What are our kids? Entertainers who recite poetry, sing songs or dance to appease us? Or are they impressionable beings on whom the adults wield dominion in the guise of discipline taking advantage of their innocence and sheer dependence? Or even more are they pendulums vacillating between the desires of their parents and the mores of society?
Parents cannot unqualifiedly use the fourth commandment to exact respect and submissiveness from their kids regardless of their parental behaviour. Parenthood is not assumed but earned. In the process of parenting, just as the child matures into an adult so do the man and woman mature into father and mother. The transformation of status is mutual; the upbringing is correlative.
There cannot be two standards of perfection for parents and kids. Just like adults, children should have the liberty to express their emotions and elders must validate them. Undealt, invalidated and pent-up emotions often lead to introjection and projection; as depression in the former and oppression in the latter.
What are the bearings we can possibly draw from the Feast of Annunciation to Zechariah we just celebrated?
The silencing of Zechariah suggests that the suspicions and insecurites of elders may impede our children from growing into their full potential and fulfilling their divine calling and therefore need to be silenced. On the other hand those allowed to be vocal are people like Elizabeth who believe in their kids and exhibit the nerve to say 𝐍𝐎 to the stereotypes the society dictates.
Finally let us submit our kids and pray for the the same blessings which John the Baptist received ;
1. May many rejoice at their birth (Lk. 1:14)
2. May they be great in the sight of God (Lk. 1:15).
3. May they never rely on drugs and intoxicants (Lk. 1:15).
4. May they lead many to repentance (Lk. 1:16).
𝘍𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘭 𝘎𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘴 !
~ 𝐃𝐚𝐲𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐨 𝐅𝐫. 𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐥
Urho, The Way 