yarrr, ye scurvy boy-king, halt ye whinin'

The choice to become parents is a choice to be burden-bearers. Motherhood can change a giddy girl into a sober woman very quickly. Fatherhood means taking on the frightening demands of providing for totally dependent people. It means being wiling to give up a good many hobbies and pastimes, the guarantee of an unbroken night's sleep, the ease of coming and going when you please. It means a willingness to change a diaper (yes, even one that isn't only wet), take out the garbage, read a bedtime story, lug the potty chair and the playpen and the carseat all over the place. It means using a whole lot of skills you haven't got, and not using the ones you know you've got.

The spiritual analogies are plain. The choice to become a spiritual parent is a choice to lose one's life. It is a choice to become a burden-bearer. Spiritual dependents are a disruption and a burden. The prospect is daunting, and the greater our appreciation of such a high calling, the greater our sense of inadequacy.

What God calls us to do is always impossible. Impossible, that is, without His help. It is always too big for us, too demanding. The price is too high. Yet he calls us to count not our lives dear to ourselves. Fathers and mothers haven't much time to think about the impossibilities. They must simply do the job.

from The Path of Loneliness by Elisabeth Elliot