For my parents (and all of us)

My husband (who is himself a teacher) sees God as the great teacher - revealing the deep truths of reality through our regular lives.  We learn about Him through all of life, and for me right now, that means learning through being a parent.  My primary interactions each day are with my sweet and funny one year old daughter.

My daughter is an excellent mirror into my own behavior.  She wants to do all the things I am doing - playing the piano, typing on the computer, putting away the clean dishes (which makes more dishes for the next load), folding the clothes (which means refolding everything she has touched).  She grunts like I do, uses similar inflections and vocal tones, and mirrors my moods and behavior.  She is teaching me so much about how I need to grow.

I think about the kind of woman I want my daughter to be - how I want her to be shaped in her character and behaviors - and I realize something key.... 

Whatever I want my children to become I must be.  

If I want my daughter to speak kindly then I need to do that.  If I want her to help around the house and do chores then I need to be faithful about cleaning without complaining.  If I want her to speak truth, read scripture, pray, etc, I need to go beyond just modeling those things.  I need to live those things all the time.

Not everyone is a parent, and some parents are finished with raising children, but that does not omit us from influencing the people around us.  Whatever we want the next generation to be, we must try to become.  If we want leaders then we must lead.  If we want overcomers then we need to overcome.

This advent season was the least spiritual advent of my life.  I didn't read the Christmas story once.  I didn't go to a Christmas Eve service and missed almost every Sunday in advent.  Now that my life isn't centered around Church, I have to re-find the rhythm of my spiritual life.  

As I've talked to my mother, she has expressed her concerns about her own parenting.  Did my parents discipline us too much or too little?  Were they too generous or did we feel neglected?  How did they do?

As I reflect on my parents' parenting I realize something key - they embodied the most authentic faith and spirituality.  There was never a question as to what they believed.  Christ was central in everything they did, from the shows they watched on TV to the way they ran their businesses.  Faith was not something you did, it was the center of who you are and affected every cell of their being.  

Thank you Mom and Dad!  Thanks for all the things you modeled and for your character and faith which laid the foundation for my own character and faith formation.  

I have some growing to do to become the parent I want to be - a parent who fully embodies the kind of woman I want my daughter to become.