The past winter and spring have been busy with all sorts of wonderful and enriching ministry work—writing, running retreats and parenting workshops, including a new outreach to young moms on temporary cash assistance (from whom I am learning so much about parenting in the face of poverty and homelessness). But a lot of my time has been spent caring for my 88-year old mom (from whom most of my real-life parenting wisdom comes) and for my own kids who are both at transition points: my daughter starting the college search and my son graduating from college (and coming back home to live!), and figuring out the rest of his life.
It’s been a good reminder for me to practice what I preach, to make sure I don’t forget that my most important ministry is to care for those closest to me. We sometimes take for granted, or worse, discount the importance of the work we do at home. I remember the advice of a woman from church when I was arranging to have my son baptized. I made the comment that I felt such a need to give back for all that had been given to me. Her response: “Raise your son to be a good, moral, caring young man. That is how you are to give back right now.”
The late Henri Nouwen once told this story: “A few years ago I met an old professor at the University of Notre Dame. Looking back on his long life of teaching, he said with a funny twinkle in his eyes: ‘I have always been complaining that my work was constantly interrupted, until I slowly discovered that my interruptions were my work.’”
Good advice for those of us caring for kids, aging or ill family members, or both.
