Caring Heart: Gerbil on a Wheel

Parenting often feels like a race, but a marathon rather than a sprint. I sometimes fee less like an athlete than a gerbil racing around an endless wheel.  For all of you who feel like a gerbil on a wheel here is a meditation I wrote when I looked at my wheel a little differently. 

Gerbil on a Wheel

Lord, I thank you.  So many times I feel like I am a gerbil on a wheel, racing around and around on a wheel that is going nowhere.  Then, just as I feel at the point of exhaustion, there is something to celebrate.  There is a moment, a look, a choice.  There is a sign that it may be a circular wheel, but it is not a wheel to nowhere.  It is a wheel filled with critical purpose.  Thank You for the energy for my wheel.  So many days I wonder how I will keep going and then I find my energy renewed.  I thank You for helping me get around and around the wheel.  It is a wheel loaded with challenges to be sure. But it is also spiced with moments of such hope, such joy that I am re-energized.  Thank You for those gifts.  They are not just gifts for these children.  They are gifts for me.  Thank you.

Excerpted from "The Caring Heart Speaks: Meditations for foster, kinship, and adoptive parents" by Gail Underwood Parker    Artwork by Anna Parker David from the book cover.