Who inspires you?

Do you ever feel really inspired? Inspired by whom? Or to do what? Do you ever believe that you inspire others?

It is quite a feat, I think, to be able to inspire others. The rugby world cup winning team was an inspiration as other winning teams or individuals are too. But there is more to inspiration than winning, as we well know.

Who inspired you to become the person you are within your family? Was there someone in the older generation, a grandparent or parent, aunt or uncle, that achieved great worth in your eyes, purely for the person they were or still are? Do successful business women inspire their children, especially girl-children, to become achievers? Or does the parish priest or a religious sister inspire children to consider a religious vocation?

Inspiration for me is something grand, something that elevates, raises things to a higher level, something spiritual and something that evokes passion. I am not sure that I like this to be linked with supermarkets, and quality of service applied to grocery shopping. Would they be passionate about customer care in the same way as I am about family care? Of course I wish I had the resources to do more inspirational stuff myself, for the cause of family care.

Ultimately I see inspiration to be something mainly spiritual, godly, religious. Working on my children’s Christmas booklet, Have you met my friend Jesus?, made me reflect seriously on the qualities and characteristics of Christ and those around him. Working at a simple, basic level I became more aware of how inspirational a man he was, and still is of course.

God, the Father, through the incarnation and life of Jesus on earth inspires us tremendously with the enormous depth of his father-love, or parental love, if you will. Getting to know the Jesus in the gospels, the Jesus who grows in our imagination as we reflect on his life and sayings, is an inspiration. He inspired so many others over the centuries to give their lives to him and to others. Even children were inspired, like little St Dominic Savio, who at his First Communion chose death rather than sin as a slogan.

The family life theme for 2007 has been Children, give them love. We have looked at it from all kinds of angles during the year. At a widows’ retreat I facilitated, the mother and daughter who had recently lost the man in their life were inspired through the occasion to take another step forward on their journey of healing.

Looking forward to Advent and Christmas imagine Jesus, tired no doubt after a day’s walking and teaching, calling the children around him. Then, to use a Christmas image, imagine him maybe sitting them down on his lap, surely with more committed love than Father Christmas, to have a photo taken. Isn’t that just too inspirational!

The Jesus we meet at Christmas is the baby, but also the child, the man, the person who lives on inspiring us still. He is at the heart of family life, at the heart of a marriage, even inviting himself in.

Maybe he and his followers of today could embark on a more concerted advertising campaign. Maybe we should broadcast how he is our inspiration to do good, live moral lives, care for others especially those in need this Christmas.

Maybe we shouldn’t let the commercial, material world demean our images and symbols, such as inspiration and Christmas which are precious images and symbols. Maybe we should work at evoking passion for good, wholesome living at all levels, starting of course at home.

This Advent may some of these thoughts inspire you too, to make this a Christ-centred Christmas in a Christ-centred home. And in 2008 may the family enrichment theme, Me and my Family, inspire many to build and maintain their Christ-centred family. That is my wish and prayer for all readers.

For more on family life resources visit www.marfam.org.za