This be the (alternative) verse

August 28, 2020 0 2

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Galatians 2: 20-21 (NIV)

20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. 21 I do not set aside the grace of God, for if righteousness could be gained through the law, Christ died for nothing!”

Have you read Philip Larkin’s poem “This Be The Verse”?  It is a rather jaundiced poem where Larkin asserts that parents pass on all their faults to the next generation who then pass them on to the next in a never ending cycle of misery.

Many of us when we are younger have the odd (or indeed frequent) mutter of complaint about our parents.

‘That’s not fair.’

‘I don’t want to / go to bed yet / brush my teeth / eat my greens.’

‘Everyone else gets to do it / everyone has one.’

‘It’s the latest fashion, you just don’t understand because you are old.’

Just a few suggestions for youthful gripes, feel free to add your own. As we became older and hopefully wiser how many of us realised that our parents were right about a lot more than we gave them credit for? It would have been easier for mum and dad just to give in but they didn’t because the rules and restrictions were usually for our own good.

How many who become parents found themselves imposing the same restrictions, repeating the same phrases. How many went on to realise the multitude of sacrifices their parents made in so many ways that they just didn’t recognise at the time.

In functional families the time and love given freely by parents is returned to them in some small measure by their adult children and passed on to the next generation. The debt of love and care is paid forward. The cycle is a positive one.

Philip Larkin is right in some respects as we often do mirror our parent’s behaviours and parents are not always perfect. Most do try really hard, they make sacrifices for their children and they do their very best for them. Their best is all anyone can give.

PRAYER:

Lord I am so grateful that you don’t expect perfection
I imagine you expect our best efforts but not perfection
The mercy of your grace allows for our imperfection
Through the sacrifice of your son
The one who gave of himself for us

Amen.