From today’s reading...
‘You heard me say: I am going away and shall return. If you loved me you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I.’” John 14:28
Loving parents do not coddle their children forever. It’s not love to raise your children to be so soft they are afraid of their own shadows.
Loving parents prepare their children for the world, as Mary and Joseph did.
In fact, that’s our ultimate and possibly sole job as parents: to raise good humans that are capable of entering the world, facing it head-on, and willingly taking whatever it throws at them for the betterment of mankind.
That said, this must be doled out in literal baby steps, then leaps, and then bounds, all under the watchful eye and protective embrace of loving parents, until they are ready to spread their wings and fly on their own.
When this is done properly, the children want to return home because they know that home is where they were given what they needed to...
Stay the course.
Keep the faith.
Endure.
Market like you mean it. Now go sell something.