I got a sad and humorous chuckle when I read the cartoon above. I agree with grandma in the cartoon a little more than I agree with mom. I do not see myself as a great parent. I will still, in my darkest moments, look back and wonder how many things I could have done different to raise our children better, to be a better husband, to be a better father. No, I do not live my life in those thoughts. But, every so often those thoughts will pop up. And, that type of thought is inevitable if you are at all truly sensitive to the sin that is in all of our lives.
But that is not all there is to reality. Part of reality is God’s grace towards us. My wife and I have three wonderful children and three wonderful grandchildren. And, every so often I find myself looking at them and reflecting gratefully on the grace of God which seems to have allowed so them to grow into mature and wonderful adults in spite of the many mistakes that I know that I have made. You see, the older I get, the more that I realize how much of my life was filled with the grace of God which was so present and so wrapped itself around our family.
Every so often I look at our family and I say with the Desert Fathers, “Lord, have mercy.” But, here is what I have learned. I say it not with the fear that so many Evangelicals claim that we Orthodox (and Roman Catholics) live in, but rather in the tremendous hope and joy that asks God to continue having mercy on me and my family. “Lord, have mercy,” is not a cry of fear, but rather the recognition that it is only in God’s mercy that our family has lived and functioned.
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