doing something that seems to fill your soul. I know some people really enjoy the baby years with their kids, but I find my kids to surprise me more and more with the soul-filling as they get older.
We have three tween-agers. Our house is rich with drama, puberty, volume, and opinions. Our house is also rich with three kids of ministers trying to find their way into their own faith. We try to protect our kids from feeling like Pastor’s kids, but we do our best to equip and encourage them into a faith journey of their own. Some of the greatest joys come from watching them work this out. More and more one of them will pray a prayer that brings tears to our eyes. More and more they’re seeing ways to love others well. It’s refreshing to watch them grow…not because they were forced or assigned, but because they want to.
As tween-agers, Sundays can be challenging. Some days they relate more to the younger kids and play with them, and some days that act more like teenagers and have an actual interest in what’s going on. We try to give them room to play while trying to lead them to a greater appreciation of what’s happening around them. All of our kids really love music, but at a party after church a while back one of them pulled me aside. “Daddy, when you and Mommy were singing that song, I felt tears come to my eyes and I felt something inside of me. I felt the Spirit coming over me.”
And then I had tears coming to my eyes. Those are not words that we use on a daily basis or coach as a catch phrase. We teach about the Spirit like we teach about other things in the Bible, but this was clearly an authentic testimony to what had been experienced. It’s so good to realize that you’re beginning to have experiences in life that you share together, and not ones that you facilitate to help them learn.
I’m always proud of my kids, but never more than when they step out on their own and catch a glimpse of the goodness and faithfulness of God and show how they are continuing to work out.
Holly M. Bollinger
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