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Good morning.

When the United Nations designated the 1st of June as ‘The Global Day of Parents’ the central aim was that the world should formally celebrate the role of parents as caregivers and teachers and in providing protection and positive development for children

It certainly seems a great idea to me, but I suspect that while it may serve pretty well as a definition of the role of parents it doesn’t necessarily fully reflect what parenting actually looks like.  For a start, these days the traditional nuclear family is only one of a number of structures in which children are brought up.  But I think too that there are good reasons for saying that responsibility for protecting and providing opportunities for children goes well beyond the individual family and out into the community and society as a whole.  And that’s quite a sobering thought. 

Yet the essentials of the role are still the same: offering children love and nurture.  It’s a huge responsibility.   Too many children grow up neither loved nor nurtured and the damage that can cause to them and to society can be profound.   But there are more subtle issues here.  So much of who we are is what we inherit from our parents – consciously and unconsciously – willingly and sometimes unwillingly. Children don’t just inherit physical characteristics, they can find themselves too easily lumbered with their parents’ attitudes, hang-ups and prejudices.  And surely they deserve better than that.   

So, today is about acknowledging both the privilege and responsibilities of parenthood and doing all we can to give those we care for positive experiences of being loved and nurtured – if not as we were – then as we wish we had been.

Father God, as we celebrate the gift and the challenge of parenthood, strengthen us for the task of offering real, unconditional and nurturing love from our generation to the next.  Amen