Grow: A Lesson from The Little Prince

For as long as I can remember, my parents have had a quote up in their bathroom, which my mom told me once was from their wedding. It's from the book The Little Prince:

Source

Here is my secret. It is very simple: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.

For a long time I didn't quite understand the quote, but with time, I began to see that is was saying that the most important things are not things you see. They are things that are internal, and we must be diligent to look past the external.

But this quote popped into my head because of two things. First, I got an email from my mother-in-law directing me to a blog post she had read about motherly sacrifice. The second was something I found on Pinterest that spoke of Christ-like mothering. Both are good reads, and I recommend checking them out.

But both basically had the same ending. As mothers (or parents), we make a lot of sacrifices for our kids simply out of necessity. We change diapers; we clean the kitchen; we make sure everyone had clean clothes to wear; we help find lost toys; we rearrange our schedule to match theirs. And that is all well in good to do. But just doing those things are not the point. The point has to be our attitude. How many times while looking for that lost toy again, do we grumble under our breath? How many times when we are doing the dishes do we wish that someone would acknowledge what we are doing? In fact, one of these blog posts said that we can have a clean house and obedient children and not be displaying the sacrificial love that Christ showed to us.

So let's focus on our attitude today, even while we physically take care of our family. Let's remember that the things are essential are invisible to the eye.