
Linda Kracht encourages parents to prayerfully discern God's grand plan for their families and how to cooperate with that plan.
How varied are your works, Lord! In wisdom you have wrought them all; the earth is full of your creatures, Look at the sea, great and wide! It teems with countless beings, living things, both large and small. Here, ships ply their course; here, Leviathan, your creature plays. (Psalm 104:24-26, New American Bible, St, Joseph edition)
The creativity of God
We live in a magnificent world! Its splendor is proof enough that God is magnificent, creative, and loving — and for all of us! God also endowed each of us with a creative genius — with a lower-case c. And so, we create people, things, and concepts! At times our manmade creations can backfire on u, but God’s Creation never will! Human beings are pretty smart but we are not ingenious — or loving or forgiving — as is God, Creator with a capital C. God has no limitations to His intellect, His power, and His wisdom; we have strict limitations in our abilities to think and do and create.
I believe that God enjoys watching each of us live within His Creation. I believe that He is happy to see us come up with ways to improve the lives of people in and through His Creation. He has endowed us with our human genius, creativity, dreams, and hopes. These have natural limits. He also watches us fail: falling down or refusing to live up to our God-given design and abilities. Yet He still loves and forgives us — if we ask.
Using our creativity combined with God's grace
All of us will face disappointment and discouragement in our personal lives, our professional careers, and parenthood. Most of you reading this have probably hoped and expected to be the best mother you can possibly be for your children. Easy peasy expectation — right? Then came the terrible twos, or adolescence, or illnesses, or tragedy, or … whatever. At these times, we can be tempted to wonder if we are even good at this thing called parenthood or marriage. We wonder if our children are going to turn out all right. Our love may weaken. Our cardinal virtues may be seriously challenged.
Know that these temptations are not Heaven-sent. The only perfect family was the Holy Family — and that was because Jesus and the Blessed Mother did not sin! Thinking that we will/can have a perfect family probably borders on the sin of pride. Thinking that we will not ever be able to have a great family probably borders on the sin of pessimism or hopelessness.
If we go off the rails against God’s grand plans for each of us and our families, our children will go off the rails against our grand plans for our family life. It’s critical to remember that God never gets tired of forgiving us; He never gives up on us. Neither can we grow tired of forgiving our children as we remain present for them.
These positive attitudes and mindsets will require extra doses of divine grace. These graces are secured by making frequent confessions; spending time in daily prayer — personal and family prayer time; giving frequent affirmations to our children; providing close, consistent supervision of our children’s words and actions; giving our children the gifts of genuine love and affection; and striving to arm ourselves with virtues — big and small.
Our free will is a mighty powerful gift that has to be protected, shielded, and shored up by the actions listed above. And it’s important to remember that God’s love is authentic — this means that is given freely, fully, fruitfully, forever, and faithfully. That is the type of love we are called to imitate; anything less is counterfeit love. Let’s do it —seriously — faithfully — and creatively!
May God bless each of you reading this today!
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Copyright 2024 Linda Kracht
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About the Author

Linda Kracht
Linda is a wife, mother of seven, and grandmother of 23. Linda is founder of Fortifying Families of Faith, LLC and her books include: Daughters Forever, Sons Forever; The Art of Breastfeeding, published by the Couple to Couple League; Mothers Forever, Fathers Forever; Surviving College; Black and White; and A Book for All Seasons.
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