“Honor your father and your mother!" ~ Exodus
20:12
By the time she was 18, Lacey had
weathered a series of crises including a cancer scare, bullying at school, and
now a breakup with her longtime boyfriend.
Long time for teens anyway: 31 months.
She’d shown a wide variety of powerful and destructive emotions:
sadness, anger, humiliation, fear, confusion, jealousy, and regret. Lacey recalled those feelings when she’d hit
bottom: "I didn’t care what happened to me and couldn't care less what
happened to the people around me. I’d
lost all hope!”
Eventually, about six weeks after the break-up, a feeling of
relief emerged. She’d survived … with
the help of her church, friends, and especially her parents. As her thoughts turned from inward out, she
realized just how kind, loving, and reassuring her parents had been during that
time and in fact, her entire life.
Lacey was too self-conscious to tell them how much she loved
and appreciated them F2F, so one night she poured her heart into a letter and
placed it where she knew they’d find it before going to bed.
Hours later they burst into her room, shook Lacey awake, and
hugged her. Eyelids flickered to the
unlit room. She didn’t know what was
going on until Lacey saw the letter in her Mom’s hand.
Then perhaps more fully awake than she’d ever been, Lacey
recalled seeing tears in her Dad’s eyes for the first time in her life. She didn’t speak; soaking in the pure joy in
their faces. Her simple note had touched
them in incomprehensible ways. It had
made them happy and that was enough.
Oh the power of a single act of love. A kind word can heal a heart and change a
life. The most beautiful thing in this
world is to see your parents smiling, and knowing that you’re the reason.
For all that our parents do for us, there’s no way of
repaying them. Though they do not expect
anything but love from us, an occasional thank you or an acknowledgment to
appreciate them, might just make them happy.
O God, thank you for my parents who have loved
me and cared for me. Help me to show how
much I appreciate them. Forgive me for
the times I've made them sad. Keep them
close to one another in this life and in the next. Amen
