“What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the once which is lost until he finds it?” – Luke 15:4
OURS was not the ideal family. Stuck in a five-bedroom house are two parents of forty-something, a pest-of-a-geek, a severely-acned 18 year-old and a single-but-married college undergrad and her cute baby. Despite our set-up, we managed to get by. I thought things would remain this way. But things change.
The single-but-married undergrad had the usual love story. Boy meets girl, gets married, and lives happily ever after until the boy loses his job. For the fourth time, my parents took her back. It was really an illogical decision since my sister had zero-credibility. My younger sister and I welcomed her back with open arms but closed fists. My parents even mapped out a sparkling future for my fallen sister and her baby at my other sister’s expense.
With her general education degree, my older sister thought it would be easy for her to deceive us—her family. Fortunately, my parents were wise to her ways.
All this time, the separation she was talking about was not true. No matter how bad her husband was to her, she stayed within the marriage. It didn’t take long before my parents found it out. Even so, they still forgave her. I couldn’t blame my parents. I also couldn’t blame my sister—he was her husband. It was funny: my sister’s husband cheated on her and she cheated on my parents.
One night, I simply cried because no matter how angry my parents were at my sister, they just couldn’t punish her. I saw their hearts break. It seemed they had lost all hope. Despite the disheartenment, my parents couldn’t bear losing their daughter and granddaughter. They loved them so much that they were willing to accept my sister in spite of her deception.
That night I realized that children also teach their parents. When we were kids, we were entirely dependent on them. But as we grow up and become more independent, we start giving them hope that their dreams for us will come true. Although at times, we see ourselves slipping from our own carved paths. Still, our parents are behind us, ready to rescue us before we completely fall to the ground.
That same night, as my parents and my younger sister were having dinner, I thought: “I will never let them down.”
A BSEd English junior, Philip Jerome Hilario is a Features writer of the Education Journal, the official student publication of the College of Education.
