I watched Courageous this weekend. And I’ll admit I cried through most of it. I know I’m the type of parent who would hold on to a moving vehicle if my child was being taken. And there is nothing in this world that could ever be more important than my kids no one that I’d rather have in my life, nothing that could make me happier than them and if I had to be on a schedule to have them in my life it would take an act of God to keep me away.
Then I wonder what sort of a disadvantage they now have b/c they no longer have a strong father on earth to lead them and guide them and set an example to be a man after God’s own heart. As a mother it’s often hard enough to do your own job let alone fill someone else’s shoes. And then it makes me sad, not only for my own children, but to the children of the world. When did we become a society of self gratification, where our own immediate desires outweigh our families, where it’s more acceptable to walk out on your family and find a replacement wife/husband than to admit you’re struggling and get help, where our children mean so little that people will get into debt up to their eyeballs to have the newest phone, fastest car, biggest house, but scoff at the thought of paying child support, so their kids become reliant on social programs? How is it that if someone fights for the sanctity of marriage and the value of family that they are the crazy ones? When did standing up for what’s right become wrong? I realize that there are people in this world see the dangerous path the world is one, but it seems more and more those people are in the minority. And I’m not talking religion. My faith is mine, but right and wrong go deeper than theology. How is it that half naked women are plastered on televisions every commercial break and yet breastfeeding women are forced into bathroom, and dressing rooms and dark corners for doing what nature designed them to do?
Is it enough to feed them and cloth them, keep a roof over their head and give them what little time you have in a day, to tell them that what’s expected of them in the grand scheme is great than what the world expects? Am I a bad mother for leaving the dinner dishes and instead make a new mess building towers before bed? If the floor isn’t mopped each night have I failed for the day? Are my children missing something because they aren’t enrolled in half a dozen extracurricular activities? Is it enough to spend an afternoon at the park or a morning at the library? Would they have a “better” life if we had more money becasue I worked outside the home and left them to child care?
I never thought we were perfect. Maybe perfect for the life we shared. But is that time enough to carry my boys through to become men like the man they once had as an example or will they be undone by the deck they’ve now been dealt and what the world says is okay because only my voice echos that they are more?
