I'm learning

There's a My Utmost for His Highest entry that talks about how the process is the goal in the spiritual life. Chambers writes, "We have an idea that God is leading us to a particular end, a desired goal. He is not. The question of getting to a particular end is a mere incident. What we call the process, God calls the goal."

Well, I think I'm learning that this isn't just true for the spiritual life, but also in parenting. Right now it's 12:56 pm, both girls are napping and I'm feeling tempted (if it's even possible to be tempted to scrub toilets) to scurry off to the bathrooms and get them cleaned before my little "helper" wakes up. Cleaning with Emery always takes three times as long, since we must account for a certain amount of sharing of the cleaning apparati, plenty of "no touches!" of the dirty toilet seat, silencing whines that she'd rather me be doing something else or paying attention to her, quick darts into the next room to confirm that Anna Kimball is sufficiently entertained and not too lonely ... and on and on and on.

I'm definitely tempted to whine here, too, because quite honestly this isn't how I'd prefer to spend an afternoon. BUT, it struck me that isn't this the point of parenting? To teach patience, cleanliness, creativity and so forth. Yes, the bathrooms will get clean, eventually, in just the same way they will get dirty again, and quickly! But maybe the greater reward and goal is that we all have learned something along the way.

This all sounds a bit pie-in-the-sky to me in a way, but at the same time, I feel I have no choice but to believe it and continue to keep little fingers off dirty toilet seats in the hopes we're accomplishing more than just a clean bathroom.