I once attended a special meeting for worship to celebrate an eighteen-year-old’s high school graduation. The Quaker foster parents who had cared for the graduate for more than half his life were being commended by everyone, including the young man’s biological family, but the foster father stood up and deflected the praise. “Everyone is talking like we raised this boy or something,” he said. “But really God filled him with love and, through this kid, God raised us.”

That is as good a description of parenthood as I have heard. In my own experience, God has continually used my two children to raise me out of selfishness and make me more self-aware. Through them, God has taught me about patience, surrender, and self-control, as well as the testimonies of peace, simplicity, and integrity. They have helped me find God, not just in silence and solitude, but in the midst of chaos and crying. While I still have much to learn, I have found that naming parenting as a spiritual practice helps me follow this path more consciously so I can better pay attention to the lessons God continues to send my way.

Recognizing and supporting parenting as a spiritual path could benefit the Religious Society of Friends as a whole. Parents often find the sacred in the messiness of everyday life, witnessing to the Quaker belief that God is present everywhere, not just in meeting for worship.

–Eileen Flanagan in Pendle Hill Pamphlet 396: God Raising Us