Parenting is hard. Everyone seems to have a different method of parenting. As they say ‘when you become a mom or dad the baby doesn’t come with an owner manual. You kinda got figure it out as you go.’

As one comedian with a large family said ‘having your sixth child is like giving a baby to someone who is drowning.’ The good news is that we don’t drown. And with Jesus we can walk on water.

We read in the Gospel how ‘Jesus was obedient to Joseph and Mary.’ But even Mary and Joseph didn’t have it all figure out. Think of Jesus being lost in the temple.

Before there was Dr Spock and millions of how to book to parenting. There was the Holy Spirit.

A baby is a gift from God to a man and woman. In a real way a baby is a charism. We ask the Holy Spirit to give us the right words when we discipline or try to teach our children.

St Paul says ‘marriage and virginity are gifts, chrisms’ so it would follow that parenting is also a charism. The Holy Spirit wants to give a new mom and dad the charism the gift how to raise this child in the faith and into adulthood. Each child is different and unique so one method doesn’t fit every child. One size doesn’t fit all.

If God has given you the gift of a child. Than is stand to reason that God will give you the charism of how to parent this child. It is not enough just to give birth to a baby, to be a biological parent. You also need to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit how to parent them. And if you knock seek and ask God will give it to you….