I have just received yet another announcement for yet another in a long and repetitive series of "community service awards." Strange how we love to give awards to people for doing what we consider to be "good things." These are always things "about others," which is to say, things that were done good for people other than themselves or their families.
How odd that we, as a culture, are so intent on rewarding such work, while we ignore and downgrade the work that really matters. We give awards to "teachers of the year," who are being paid, but nothing for moms and dads who do the same work all the time. We give awards to philanthropists who donate money to care for strangers, but nothing for the faithful parents who support their own families through daily, consistent labor.
On the one hand, this oddity is something for which we can be grateful. The fact that our services are not valued by the world merely confirms for us that the world does not judge as God judges. Parents who faithfully serve, husbands who faithfully serve, wives who faithfully serve, are taken for granted in the world, but not in the eyes of God.
On the other hand, it would be nice to celebrate, at least occasionally, our faithfulness to our own families. It would be nice to reward ourselves for not having left our children destitute. We should reward ourselves for not divorcing our spouse, for not "looking for excitement" at the expense of our families, for not abandoning those who depend on us in order to chase some dream that the world would admire.
As you plan the weekend, plan a Community Service Award night for you and your husband. Sit down and talk, sometime, about how much all the things of your life mean to you. Talk about your children and how much everything means to them.
You are, in fact, a community of your own. Mother, father, sons, and daughters. Each of you serves every day in more ways than most people can imagine.
So, celebrate each other this weekend.
How odd that we, as a culture, are so intent on rewarding such work, while we ignore and downgrade the work that really matters. We give awards to "teachers of the year," who are being paid, but nothing for moms and dads who do the same work all the time. We give awards to philanthropists who donate money to care for strangers, but nothing for the faithful parents who support their own families through daily, consistent labor.
On the one hand, this oddity is something for which we can be grateful. The fact that our services are not valued by the world merely confirms for us that the world does not judge as God judges. Parents who faithfully serve, husbands who faithfully serve, wives who faithfully serve, are taken for granted in the world, but not in the eyes of God.
On the other hand, it would be nice to celebrate, at least occasionally, our faithfulness to our own families. It would be nice to reward ourselves for not having left our children destitute. We should reward ourselves for not divorcing our spouse, for not "looking for excitement" at the expense of our families, for not abandoning those who depend on us in order to chase some dream that the world would admire.
As you plan the weekend, plan a Community Service Award night for you and your husband. Sit down and talk, sometime, about how much all the things of your life mean to you. Talk about your children and how much everything means to them.
You are, in fact, a community of your own. Mother, father, sons, and daughters. Each of you serves every day in more ways than most people can imagine.
So, celebrate each other this weekend.
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