A Close Brush With the Future

"A mother usually knows when it's time to let her little girl grow up--sometimes she just prefers not to tell her!"

Last week, the young women in our ward participated in a wedding dress fashion show and learned all about the importance of temple marriage. Dresses were donated by moms, leaders, and other ladies  in the ward.

It was fun to travel through time as each girl would come out in a new dress. There were loads of 90's dresses. You know, "Anne of Green Gables" puffed sleeves with an over-abundance of bead work and that lovely bow on the bum. And there were dresses, more simple in nature, from the 21st century. There was even a gorgeous lace dress that had belonged to one girl's grandmother. We leaders were a little nostalgic for our thin firm bodies that once fit into the gowns. 

Each girl paraded down the aisle, indulged in a childish spin or two, then struck a pose at the end of the runway. As they all sat in piles of lace and satin on the floor giggling, some of us leaders got a little uncomfortable, namely us leaders who happened to be mothers of some of these giggly girls. We became overwhelmed with a sense of the imminent passing of time and the inevitable maturing of our little girls. 

Today, the dresses are hanging off their tiny figures. Tomorrow, we will sit back and watch them be fitted for their own dress. Today, this seems like imaginary play, but a few short years will bring wedding day realities for these young women. It was unsettling to imagine my daughter perched on the arm of some boy in a tuxedo, about to embark on that ever important journey of marriage and motherhood. The closeness of such possibilities was overwhelming.

When I think of how young I was when I walked out of those temple doors with my husband, and how old my girls are getting, I can't help but wish for time to slow down a bit. 

The girls wiggled out of the wedding gowns and were once again sitting slouched in their skinny jeans, checking their phones and talking about junior high troubles. We moms breathed a deep sigh of relief. That was close. For a second there I thought I saw my daughter's childhood pass before my eyes. But now she's back. All is right with the world.