In a child’s life, there is nothing more important than a loving set of parents. Mothers and fathers who care deeply about their child’s well-being, their development, their futures – in short, for their lives. In that context, it’s easy to see how the well-being of our nation and the future of America is dependent upon our parents. Those tireless souls who work - day and night - to provide the very best lives they can for the next generation of Americans. At this time of year, it is important that we take a moment to honor and appreciate our parents!
This weekend, we celebrate Mother’s Day, and in just a few short weeks, we’ll be celebrating Father’s Day. These two days on the calendar mark an important celebration of the individuals who helped ground us, feed us, give us love, and nurture us so that we have all the tools necessary to face the world when we leave home. However, I find it’s often not until later in life that we actually realize how much sacrifice our parents made to get us on our own two feet. When we’re younger, we tend to take our parents for granted. We may not truly understand or recognize the true extent of their love for us, looking at our relationship with them as commonplace and expected, rather than with gratitude and appreciation.
Growing up is a tough task for anyone. Faced with questions about who we are, how the world works, and what we want to do with our lives necessarily puts challenges in front of us we must navigate. Yet it’s with the support of our parents that we are able to do so, even though we might not have been able to see it at the time.
A story was recently shared with me about a young man who had a contentious relationship with both his parents growing up, to the extent that he briefly left home when he was in high school. Yet as he found himself on his own, he began to realize the support his parents had given him throughout his life truly came from a place of love. Ultimately, they worked through their issues, his parents understanding his needs as a young adult beginning to navigate the world, while he appreciated the perspective and support, they provided him. Now an adult with his own family on the way, he shared with me that, “I’d never been more grateful for my parents than in that moment when I decided to come home. And to this day, they’re not just my parents, but my best friends”.
Now, this is obviously just one story out of so many about the incredible challenges as well as the importance of the relationships between parents and their children. Yet it highlights how often we may not know how much our parents mean to us or have sacrificed for us until we no longer have them. To go one step further, it underlines the importance of taking a moment to critically reflect on our relationship with our parents and, even in the most contentious cases, find room for forgiveness and love, and through forgiveness and love, you’ll likely find gratitude. The point is though, it’s likely that our parents deserve appreciation more than we may give them credit for, and this weekend, and during Father’s Day weekend, take a minute to truly reflect and honor what they’ve done to help get you to where you are today.
