Well, things do have a way of changing, no matter what you plan, right?
A friend of mine, the husband of the first woman I met through my ministry in Monroe, Washington, died last week, so I hopped the bus and went out for Saturday’s funeral. I met both Alvaro and Consuelo in December, 1989, and while we had lost touch since my family and I moved here ten years ago, I wanted to be there. It was very sad; I’ve known his family well for years, and my prayers will continue for the three children and two grandchildren he left behind.
So I’m writing this not just to explain my break from Women’s Words, but, in a departure to honor Don Alvaro, to offer some of his — wisdom that ranks near the top of the most profound parenting advice I’ve ever received. We were all at a party held at one of the filthy, poorly-run dens of employer iniquity — you call them “dairies,” I believe — and my then-three-year-old was acting up. I made note of my exasperation to Alvaro, who said, in a voice soft as a whisper and deep as a percussive bass note, “This is how children are. If we let them grow in peace, we, too, will grow in peace with them.”
That was the longest statement I’d ever heard him make, but it hit me and guided me throughout the years of toddlerhood, elementary-school crises, and teenage years before me with two sons. Alvaro was a good man, and I’m glad I knew him. And if all men spoke and lived with the wisdom he exhibited, there’d be no need to have a series highlighting the wise words of women.
They don’t, though, and there is. Continuing on . . .