We all want to get our kids to Heaven. How can we make their way easier?
My children get a nature magazine every other month with little facts and stories about native animals. One such tidbit in an issue we recently paged through was about ducklings.
“Baby ducks,” the piece read, “often swim in an orderly line behind mom.” Why? They are riding her wake. Swimming together, and especially swimming behind a large, expert paddler like mom, requires less energy.
I feel like a great mom when I have all my ducks in a row. And I considered how this image can apply to the spiritual life. Sometimes it feels a little backward. “Hey, my prayer life could use some work, but by golly, if I can just get my kids to behave for prayer, at least I can get them on the right track. I’ll at least get my kids to heaven. That’s the priority, right?”
I look around the table at Grace to see who’s got their hands folded nicely, or sometimes even continue to bring food to the table while we pray so we can just check it off the list and get these cranky kids eating and upstairs to bed.
I’m frantically pushing my kids towards the Lord. But what if I have it backward? What if I need to be more like that mother duck?
Turning Toward the Lord
When we moms love the Lord and follow in His ways, we make the path easier for our children to follow. When we spend time in prayer, talk about God, read His word, and live with love, we create a current our children can grow within.
As the cultivator of home, a mother deals extensively in love. And love is the currency of Heaven! When we fill our homes with acts of love, how do you think our children will respond?
Consider this quotation from St. Therese:
Charity gave me the key to my vocation. … I understood that the Church has a heart and that this heart is burning with love; that it is love alone which makes the members work, that if love were to die away apostles would no longer preach the Gospel, martyrs would refuse to shed their blood. I understood that love comprises all vocations, that love is everything, that it embraces all times and all places because it is eternal!
From Story of a Soul via littleflower.org
Making Changes: Let’s Get EVERYONE to Heaven!
This will be a difficult change for me. As a mom, it’s always been about fitting in all the tasks of the day, from laundry and cooking to quality time and trips to the park. I work ceaselessly to maintain a healthy, happy home for my children to grow and thrive in. And often that means putting myself second.
How many other moms out there eat less healthily because they gave all the fresh fruits and veggies to the kids? That happens to me all the time: I guess I need to buy more blueberries; there’s only fruit snacks left here for me. This view of getting my kids to heaven feels the same. I can’t sacrifice my daily Rosary because I’m tired, or even because I’m making the menu for the week, or planning this week’s homeschool lessons.
Because, if you think about it, my prayer time isn’t even about me. It’s about God. If our Lord were one of the children running around my house, surely I would give Him a good portion of my time in his own right, and not just remind the other kids to play with Him.
But That’s Enough of That.
I’ve gone on long enough. Suffice to say that I need to reorient my spiritual life, and to spend my time learning to love God better, and by extension love my family better. And as a leader (a strong paddler), I can make waves and hopefully (with grace & the help of the Holy Spirit) bring my children along for the ride right up to Heaven’s gates.
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