{"id":16105,"date":"2012-05-09T17:06:19","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T22:06:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.austincnm.com\/?p=16105"},"modified":"2012-05-09T17:06:19","modified_gmt":"2012-05-09T22:06:19","slug":"graduation-gifts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/graduation-gifts\/","title":{"rendered":"Graduation Gifts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our firstborn son is graduating from high school this June.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I can still vividly remember the day we brought him home from the hospital in awe and wonder at the miraculous new life that we would be responsible raising and nurturing.<\/p>\n

We had no way of predicting the joys or the challenges we would face, but we knew we would try our best. We bought the popular parenting books and started out.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, at the time of his birth, I wasn\u2019t very interested in religion and certainly never in a million years dreamed that I would ever be Catholic. But within a few short years\u00a0I became much more introspective. I realized that before long it was going to be our parental responsibility to provide answers to the questions our children ask about life and death the world around them.<\/p>\n

And so\u00a0the spiritual quest began in earnest which eventually led our family into the Catholic Church.<\/p>\n

Looking back over these years, I can\u2019t help but reflect on the parent\u2019s role in preparing a child to go out into the world.\u00a0 Every child has his own unique challenges and it is sometimes difficult to balance the various duties of parenthood.\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if every parent received\u00a0 their own report card on their\u00a0child\u2019s graduation day.<\/p>\n

What would the criteria be for such a report card?<\/p>\n

Most parents that I know are concerned with helping their children achieve academic competence and perhaps success in sports, music, scouts, and other activities that\u00a0show that a child is cultured, educated, and well-rounded.<\/p>\n

I believe these areas are absolutely important.\u00a0 However, when I try to discern the MOST important responsibility of a parent, I believe that\u00a0those things are really secondary.\u00a0\u00a0 Much more important is parent’s obligation\u00a0in the formation of a child\u2019s faith and character.\u00a0\u00a0To some people this is obvious, but it’s sometimes easy lose sight of this as we get swept into fast pace of daily life.<\/p>\n

Sometimes I\u00a0think\u00a0that\u00a0parents should receive report cards every six weeks to ensure that that they are remembering to\u00a0work on the most important things.<\/p>\n

As my son goes off to college I realize that, know matter what his\u00a0g.p.a. or what\u00a0degree he gets, \u00a0I will have succeeded as a parent only to the extent that I have raised a responsible, confident, competent, considerate and generous person committed to living a virtuous and meaningful life.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I ask myself to what extent have I demonstrated and taught faith, hope, charity, temperance, patience, fortitude? Perhaps these are the subjects that belong on a parent\u2019s report card.<\/p>\n

Like most parents, I want my children to be happy, but the type of happiness that I want for my children is not the type of happiness that equates to merely temporary subjective satisfaction devoid of struggle.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rather I seek for my children a happiness that is more transcendent and permanent, not a form of \u201chappiness\u201d that is contingent on wealth, looks, intelligence, professional success or any external circumstances.<\/p>\n

This is the type of happiness that I desired for my children the moment they were born, and it was this desire that\u00a0led me to learn more about the Catholic faith.\u00a0 Once I began to invest the time to\u00a0learn more about\u00a0what the Church actually teaches \u00a0(rather than relying on what other people said)\u00a0I found\u00a0here the most satisfying, solid, and unyielding affirmation\u00a0of the dignity of the human person\u00a0the and the means for becoming the best person possible.<\/p>\n

My first son is about to graduate high school and I have one more child to follow.\u00a0\u00a0I’ve made a lot of mistakes over the years and I pray that I have helped prepare him for his future.\u00a0 And when I look back on the joys and struggles of the last eighteen years, I hope that I have a least given him what is most important in life.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our firstborn son is graduating from high school this June. I can still vividly remember the day we brought him home from the hospital in awe and wonder at the miraculous new life that we would be responsible raising and nurturing. We had no way of predicting the joys or the challenges we would face,… [Read More]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16105","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blog","7":"entry","8":"has-post-thumbnail"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":39791,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2013\/05\/open-letter-to-graduating-high-school-seniors\/","url_meta":{"origin":16105,"position":0},"title":"Open Letter to Graduating High School Seniors","author":"Crist\u00f3bal Almanza Herrera","date":"May 22, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019ve spent the last 4 years as a catechist to high school seniors. Before that I spent 4 years with confirmation classes and middle school students, but focusing on sending students out to college and beyond high school has been some of my most fruitful experiences. I would like to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Youth"","block_context":{"text":"Youth","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/youth\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"graduate","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.austincnm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/graduate-525x700.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":16584,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/to-the-college-freshman-class-of-2016\/","url_meta":{"origin":16105,"position":1},"title":"To The College Freshman Class of 2016","author":"Elizabeth","date":"May 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"We get a lot of good Graduation advice. Steve Jobs told us in his graduation speech at Stanford that we shouldn't waste our lives living someone else's dream. Winston Churchill explained that we should never, never, never give in except to the convictions of honor and good sense in 1941.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Blog"","block_context":{"text":"Blog","link":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/category\/acnm\/blog\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm2.staticflickr.com\/1276\/632746608_a74bee24c8.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":114782,"url":"https:\/\/atxcatholic.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/advice-for-graduating-high-school-students\/","url_meta":{"origin":16105,"position":2},"title":"Advice for Graduating High School Students","author":"Crist\u00f3bal Almanza Herrera","date":"May 20, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"One of the missions God is currently calling me to serve is working with graduating high school youths, and it has been an incredible blessing for me to closely journey with inspiring teens. 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