Raising a family is hard work. Millions of small decisions make up the balancing act required to create a healthy home life for children. My hat’s off to the women and men who commit their lives to their families. They should take comfort in the Gospel’s reminders that even Jesus grew to maturity in the midst of the messiness of a home.
On a recent visit to my mother, I noticed a prayer posted on her refrigerator door: “Patient Trust,”* written by the French Jesuit philosopher Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. I stopped to read it closely, especially these stanzas:
Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are, quite naturally, impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.