Parenting while the world falls apart

Two things I've written down lately that I want to remember:

First this, in response to a question about how to offer children authentic hope:

Part of my hope rests in the belief that all that matters isn't just in the here and now but extends into eternity somehow. But that hope isn't really enough to get me out of bed most days. 
Hope that good people do good in terrible circumstances buoys me though. Hoping in material security won't serve us, but hoping in values like goodness and kindness and justice - that even while we are less physically or economically less comfortable, there will be more justice - that is something I can teach my kids to look for and be working to be part of. There are already billions of people living lives full of meaning and value in terrible circumstances - we may well join their ranks, or our children may. But circumstances are not the point of this life - character is, and so I am full of hope that my own children will be people of character who chase goodness and justice, even in the midst of suffering. That's my authentic hope.

Second this, as I made sense of a morning gone terribly, terribly wrong:

What do I need to hear/say today?
I'm not sure, but it's something about being a good neighbour. About loving who you're given to love IN THE MOMENT. This morning it was my daughter and my son and I loved them so poorly. Really, really, really badly.
As I processed it with my friend and co-worker, we got to the inevitable, "Well, what do you do?" and I remembered that all we do is apologize, own our mistake and try to get better, try to make that particular mistake less often.
Here's the thing: I give my kids lots of good. And some terrible.
I try to shift the balance to more good and less terrible every damned day.
Some days, today, I fail.
Most days, I pass.
I'm doing the same thing in the fight against evil. Some days I get it mostly good with only a hint of terrible.
Some days, it's just a lot of terrible.
But every day, it's on my radar and every day, I get to practice doing it and hopefully over time, the practice itself leaves a mark. ON me, on my people, on my world.
The world doesn't have more terrible in it today than it did on January 19. The terrible that is present is louder and has more power, but so does the good.  Good is louder these days. That's a miracle. And of course, power that I care about isn't political power. It's heart power. And I think Good might be getting more heart-powerful these days.