First Devotional

Mom and Dad came down this weekend to help me get my place ready for school. I can't believe how much it costs to get just the basics, and we went beyond basic since I plan to be here four or five years at least. I picked colors for accents from one of those idea cards you get in the paint section and everything is starting to pull together beautifully, after a LOT of work. I am so glad they came down to get me kick started! I had pulled out all the moldy caulk around my bath tub but I just couldn't get started putting it back in again. I didn't even have anything long and sharp enough to open the tube of caulk! Now I have some pictures, some shelves, places to cook and store my food, my mattress is dressed and my curtains are hung. My parents are hard working people.

I was thinking about that. About how much they give to me. How much parents give to their children in general. And how happy they are to do it. It's almost as if they experience my enjoyment and success just as keenly as I do and want to do all they can to contribute to it. Parents just give up everything to their kids, all their precious time, their personal space, their favorite hobbies, their dreams. Mother's bodies change shape and they experience so much discomfort and pain just to bring someone into the world that will take even more from them. Parenthood is an act of generosity that is beyond my present comprehension.

Which is not to say I acted with particular kindness or gratitude while they were here. I was stressed and grumpy sometimes. I forgot to say my prayers this morning and payed the consequences, as I always do, with that feeling of negativity and self-absoprtion that plagues me when I don't start out my day with any form of devotions. I remembered in time to have a little rememberance before the day was through, though, and things started to get back to the way they should be. And we all three finished up the day with prayers, my very first devotional meeting in my new apartment! I'll post pictures of what it looks like now soon.

"OLord! In this Most Great Dispensation Thou dost accept the intercession of children in behalf of their parents. This is one of the special infinite bestowals of this Dispensation. Therefore, O Thou kind Lord, accept the request of this Thy servant at the threshold of Thy singleness and submerge his father in the ocean of Thy grace, because this son hath arisen to render Thee service and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love. Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Forgiver and the Kind!"


-‘Abdu’l-Bahá