You know how when you start a new job, they give you this long job description? There’s always that catch-all at the end: “Other duties as assigned.” Well, we have that as parents, don’t we? We knew there was a job description, hopefully, when that precious bundle of joy was first placed in our arms. But we may not have caught the unwritten responsibility at the end: “Other duties as assigned.”
Tonight was one of those nights. All ready to go upstairs to bed and… accident. After 10 pm. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say it wasn’t pretty and required a bath and involved an upset child. If you’ve been a parent for one day or longer, you know what I’m talking about. It wasn’t explicitly in the job description, but this was my “other duty assigned” to me for the night.
I don’t know about you, but in those moments, in my head I play the “woe is me” card pretty quickly. Why did this have to happen tonight, of all nights? Why can’t this kid learn how to do [whatever]? Why do I have to spend my time cleaning this up? Etc., etc., etc. Then I stop and preach to myself: Hey bro: you know this was in the parenting job description, right? Right there at the bottom: “other duties as assigned.” Did you think this parenting journey was cupcakes & roses (or for me anyway, cheese fries & cookies ‘n cream ice cream)?
It’s also in those moments that some of the coolest things happen. Tonight, I got one of the sweetest hugs from my child I’ve ever had. She was upset, embarrassed, cold — and I wrapped her in a towel and had a beautiful moment of peace and comfort. I told her I loved her and was proud of her and that it would be OK.
I love hugging my kids. It’s one of the great joys of parenting. But there’s something about that hug after a tumultuous moment that means more, communicates more, soothes more. My point is that the sweetness of that hug makes me thankful for the interruption — the accident — the assignment I had not planned on. It was a gift from God. It brought me closer to my child in a way that was not possible if she hadn’t had the accident.
So, my encouragement to us all (preaching to myself again here): embrace those moments. If we fight them or dismiss them or just become angry about them, we may miss the beauty behind it, surrounding it, or after it. Don’t miss those. Dive into them and let the LORD use them in your life and in the life of your family.