Lenten Reflections

Lent has officially begun.  If I'm honest, I am not the best Catholic when it comes to following the rules of Lent.  I do my best to not eat meat on Fridays and Ash Wednesday, but I'm horrible about fasting between meals.  I've already failed miserably and it's only been one day!  I found myself profusely apologizing to God each time I ate in between meals.

I know we are supposed to give something up for these forty days, but each year I find myself struggling to figure out what that would be and ultimately I end up giving up nothing.  Instead, I try to focus on doing good deeds, sharing God's word with my children, praying more, and being mindful of the way I parent my children.  In my eyes, this will be much more difficult than giving anything up.

It challenges me to be aware.  To be intentional with our mealtime and my quiet time during the day. It requires me to seek out opportunities to serve others and be more patient and loving at home.  As a family we will grow in our faith and, if all goes well, be mindful of treating each other with kindness and respect.

If there is one area I would love to grow in this year, it is teaching my children more about God.  Our kids pray each night and at dinner, we share and record our blessings most days, and we attend church fairly regularly, but we have a lot of room to grow in our faith.

During Lent I want to make sure we are sharing His word with the kids.  Dinnertime seems like the best opportunity, so we read a story from our Children's Bible and it is now prominently placed in the middle of our table as a reminder to be read each evening.  Each morning before school, we also read from our Every Day Blessings Devotional, which we've done since school started in the fall.  I love the idea of starting and ending our day centered around God.

I am hopeful we will all grow spiritually during Lent this year and start some new traditions as a family that will carry on long past this season.

Growing in Faith

One section in my notebook is entitled "Faith and Service."  This is an area I want to focus a lot of attention on this year.  It is my hope to grow in my faith, have a more Christ-centered household, and to find ways to serve through my church and other Christian ministries.

For most of my life I have gone to church regularly.  From the time I was in elementary school I sang in the choir and in middle school I became my church's organist.  I continued to participate in the music ministry at my church until I graduated high school.  Unfortunately, when I got to college I stopped attending church regularly despite attending a Catholic university.  I would attend my hometown church some weekends and sing for holidays and special occasions, but never on a regular basis.

After college, I continued to sporadically attend mass, but did not find my way back to worshipping regularly until we bought our first house and settled in.  We were both raised in Catholic homes and brought up going to church regularly, so since having children we have made an effort to be at church most Sundays.  We have had periods of time where it has been very difficult and we've stayed home, but I would consider us regulars at Sunday mass.

Attending mass is important, but truly embracing our faith and being faithful servants is even more so.  I'm not going to lie, some Sundays I feel like I've gained little from being at church.  The kids don't always cooperate and I have difficulty focusing on the readings when I'm helping someone every few minutes.  To grow more in my faith, I need to spend time outside of mass reading and following His word.

We were married by my childhood priest.  Either in conversation or in the card written to us that day, I distinctly remember him encouraging us to find a ministry at our church and be an active member. He encouraged us to be leaders and serve.  Though he is gone now and those words were shared many years ago, I have always held them close to my heart.  With young children it can be hard to be a leader and serve others, but just because it is hard does not mean we shouldn't do it.

This year I would like to find my niche in my church.  Whether it be music ministry or finally accepting the invitation to be a sponsor couple for others preparing to marry or both, I need to set my fear and reservations aside and step up to the plate.  It is time to be leaders in our church and model for our children what it means to be a good and faithful servant.  

    

Stop and Focus

The end of January is right around the corner.  It is hard to believe we are nearly through the first month of 2015.  Time is precious.  We cannot get it back, it comes with no guarantee, and, though not scientifically proven, it sure seems to move faster as we age.  It is simple truth that our years, days, and hours are limited.  We can choose to spend them wishing for something better, you know the grass is always greener theory, or we can choose to be grateful and accepting of our life as it is.

Why is it so difficult to choose the latter?  Perhaps because we live in a time where immediate gratification is desired and there are always the Jones' to keep up with.  Perhaps because we move through life racing ninety miles an hour giving little thought or attention to all of the beautiful moments we miss speeding by.  Why do we want to race to the finish line when the finish line means our time in this life is through?

How can we turn our focus away from what is not to what is?  By slowing down.  By being intentional with the use of our time.  To limit our commitments to those which leave us feeling fulfilled rather than those that weigh us down.  By choosing to surround ourselves with people who bring us joy and happiness.  Those who are not afraid to encourage us to stay focused on what is important in life.  By counting our blessings through the beauty and mess which we may find in our lives each day.  By being a faithful servant.

Today, while cleaning through a basket, I found a gratitude journal we started last year.  Ashamedly, we did not do a great job of focusing on and recording our blessings.  On the bright side, there are plenty of pages to fill up this year.  We will keep this near our dinner table and use it as a tool to guide our dinner conversation and recount and record our blessings from the day.  It will be a wonderful way to teach our children to be gracious and thankful for what they have and the positive experiences in life rather than focusing on the have nots and the negative.

I hope our family fills this journal in 2015 with not only the big blessings, but those tiny blessings we might miss if we're too focused on tomorrow and racing through life.  When the year comes to an end, what a blessing it will be to look back and recount all which we had to be thankful for in 2015.