A priest told me to write this.

Okay, so he didn’t come up to me personally and tell me to write a blog post tonight. He did however speak this evening about John the Baptist telling people about Jesus being the Son of God, and how we as Christians are called to do the same. Called to tell others of Jesus. He even had us all read aloud the first line of the first reading today, “The Lord said to me: You are my servant, Israel, through whom I show my glory.” Except we were to read it exchanging the word Israel with our own name. Yep. This had me thinking… am I doing my part?

This particular priest is named Father Uche, and I almost didn’t hear this homily today. I didn’t think I would make it to church. Not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t want to get four children and myself ready to get out the door. It was just one of those afternoons in which I was tired, and irritated with the kids, and I just wanted to have an easy day and stay home. My husband works weekends every other month and he had to work today. Sundays like these I get everyone ready and out the door, and meet my husband in the church parking lot so that we can attend mass as a family. Today, as much as I thought I wanted to just stay home, I managed to get everyone dressed and at church on time.

Something crazy happened and my children who had been misbehaving at home decided to be great at church. I actually felt more relaxed there than I had felt at home all day. I was so happy to be there. Really, really happy to be there. I seriously wanted to cry after communion. And to think that I almost didn’t go, just because I didn’t want to bother with getting children ready. The grace I felt just being there was overwhelming and I was grateful for all of it.

So.. this homily motivated me to be better about sharing my faith. I am starting by simply sharing this story of going to church when I didn’t feel like it and how it completely turned my day around. Before we left church, as I was putting jackets on kids, a woman came up to me and told me I have beautiful children. It made me smile. I gave a little to God by making it to mass today and He gave a lot more back to me. Pretty cool, right? I encourage anyone reading this to do the same. Give just a little, and see what happens!

Now…back to the youngest of those beautiful children, who is not yet asleep.

Until next time…

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