We’re off to cheese head country this afternoon to visit our son and new daughter, so time is short. Therefore, today’s post is recycled from February 12, 2010 when we were busy planning two weddings. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, both kids nearing their second wedding anniversaries, and my time crunch due to visiting one couple, this seemed like the perfect post.
Mindful – Recycled
I take so many things in life for granted: a warm home, a loving husband, more food than I need, education and job skills, freedom to travel, vacations, a functioning government, friends who stand by me, and the ability to pay our bills each month. These privileges are so commonplace I treat them as my due.
But each time my children call, I’m reminded of a double privilege my husband and I hope we never take for granted. We count their calls as blessings, their voices full of confidence in our love for them, eager to talk about the events of the past week and dreams for the future. The blessing multiplies when they ask for our advice, consider our words seriously, and heed what we say.
I never dreamed of such relationships with my adult children after growing up in the sixties watching the hippies and flower children denigrate and scoff the “establishment.” A bit young to participate in the rebellion, a bit of the ‘60s attitude still managed to rub off on me. My parents’ advice was considered suspect until after our son was born, and we needed all the help we could get to survive his first five years.
So we never expected our children would value our advice before they became parents. During Allen’s monastery years, we lost our easy relationship with him and believed it was gone forever. But God has blessed our family with restoration though we deserve this blessing no more than any other family. When I talk to our children, I am overwhelmed by the sweetness of God’s grace and acutely aware of families broken by strife, crippled by rebellion. I hold back the tears until after the good-byes and I love yous.
Then I let them flow as I pray, “Please God, make me mindful of your blessings. Don’t let me ever take them for granted.”
