What Parenting Changes | Believing In God
Parenting changes *everything*…….. everything. But something as simple as watching the movie Kindergarden Cop on tv (we’re watching it now) sends me to the bathroom in tears.
First I’m in tears watching the kids make the transformation in class with Arnold Schwarzeneggar’s character, and then I’m in tears when the son (Dominic) scales up a telephone tower (” B and LK! DON’T EVER DO THAT!” ” Mommy- we don’t know how!” ” Don’t even think about trying it!”) and then I’m in tears again when the kids are exiting the burning school and the mommy is having to run away from the scary daddy.
While this is just a movie, and it’s not likely that I’ll have to ever deal with something as dramatic as a mobster-like ex husband, I do worry everywhere we go. Everywhere. And I worry whenever I leave them somewhere. I worry when we cross the street- even at a crosswalk and the light is on our side.
And then there are stories like this past week- the shooting in California, those people who were killed. Every single sign was presented that this young man was seriously disturbed and yet- even when family tried to intervene- he wasn’t stopped. He fooled police in to believing that he was kidding. He killed so many.
And the #YesAllWomen Twitter hashtag would take off, and we would be made even more aware that while not every man threatens women- women must live with the concern that it can happen regardless.
#notallmen practice violence against women but #YesAllWomen live with the threat of male violence. Every. Single. Day. All over the world.
— Soraya Chemaly (@schemaly) May 24, 2014
I think and I worry about what if someone bad and crazy gets my kids- if they get caught in the crossfire of someone hurting. I think about making sure that my daughter and my son have the words to tell someone “NO” if they need to but also the compassion to survive anything that may come their way.
Being a parent makes you have these irrational fears and think things like ” if my kids was kidnapped I would TOTALLY go all Liam Neeson in Taken former CIA agent on them too!” But then there are moments when the fear isn’t irrational, when we see things happen in the real world that make just as much sense (meaning- NONE) and they are happening and we wonder what can we do?
There was a moment in church today during the Bishop’s sermon, it is the 145th anniversary of my church founding and the Bishop came to visit, that he said despite it all- despite all the bumps in life, every road block, there is Him. And he gives us Life. Life is the period mark on it all.
Honestly, it won’t make me stop worrying. I’ll always worry. But maybe it can give us pause, and a moment to realize that even when life doesn’t make sense, even when things are hard, there is reason to have faith.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
