I Believe Mother Theresa Was Right

Her sweet saying “love begins at home” is more than four words. Her wisdom inspired me to believe I have the power to save the world by putting these words into action.

For me, I desperately wanted love to begin at home. My parents’ horrible fights were devastating. I remember my father waking all five of us kids in the middle of the night to write thank you notes my mother forgot to send. Scared and not able to spell well, I thought if I could get it right, my mom and dad would be happy again.

I prayed the same prayer each night that God would somehow make our family whole. In the era of the Brady Bunch, I wanted a happy ending, a family like the one on TV. I didn’t want violence that left my mom in the hospital in a drug-induced stupor and my dad vacating.

But their brokenness was not fixable. Through a child’s eyes, all I wanted was the security of knowing that two people still loved me despite the fact they couldn’t love each other. I never found it. In that brokenness, I came to find the only truly perfect love – in God. With all my parent’s imperfections, in a backhand way they gave me the greatest life lesson. The world will always disappoint, but God’s love never will.

Lately everyone is about saving the world from global warming, war, economic crisis, terrorists and the newsmaker of the moment. Possibly saving our society begins at home by building whole families. When you think deeply about all bad stuff in the world, it starts with brokenness turned outward. If we each looked to our homes to see how we could build up our families, our neighborhoods, our communities, we could see we really do have the power to change the world. It all starts at home and then radiates either wonderfully or horribly out from there.

When Mother Theresa spoke about love beginning at home, I knew exactly what she meant. I live out her words by teaching my son what true love is. I will not pass onto him a broken way of loving or a desperate silence filled with guilt. I will teach him that despite all of our screw-ups and our failures, we are still loveable. We are still perfect in the eyes of our Creator. We can be whole again in our brokenness.

If we can completely and wholly love one another at home like Mother Teresa talked about, we can be a nation of amazing strength. We might even save the world. Or at the very least, we will save ourselves.

Reflections

It was hard and true at the same time. I feel like my faith defines so much of me, but when you put it out there, it's a great vulnerability head trip. I worry too much about what people think and by writing about my faith, there is always the fear of offending someone by having a real opinion that isn't watered down. But that is what makes it real a great risk!

~Cara McLauchlan