I'm digging in somebody else's jewelry box (or diaper pail) today. I think you'll enjoy the poignant pearls of truth that accessorize this post. If you've found the "right word at the right time" this week, feel free to open up your box of jewels and share it here. I'd love to pick it up, polish it off and enjoy its beauty, too!
I'm currently reading a liberating book by a seeker of truth and mother of six. The title alone sparked my curiosity : Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And 8 other MYTHS That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt. The chapters to follow have challenged my thinking and revolutionized my perspective of motherhood. Leslie Leyland Fields' call to honesty is refreshing. She writes,
(Before I had children)...I imagined blissful days with my little ones, cherubic angels whose pudgy hands would reach into the chocolate chip cookie dough with mine, who would sit enthralled with my every story. We would make snowmen in the driveway, then drink hot chocolate with marshmallows that would stick to our chocolaty mustaches. We would make our own valentines by hand and take long hikes in the woods and mountains. All of this, amazingly, has happened. And so much more! ... Parenting has moments of bliss and beauty, when children deliver great happiness and fulfillment to their parents' lives.
But how many of us tell the whole truth- that these moments do not define our lives with our children? That weeks, months, and sometimes even years go by when happiness and fulfillment through parenting are hard to find...
(When I study what God says about parenting, I realize) The questions "Is parenting really worth it?" and "Am I fulfilled as a parent?" are, finally, irrelevant. I ask myself instead, "Am I parenting faithfully? Am I parenting consistently? Am I honoring God as I raise my children?" This is what I am responsible for. God is responsible for all the rest. Every day his sure hand is beneath my children, just as it is beneath me."
This is our deepest hope and greatest pleasure. It is a hope that also frees our children as we release them from a weight they were never meant to bear: our expectations that they'll make us happy. Then every moment of delight they bring is extra, grace upon grace, like a jig joyously erupting before a startled audience. We can laugh for days in the unexpected dance." (From chapter 2)
