A Parent’s Credo

Credo –an idea or set of beliefs that guides the actions of a person or group. From the Latin, “I believe.”

I believe that my child is a gift from the God who gives life to all things that live upon the earth. For reasons known only to him, God chose to give this child to me. He did not have to. I promise never to forget that the opposite could have been true.

I believe that my child was entrusted to me by the Giver of life who saw in me a capacity to love another person fully and completely, without counting the cost, opening my heart to someone who may or may not return my love at all times.

I believe that my child has engraved within his or her soul a name given to him or her by the God who writes all his children’s names in the palm of his hand. It is my duty to grow to know that name that God spoke, the name that only God knows.

I believe that my child does not belong to me, but I belong to him or her. My child is first a child of God. I pray for the humility to see that I am a guardian of a life, but God is the giver of that life.

I believe that my child was given a song to sing in this world by a God who loves music, a tune so special and so unique that no one else can hear it or know its melody. I must honor the music that my child hears because it is a divine melody that moves my child to dance in his or her own way in this world.

I believe that my child was placed in my arms for me to protect with all my power from a world that would make him or her other than the dream God has for this little one–a dream that comes true in time with my soft touch and with trust that God speaks anew the dream each night into my child as he or she peacefully sleeps. Let me not destroy the dream, I pray, through my own vision or my own wants for this child.

I believe that my child was not created to become my image and likeness, but to become the image and likeness of the Heavenly Mother who held him close to her breast before she placed him or her onto my breast. Give me the grace to see this child, not as an extension of myself, but as one who carries the image of a much greater being upon his or her face.

I believe that my child was not put upon the earth to pile up successes, but to live out stories to all he or she meets, stories of love, of peace, of kindness, of generosity, of goodness. Let me not confuse my child by putting this world’s drive for success before the infinitely more important story of a life lived for and with others.

I believe that my child must know safety, security, and shelter if he or she is to become the fullness of the person the Spirit within calls him or her to be. Bless me with the ability to put my child’s needs before my own needs.

I believe that my child learns from me lessons of love or–forgive me, Lord–lessons of hatred. I am the teacher of my child in a classroom where the door never closes until I draw my last breath. Even then, Lord, I must teach my child how to die well.

I believe that my child is one of many children and I must treat all children as if they were my child and I must tell my child that he or she has many brothers and sisters in the world. We are family, whatever our color, whatever our country, whatever our conflicts.

I believe that my child will test me and try me, and in so doing, will help me to become a better person, a better parent, a better example of unending love, untiring patience, unfailing hope.

I believe that my child will leave this home I have made for him or her, but will never leave my heart. And as he or she walks from my door into the door of this world, I ask for the strength to believe that he or she never walks alone, but always walks with a Benevolent Being at his or her side.

I believe that my child in time will see that I am imperfect and incomplete, as is everyone in this world, but I beg God that he or she forgives me for my flaws and failures, and sees that love only can pour out of a vessel that is cracked.

I believe that my child one day will become a parent to his or her children, and that the parent he or she becomes will depend greatly on the parent I was. I pray he or she imitates that which I did well and discards that which I did poorly.

I believe that my child, in the fullness of time, will be reunited with the Source of All Life, and that source will say, “Tell me about your parents. Did they love you as I asked them to love you?” And the answer given will bring either a smile or a tear to God’s face.

These things I believe.

— Jeremy Myers