Start with the end in mind

    It is Easter day. The end of what sometimes seemed like a long lenten season. Lent is an example of a season that starts with the end in mind. Lent leads us toward Easter. The disciplines of prayer, fasting, attending worship and acts of self denial are the flagstones in the path we are paving toward a rewarding and heart felt celebration of Easter and the risen Christ. Acts of self denial and discipline are not often anticipated with relish. They are the hard work, slowly and incrementally, leading to the end, to the joy of Easter. Doing the things we least want to do , the things that are tiring and tedious and inconvenient these are the moves we make to inch our way toward that end denying ourselves the easy path today in order to experience the greater reward of the goal attained tomorrow.


    Remember the end while you are in the middle in parenting your children. Just as the third and fourth weeks of Lent are a low time so also are there low times in parenting. There are times in Lent when Easter does not seem to be in sight, but it is there just around the corner. When raising children it is so easy to think that it will last forever so what does one night or week of homework matter, what does  a little disrespect hurt? Just as the practices of Lent seems to work like compound interest, adding up rewards faster than you would have thought, so to are the rewards of staying focused on the task of raising children. Keep the end in mind. Strong, respectful, loving Christian men and and women of God are what we are striving for.  At the end the celebration will be as joyous as an Easter morning after a long lent.