Disciples, Apostles, and Saints!
Scripture offers some pretty complicated views on parenthood and parenting. And tradition hasn’t always been the place to turn for the best advice.
The truth is that being a parent is hard. And just as unique as every person is, that uniqueness compounds with children—because they are just as unique as we are. The experience of being a parent and a child produces unique experiences in relationship and identity.
As we approach a pair of secular holidays honoring parents, we’ll speak of common themes in stereotypes. In assumptions and reverence. Mothers will get flowers and breakfast and Fathers will grill and get new ties. It is an odd way of showing our particular appreciation for a particular relationship full of intimacy and complicated grace—only to reduce it to gendered simplicity.
A more thoughtful approach to parenthood invites us to honor and celebrate our relationships in their complexity. Even the complexity of knowing what to say besides “I love you” and “thank you.”
The original Mother’s Day was a call to end war. That all mothers would see a common moral obligation to not support the killing of each other’s children. This strikes me as a far more valuable Christian vision. One that helps us see our relationships as complex and honors the complexity of the relationships of others.
May we choose to share the love and joy poured into all of us.
With love,
Drew