As we enter into Lent, a period of spiritual growth, penance and repentance, I am reminded of how difficult the spiritual and parenting journeys are, and of how similar they both can be.
As Catholic parents, we proudly put our faith and family first- pursuing an ideal. We devote ourselves to living and breathing our faith and passing that onto our children, we strive to educate, to provide experiences and safety, and most importantly, we do so with the love from our whole heart. This roller coaster ride of striving for our faith and family can be one of growth and heartache- it’s turbulent, tumultuous and requires tenacity.
In the 40 days approaching Easter, our faith calls us to reflect and be introspective of all areas of our lives. This reflection and time contemplating the people we are and the people we want to be leaves us both grateful and remorseful- grateful for our blessings that we don’t always see, remorseful for those times we have fallen short.
Unfortunately, as parents, a common place to find regret and guilt is in our parenting as we realise our actions have somehow fallen short of the ideal. As we look back, we see how we once were; how we parented, how we saw things, what we allowed into our families. We see all the unconscious, perhaps even sinful mistakes we have made on this parenting journey and wish we could wish them away.And, although remorse and repentance is needed for forgiveness and growth, it has the potential to have us only focus on our shortcomings, leading us to despair... this is not what God wants of or for us. Although easy to fall into, despair merely hinders our faith and parenting, holding us even further back from our ideals.
Lent is the liturgical season that calls us away from these feelings of despair and into the light. We are called to repent for the past, to accept it and to bring ourselves back into right relationship with God. This also means that we need to be willing and able to forgive ourselves for these shortcomings too. Only from this place of acceptance and forgiveness, can we receive God’s immense mercy and move forward with faith knowing that God works everything for good, even our parenting mistakes.
About the Author – Jessica Crino is a long-term HCP parishioner, mother, and Parenting Coach; who supports mothers seeking more peace & connection in their parenting.
If you’d like to read more about Jess, visit https://www.facebook.com/jessicacrinocoach/.