Reality

Do not depend on the hope of results. When you are doing the sort of work you have taken on, essentially an apostolic work, you may have to face the fact that your work will be apparently worthless and even achieve no result at all, if not perhaps results opposite to what you expect. As you get used to this idea, you start more and more to concentrate not on the results but on the value, the rightness, the truth of the work itself.—Thomas Merton, in a letter to Jim Forest dated February 21, 1966

Parenting can sometimes feel like a never ending circle of saying the same thing a million times, making the same requests, getting upset over the same things. Trying to control the outcome of the situation without much luck. I saw this quote and it struck such a cord. What if I try to just concentrate on each day, each moment of parenting, realize it's value, enjoy it and move on. Knowing in my heart I have done my best and leave the rest to God. The work of parenting is important stuff, and if I concentrate on that work it is the best I can do.