Home/Enjoy/Article

Oct 26, 2018 2143 Emily Shaw, Australia
Enjoy

The Messy Graces of Parenting

You can never fail to notice us at Mass, whether it is on Sunday morning or during the week. We fill the front pew on the right-hand side with our chaos, noise, and disarmingly cheeky smiles. Our youngest tries to escape from our pew, and the church, while Mass is going on and spends the time after Mass trying to get back into the church to run amok.

Hubby and I have not listened to a homily from start to finish in almost ten years. Despite our regular attendance at Mass, we do not seem to be getting any less noisy or less distracting, especially now that our eldest is an altar server and our almost two year old considers it vital to point and call out his brother’s name on a regular basis.

Additionally, our second youngest likes to ask, loudly, from the offertory onwards: “When is Mass going to be over?” Because, of course, when you are four, the highlight of Mass is putting your money on the plate and once that is over, well, what is left?

As you can imagine, I have conscientiously tried to find that elusive secret to keeping five children under ten manageable at Mass. I have scoured the Internet and tried to implement the strategies employed by mommy bloggers who have had more success in this area. Except, of course, they have not because we all struggle to make it through Mass with small children and not lose the plot altogether. Some weeks you think you have made a gain and the next week disaster is putting it mildly.

God in His wisdom has allowed this to be the case. If there is one thing I have learned about this vocation it is this: parenting is full of chaotic, messy graces but they are graces nonetheless.

For us, Mass attendance falls somewhere into the humbling category of why are they having more kids when they obviously cannot control the one’s they have? For a mother with a choleric temperament and a tendency toward pride, you know this hurt—but that is the point.

Our parenting chaos and challenges are the path to our sanctification; if it was an easy road we would all be saints already. Perhaps the reason there are so few married couples canonized by the Church is that it is easy to lose sight of God among the piles of dirty laundry, childish disobedience, and self-deprivation. It is too easy to think that our daily challenges have nothing to do with His presence in our lives.

Our challenges are different. For some the generosity of being open to life is tempered by infertility or the loss of beloved children; for others that same openness might result in a large family that results in an overwhelming workload. The support, or lack thereof, of our extended families can make these burdens seem even more insurmountable.

These challenges are our chance to pick up our cross and walk alongside Christ. Now, it certainly does not sound as inspiring as the lives of the saints and martyrs that we read. I know I would certainly much rather read about the life of someone like Saint Edith Stein than a fellow mother struggling in the trenches of her vocation.

Yet, how many of the saints implore us to do small things with great love? What if every small act I undertake, as necessitated by the demands of my vocation, was done out of great love? If I consider all of the tasks I perform each day—and add in the unexpected dramas that family life can throw into the mix—and look at each one as a paver or a stepping stone, how far would they reach?

There is no doubting that they would reach a long way. I know I am not alone in feeling as though the demands of a big family are almost never ending. Right now, those stepping stones are not leading to anywhere in particular. They are packed haphazardly in a big stack, collecting dust and dirt, while the paving project experiences continual delays.

If, however, I complete each of these tasks with a great love for God and my family—offering each one out of love not a grudging obligation—then that pile of stepping stones is repurposed. Each one is carefully placed next to the one next to it, increasing in length.

Perhaps one day the project will be complete, my humble stepping stone path will reach all the way to heaven where I will be welcomed with open arms. That, my friends, is worth toiling for.

Share:

Emily Shaw

Emily Shaw is a former Australasian Catholic Press Association award-winning editor turned blogger for australiancatholicmums.com and is a contributor to Catholic-Link. A wife and mother of seven, she resides on a farm in rural Australia and enjoys the spiritual support of her local catholic community.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Articles