Parenting is like “Tetris Building”

The Stair case finally goes in

Our house renovations continue, 5 months later.  Some days it feels like it will take forever and that very little happens in the course of a day and then other days it seems like so much is accomplished.    For months we had no stairs and then in one day a set of stairs appeared and we now have access to the top room. They look great.  The day the stairs went in was the day that I felt we were really getting somewhere. I was beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. The “gyprockers” were putting the walls up and the “renders” were outside working hard, there were people everywhere.   We have had two exceptional builders working on our house but only one of them was here this day.   He comes on to do the finishing off work because of his skills as a carpenter.  

I observed his work throughout the day and couldn’t believe how much time he was spending on ONE pole!  It took him all day to complete, what to my untrained eye was just a pole that will hold the railing up for the stairs.   After all the progress we were beginning to make, ONE pole is all he had to show for a day’s work.  He would position it, step back and look at it, take it out again and work on it some more, and then bring it back again and replace it.  He repeated this process all day. Finally at the end of the day he went to put it into place for the final time but paused and muttered under his breath, “Wait, I will just take a picture of this before I do”.  He looked at me and smiled and said; “This is my Tetris block.”

This is the pole he spent all day on.

I smiled graciously but inside I was thinking, “Well I am happy for you playing games at my expense!  Every day this renovation costs us more and more!”   Watching his pride as he took the picture I just had to ask, “Why are you taking a picture of a piece of wood?”  He replied, “Well, I am just so proud of it. When it goes into place you don’t see the handiwork that has gone in to making it fit perfectly.  It just looks like a pole but only I know the time and effort that goes into something like this.”  (paraphrased,  he was not so eloquent).

So here we have a brawny, tough, classic Australian tradesman talking like a gooey proud dad would about his newborn baby.  It was sweet and I asked if he wouldn’t mind sending me the photo.

He placed his one piece of wood perfectly into position and left a satisfied man having completed a good day’s work.  Anyone else would look at his accomplishment and not even noticed the one pole in relation to the stairs, let alone the whole renovation project.  I certainly would not have had I NOT witnessed this process first hand.

It made me think about parenting.  We look at our children that we spend day in and day out with, at all the little unseen things that we do for them each and every day for the rest of our lives. The tasks that take so much of our time as a parent and yet no one else sees them let alone appreciates them.  Others look at the sum of our parenting from the outside and we HOPE what they see looks good. But they don’t see all the hard work, the tears, the sleepless nights, the loads of washing, the taxi driving, the continual open purse, the cleaning up after them, the worrying when they are not talking to you and you don’t know where they are.  If you are anything like me there are days when you ask, “What did I do all day?”  You know you were busy, and didn’t get a second to sit and stop but you can’t think what took all day to do.

The strategic juggle to make sure all the bits slotted into place in perfect timing and everything got completed just like the game of TETRIS.  Like the builder making sure his one piece of wood fitted perfectly with all the others. The time it took for him to carve each section out perfectly even though no one will see it.  Only He will know how well it was done. Only a SKILLED tradesman will look and know the work that has been done so expertly.

I am thankful my Heavenly Father sees everything  and smiles upon us and  reminds us that  “we are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).    We are His created handiwork, each part carved out for a purpose and with a place to belong in this world.  As parents He entrusts us with the job of moulding our children to be all they were created for, helping them fit perfectly into the right spaces.  Thank God He sees it all, even the hidden parts.    They are HIS children and he values all the time, care and love we give to them.  Others may criticize or judge us, like I did with the builder but God sees all the effort and love and uses it for “the good work that He has prepared beforehand”.

Thank you God that today a wonderful Australian carpenter reminded me of the intricate work it takes to shape a human being and that while it is a long slow process, parenting is a privilege.  Help me to remember that when it feels like nothing is changing or progressing as fast as I would like it to, that nothing is ever wasted no matter whether it is seen or unseen.    Where others see it as wasted time YOU never do.   Like the pole fitted perfectly in its place to fulfil its intended role in the renovation, I pray that my children will walk in the ways they were created for.   With your hands guiding me help me to chisel and shape these precious children into your MASTERPIECES.   (Ephesians 2:10 NLT)

You want to see this pole, don’t you?!  ……… Here it is.

This is the inside of the pole that no one will see, the bits all chiselled out so it fits it into all the other things around it,  on the outside it looks like one simple piece of wood.