Posted by Danielle Bean in Family on Friday, August 15, 2008 2:36 PM
* is the only thing that prevents me from crying out, “What do you want? For the love of all that is lovable, what on earth do you WANT already?” when the baby cries out “Mama, Mama!” just one more time at the end of a long day.
* is what helps me keep a straight face when a 6-year-old boy glances nervously backwards and asks in all earnestness, “Which shoulder does your guardian angel sit on?”
* is what enables me to answer, “No, sweetie, what?” when a 5-year-old girl asks, “Do you know what is funny? Do you? Do you? Do you?” no matter what else is swirling through my head.
* is what helps me to focus on a baby’s sweet, smooth skin as opposed to his obstinate temperament at 11:23 PM or any other time that I’d rather be doing my own thing.
* is what makes my mouth form the words “who’s there?” in response to an absurd number of “knock, knocks.”
* is what makes me too tired to protest when a 3-year-old announces, “Move over! Here I am!” at exactly 3:42 AM as he pushes the covers out of his way and flops his enormous self, entirely uninvited, upon my pillow.
* is the very thing I depend upon when I step on yet another pointy-legged plastic horse at precisely the moment I notice yet another smelly, forgotten, balled-up sweat sock, at exactly the time I realize that no one—in fact, NO ONE—has bothered to put away the gallon of milk as I asked.
What does parental grace do for you?
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* is what allows me to say in that soothing mom voice “It’s okay, sweetie,” while my two-year-old pukes down the inside of my nightie, once again, at 1:23 a.m. And I even manage to smile.
*is what allows me to calmly pick a 21month old out of his diaper-contents painted crib/wall and carry him to the tub for a bath.
* is what allowed me to stay calm when I found the fifth head containing lice, and then nicely said,"please start taking all the bedding off all twelve beds, so I can do laundry non-stop for the next week.” or more....
* is what keeps my head from spinning a la Linda Blair at the end of a long day of screeching, screaming, and bickering.
*is what will allow me to send 5 of my six children off for their first day of a new school year, especially when it comes to my kindergartener and son in his first year of middle school.
*is what keeps me on my knees. With each day of motherhood that goes by I am more convinced that parenthood is God’s gift & way of keeping us praying. It just isn’t doable without prayer and praise God for that!
*is what makes me continue to guide the kids to make the right choices (i.e.time, food, etc) when it would be easier to just let them eat whatever and watch whatever and however much they wanted to watch, etc.
*is what makes me discipline when it would be so much easier to ignore the situation.
*is what makes me go ahead and start the conversation with my teenage son even when I know that he will argue with absolutely anything and everything I might say....
*getting on my knees with these kids everynight when I’d rather just yell, “Go to BED!”.....
Thank you God for your infinite Mercy for all the times I have failed in the times mentioned above and others! And thank you for your infinite Grace for the times I’ve somehow seemed to “do it right”.
*is what allows me to ask “do you want me to read it again?”, with a smile, when the book is “Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?” for the 49th time, while potty training to two little ones.
* is the breath of God (as our priest referred to it last night during the Divine Liturgy celebrating the Feast of the Dormition/Assumption) & what allows us to live this awesome privilege & responsibility of educating our children at home, living the liturgical year in our own domestic monastery...thanks be to God!
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Todd and Sarah Palin’s infant son Trig has brought new attention to the frightening fact that 90 percent of children diagnosed prenatally with Down Syndrome are aborted. This tiny baby is bringing new hope to people with Down Syndrome and those who love them. This tiny baby presents a real threat to the culture of death.
