Daily prayer a must on the road of parenthood

A wise friend once told me while I was knee deep in diapers and rambunctious boys that these were the easy times. More difficult or challenging times were ahead. I chuckled at her comment thinking she was crazy or lacked any sense of reality. Fast forward through the teenage years and now wading into the realm of grandparenthood, I must admit I cherish the days of innocence and easily fixed timeouts for unruly behavior.

What have I learned? I learned that daily prayer is a must in the home and that above all, the rosary is the one practice that is essential. We were blessed being able to homeschool our children and in that, we began each school day with the rosary, personal prayer, and daily Mass. Our four boys served at daily Mass as well as many Sunday Masses throughout their school years. Our family had a deep commitment and connection with our faith community.

We also took the time to celebrate special feast days with our boys, especially their baptism anniversaries. We made that day as special as their birthdays by having special meals and doing fun things to celebrate the day they became a child of God. We would acknowledge their patron saint feast days or other special feasts of the saints too with some little treat or special dessert. As the world was and is always celebrating people and things that are not of God, it was important to instill in them where our true devotions and honors should be placed. 

I must confess I believed that if we did all the right things in the eyes of the Church, we’d have no issues or problems, and the children would enter into the world solid, well-formed, evangelist-minded adults ready to take on the world. As time went on and they entered the workforce in their teen years, it did not take long to see how strong the world pressed upon them to conform to its ways. Their faith and morals were tested, but what I believe kept them from real harm was the foundation that we, as parents, laid before them with a consistent daily effort of prayer, sacrifice, and deep commitment to being an active part of our parish community.

I believe being parents of adult children is the greatest challenge of parenthood. We can no longer dictate what shows they watch, what music they listen to, or more importantly, what Mass they attend and how often they pray each day. My husband Candonn and I learned hard and fast that praying for our adult children is even more important—not only because of the crazy culture we are now living in but because our job is not finished. Our job as parents is to get our children to Heaven. Therefore, our continued example of prayer and sacrifice needs to be even more evident as we step back from raising them to watching as they live out God’s plan for their lives. Now with the added blessings of grandchildren, my husband and I have the privilege of sharing that faith with them as well.

Recently, Candonn and I have fallen in love with the devotion to St. Joseph. Coupled with our devotion to Our Blessed Mother, St. Joseph has brought us new strength and support as we continue to strive to set good examples for our sons and their growing families. I wish we would have found the resources of such a wonderful devotion sooner—especially since we had all boys—but we cannot look back, only forward, and share what we have discovered with them as they are starting their lives as husbands and fathers. I believe the rosary prayed daily, personal prayer, frequent Mass, and a deep commitment to the parish and faith community are the essential tools that have helped us and will continue to help us form and protect the next generation within our family and hopefully many generations to come.