Do we let them know we see and delight in them as they are, for who they are? Or do we hustle past their actual selves in favor of a generic family photo op? God gave us specific children for a reason. One of our primary jobs as parents is to identify and encourage what is good in them – not what we wish they were like, but what is good in them right now. Our job is to find something delightful in them.
Read the rest of my latest in my new marriage and family life column for Parable Magazine.
Image by HAMID ELBAZ via Pexels (Creative Commons)
I really enjoyed this so much that I had to stop reading at a few days ago in order to pause and reflect. I came back to it today to finish the piece.
It was so good…but then I do have one little quibble with the final paragraph.
“Holy efficiency” or maybe “divine efficiency” has been a source for great personal meditations for me for a number of years. If God is perfect in every way, I have to believe that he is also perfectly efficient and a perfect economist. This has led me to conclude that this can only mean that it is our notions of efficiency must necessarily be 1. wrongheaded, and 2. readjusted. In a sort of, “be transformed in the renewing of your mind” kind of way.
As a mother who has done her share of wrangling toddlers this is been a very rich inspiration and I still I think over its mysterious ramifications often.
Your are a brilliant writer, dear Simcha.
Simcha,
That was so beautiful. I’ve given up opening my big yap for Lent, but this merits fudging a little.
Thank you