Dear Elliot,

Happy birthday!  This year we celebrate your seventh birthday.  The perfect seven.  The lucky seven.  Seven years old...  Wow.  What's crazy about you turning seven is that we're now getting into territory where I can remember things that happened to me when I was seven years old.  Basketball, baseball, trading cards, reading books... these are all things that you're into these days, which I also remember from my own childhood.  It's kind of cool -- to be able to relate to you more fully in these things... But I also realize that our relationship, as father and son, must also continue to develop, just like you continue to develop.  The very fact that I can remember life back when I was a seven-year-old means that your consciousness is being shaped to a point of permanence now.  Your mind is not just a boy's mind anymore -- but that of a developing man.  We are both men, learning and going through life together.

So it seems to me that this tradition of birthday letters must also change a little bit now.  Not that I'm going to stop writing them.  Nor am I going to make the communication completely private.  As a matter of fact, I like the opportunity to publicly praise you (i.e. posting these letters on the internet)!  Some of the reason for this is because it helps to showcase how wonderful you are, for the whole world to see.  But it's also because it helps me to think deeply about who you really are (not just who I see you to be) and come up with a better way to explain who you are to the rest of the world.  At the same time, I think it would be smart to allow for two different versions of the letter:  a private version of the letter (which I give to you in person) and a public version of the letter (posted here on the internet), which may be edited and shortened so that we don't embarass or endanger either one or both of us.  We are, after all, learning as we go -- sliping and sliding our way through this whole thing of growing up together.

Anyway -- I think the main thing I wanted to write about in this letter, Elliot, is trust.  I've been watching you for many years now, and I've really come to appreciate what a great and trustworthy kid you are.  You're a hard worker.  You always try to do your best.  You're kind and polite to others.  You're sensitive and gentle (even to the point of letting Cor beat you in wrestling!).  You listen well and respond quickly when we ask you to do something.

Of course, you aren't perfect.  We all make mistakes sometimes.  But for the most part, you are trustworthy.  I certainly can't say this about all seven-year-olds, so I really appreciate that about you, Elliot.  I'm very proud to know that I can trust you as a person and as my boy.

Even more importantly, I've come to see that I can trust God in you, Elliot.  I've seen you grow so much over the last year, but your spiritual growth has to be one of the most amazing ways you've grown.  I'm impressed by your sincere and earnest heart to know God, to love Him, and to serve Him with your whole life.  Your faith is your own -- not just something to impress or please others.  You are genuinely following Jesus and learning from him (in ways that even challenge me sometimes!).  How many seven-year-olds can say that they have personally read through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and into the first few chapters of Numbers?!?  How many grown-ups can even say that?!?  Most children's "Bibles" don't even include the Book of Leviticus (I know this because I tried to find a Dutch kids Bible for you).  Yet since we gave you your own Bible for Sinterklaas, you've been reading it eagerly and expectantly.  And God has speaking to you through your personal study of the Bible.

I think about your spiritual conversations with Burçu... I think about your confident assurance to Nathalia and Marije that Jesus is God's son (and not God's father), based on your reading of the early chapters of John... I think about you deciding to help me wash the dishes after supper that one night "because whatever the Father does the Son also does" (John 5:19)... I think about that morning that we spent praying and walking through the neighborhood and then sitting together at the Coffee Company, when you told me about some of the things that you heard God saying to you... And I know, Elliot, that you are headed in the right direction.

Keep on deepening and developing this trust in God and His Word, Elliot.  The Great King Solomon said that there's nothing like the Bible "for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair; for giving prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the young -- let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance -- for understanding proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise.  The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline."  I've experienced this in my own life throughout the years.  But I hope and pray that you will experience this more and more as you continue to grow up.  You're off to a really great start, my boy.  I can trust you more and more because I know that you're putting your trust in God.

But as you move into this next year of your life, Elliot, I also hope you will learn to trust yourself more and more fully.  You need to realize -- like the rest of us already do -- that you're a good kid, Elliot.  You're a smart kid.  You're a gifted and abundantly-capable kid.  And with God as your strength, you can do just about anything that you set your mind to do.  But here's the trick:  in order for your full potential to be realized, you need to trust yourself.  You need to believe that you can succeed -- whether it's catching that ball, or defending that goal, or shooting that basket, or working hard at school -- and then you need to move forward confidently.  Don't let mean kids get in the way of you.  Don't let your worries hold you back.  You've got a good heart, Elliot -- so go for it!  This is not to say that you'll always succeed.  We all have our set-backs:  times where things don't go quite the way we expected or wanted them to go.  But if you can keep trusting in yourself and in God, you can overcome the challenges and emerge on the other side -- stronger, wiser, and more satisfied.  So be strong and courageous!  Stay optimistic!  Persevere!

I wish I could put this all into words more effectively than what I'm doing right now.  Unfortunately, this is just one of the weaknesses of letter-writing.  But the good thing is that we should get to live life together for a good many more years to come -- and I look forward to continually sorting through these things together in due time, my son.

I love you so much, Elliot.  I trust you.  I'm proud of you.  Happy Birthday!

Daddy