Yeah, so, part of making a good marriage includes making peace with one's past. With one's parents. I've been working on that for some time. I guess I have been going through some grieving type steps:
I'm thinking i've finally reached 5. There was a lot of pain during parts 2 and 4. But anyway. Acceptance is nice. Accept the reality. And newer more helpful and truer realities were needed to take the place of the fantasy.
So, anyways, that could apply to any intense attachment to something or someone.
But I'm thinking about parents - as it is natural to be attached to these "first loves" in one's life and necessary to detach and love in a healthy useful way.
Here are a few prayers and quotes related to the subject of honoring our parents.
From the Writings I see that part of making peace with the Parents is to 1) not backbite about them (i'm still struggling with not backbiting or telling lots of stories about "bad" things i and other people do but i do understand how useless and harmful it is now) 2) to understand and forgive people because ain't no one perfect 3) to know myself and what brings me loftiness or what brings me abasement - and live a loftiness type life. Like know our boundaries about what kind of interaction and expectations from people is reasonable.
Forgiveness Prayer
O God, my God! Lowly, suppliant and fallen upon my face, I beseech Thee with all the ardor of my invocation to pardon whosoever hath hurt me, forgive him that hath conspired against me and offended me, and wash away the misdeeds of them that have wrought injustice upon me. Vouchsafe unto them Thy goodly gifts, give them joy, relieve them from sorrow, grant them peace and prosperity, give them Thy bliss and pour upon them Thy bounty.
Thou art the Powerful, the Gracious, the Help in Peril, the Self-Subsisting!
(Abdu'l-Baha, The Will and Testament, p. 18)
Pray for Parents
"It is seemly that the servant should, after each prayer, supplicate God to bestow mercy and forgiveness upon his parents. Thereupon God's call will be raised: 'Thousand upon thousand of what thou hast asked for thy parents shall be thy recompense!' Blessed is he who remembereth his parents when communing with God. There is, verily, no God but Him, the Mighty, the well-Beloved." (The Bab: Selections from the Writings of the Báb, p. 94, 1982 ed.)
"O Lord! In this Most Great Dispensation Thou dost accept the intercession of children in behalf of their parents. This is one of the special infinite bestowals this dispensation. Therefore, O Thou kind Lord, accept the request of this Thy servant at the threshold of Thy singleness and submerge his father in the ocean of Thy grace, because this son hath arisen to render Thee service and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love. Verily, Thou art the Giver, the Forgiver and the Kind!" ('Abdu'l-Bahá: Family life, a compilation of the Universal House of Justice)(Compilations, Lights of Guidance, p. 230)
The fruits that best befit the tree of human life are trustworthiness and godliness, truthfulness and sincerity; but greater than all, after recognition of the unity of God, praised and glorified be He, is regard for the rights that are due to one's parents. This teaching hath been mentioned in all the Books of God, and reaffirmed by the Most Exalted Pen. Consider that which the Merciful Lord hath revealed in the Qur'án, exalted are His words: "Worship ye God, join with Him no peer or likeness; and show forth kindliness and charity towards your parents..."
Observe how loving-kindness to one's parents hath been linked to recognition of the one true God! Happy they who are endued with true wisdom and understanding, who see and perceive, who read and understand, and who observe that which God hath revealed in the Holy Books of old, and in this incomparable and wondrous Tablet. (Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Aqdas, p. 139)
Comments
Post a Comment