To Enjoy the Journey

On this question again of wondering always when we are going to “get there”: When our children are young and very dependent upon us, sometimes perhaps we think what we would do if we were more free from responsibility. And then the time comes when we are more free from that kind of responsibility, and in looking back we find that it was one of the sweetest, most enjoyable parts of life.

We should enjoy our children when we have them around us. They won’t always be with us. It is wonderful to be part of things, to be needed, to be wanted⎯ and to enjoy the journey.

Not any of us can plan fully for the future, because the unexpected always enters in. There are almost always obligations and worries⎯there are accidents and illnesses⎯the unexpected bills⎯ the budget that has a way of exceeding itself⎯ the things that cost more than we counted on⎯ the unfinished things that are always there to be done.

And then add to all this, all the other problems and perplexities of young parents⎯problems of employment, problems of providing, problems of preparing and building solidly for the future.

But every time of life has its problems, and its compensations. Youth has its problems, too⎯and so does age. But we live through each part of life only once. We don’t go back. And instead of wishing that any part of it were over, instead of living always for something that is never now, we should find some sweetness and accomplishment and compensation in every hour.

And to you in you younger married years, with all the problems of young parents upon you: It is probable that as you live out all the long years of life you will never find anything essentially sweeter than the tight circling of a baby’s arms around your neck; or a child, his hand in yours, walking with you; or a boy’s arm around your shoulders in the quiet confidence of an evening hour.

Don’t wish for each part of life to be past. Despite all the problems and the pressures, enjoy the journey. It’s a good world and a good life⎯God made it so, and it is up to us to find the sweetness in it, to find what we can of heaven here, until we arrive, with our loved ones, at that heaven which is hereafter.