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…

Comments

I know you're busy, but this is important

We just ended a season of little league baseball and softball. Well, regular season ended. We just started All Stars for our youngest. Having multiple kids in sports is B-U-S-Y. We were at the ball fields every night of the week and most of the day each Saturday. The youngest had a few different tournaments, and if you know the softball tournament world you understand that you live at the ball fields those weekends. Games on Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday. The baby’s second to last regular season tournament was exhausting. It was a hot weekend, my husband was working nights the first part so I was solo with all of the kids at the fields the first night, and then the second day I was literally at the fields for 9 hours. There was no time for laundry, no time to get ready for school for the week, no time for the rest I desperately wanted. Getting home that night we hardly had the energy for showers before it was time to go to bed. The next day would be a Sunday a

I don’t drink anymore. But nothing has changed! (Except everything.)

Hi, my name is Christy, and I don’t drink. I used to. I used to drink kinda frequently, actually. But now I don’t. No, I didn’t hit some ‘rock bottom’ moment, like drinking and driving and almost killing myself (or someone else.) I didn’t stop taking care of my responsibilities while drinking. I still woke up and took care of my kids every day. I just decided that it was getting to be too much. I was starting to dislike the way I felt. And I quit. I don’t drink anymore, but nothing has changed. (Except everything.) I used to be the first to say, with a laugh, “I don’t WANT to parent without alcohol!” Parenting is hard. My children are gifts that I thank God for daily, but the work involved with raising them is the hardest work I’ve ever done. ‘Mommy wine’ culture is a thing, and I was all about it. (well, I wasn’t so much a wine girl as a beer girl, but nonetheless I bought all of the 'mommy juice' sentiment that came with drinking.) I would tell myself that I deser

A love story

Once upon a time, a 20-year-old female sailor was almost arrested for violating article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice. What was she doing, you ask? Well, she was conducting in a nature that would bring discredit to the Navy. More specifically? She was drinking under the age of 21. Even more specifically? She was drinking a bottle of Bud Light, with approximately 8-10 other young sailors, in a friend’s barracks room. This young girl knew she shouldn’t have been drinking underage. But she wasn’t very bright, and was not thinking of the consequences of her actions if she were to be caught, so she did it anyway. That evening, a young male sailor on duty (he was a master-at-arms in the Navy, in other words-military police) was patrolling the barracks. He’ll tell you now, if you ask him, that he was bored and looking for something to do. Well, he found something. He found the aforementioned girl and her friends, drinking beer at the barracks, door

Thoughts from a writing mom

Search This Blog