Why not check it out?
* Ask childless couples if they are crazy to want to move heaven and earth for a child.
* Ask a young mother who has just lost her infant in a fatal accident, whether she was crazy to have had that baby, in the first place.
* Ask old parents, who have just lost their only young son (full of promise and energy) in the war zone, if their years of parenting are wasted and lie buried under the tombstone of their son.
- What answers do you think we will get?
Is life weighed in pan scales? Should X inputs be balanced against Y outputs? If efforts to raise children are not recompensed, why the heck have them?
I have often wondered why people make sacrifices for others, with no reward in sight? For example, why would a man lay down his life for friend, when he will not even enjoy the glory that goes with martyrdom? Why would a mother sit by her child who has lapsed into a coma with no hope of recovery? Why would a father work his fingers to the bone to clear the debts of his vagabond son?
In relationships pan scales do not work. Parenting has nothing to do with rewards. It is the touch of the 'Divine' in us.
Is a child a gift from a merciful God or a biological product ?
Becoming a parent brings us as close as we can possibly get, to imitating the Creator - who gives of Himself, unreservedly and with no desire for a "return". We need to keep this image in mind when we shepherd our children from infancy through to the teenage years and eventually adulthood. It takes a profound humility and detachment to be able to see ourselves merely as co-creators, instead of as "owners" with propriety rights!
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