Psalm for parents:
"Don't tell the kids anymore that they don't sleep quietly. And
not as fast as you do. One day, the silence will seem scary to you!
Be happy when you find half a tube of toothpaste in the sink in the
morning. One day you will find Colgate hard and unopened by anyone!
Enjoy it when the tablecloth is full of sweetness. And even when the
jam gets to your wellies. One day the jar will mold in the cupboard.
Enjoy when your shoes leave mud marks on the living room carpet or
sometimes even on the bedroom sheets. One day, there won't even be
shoes at your door.
Enjoy when sons and daughters stay with the light on late into the
night, stumbling to the desk to write reports. Stop telling them it's
"expensive light!" "One day you will be afraid because it gets dark
very early.
Enjoy it when the house is a mess and the clothes are thrown in all
corners! One day you will open the chest of drawers and find spiders.
Enjoy being bombarded with questions you neither know nor want to
answer. One day no one will even ask you where you were born.
Enjoy when babies rummage through your bags and scatter your little
ones around the house. One day when you open the door of the house,
coming loaded from the market, you will be greeted by... Nobody!
Enjoy now... One day you would give everything you have, just to
experience for a moment the "anxiety of the past", when babies filled
the house and your ears with noise!
Rejoice that the Lord gave us children. They teach us to be
parents. Without babies we would not understand God's Fatherly love.
Be like taxi drivers: take your kids everywhere, but mostly to church.
One day, God will fill your house with saints!
"Patir Kyrillos - Vatopedi Monastery - Athos"
