God's Word-filled Wednesday: Psalm 19:1

A few months ago, we visited the ocean for this sunset

with my husband's brother.  And I recall thinking that God knew when he made this sunset that I would see it that night.  I don't see the sunset every night (much less one over the ocean), but we were there that night.  And God knew we'd be there, so in a sense that sunset was a masterpiece he created just for me, knowing that I'd be looking at it, appreciating it, basking in it, and praising Him for it.  

So many things in our lives proclaim the greatness of God and we often miss them.  We are too busy being consumed by ourselves and our own selfish desires and ideas for what needs to happen in our lives.  And we miss the great things that God is sending us each and every day.  Some of them are tough things that can help us grow.  Some of them are just beautiful love messages to encourage us and assure us of that He is truly there.  

Let's not miss them.  Let's wake up ready to look for the scavenger hunt of blessings that God has awaiting us each day.  

Sacrifice: He did it better ..

As I reflected over the past few days on what the word Sacrifice means in my life, my mind was filled with an array of things.  

As a wife, I sacrifice for my husband.  I get up early to make his lunch.  I take packages to the post office for him with 4 kids in tow.  I get up with the girls on weekends so he can sleep in.  I send him off for beer night with the guys at a local Catholic brewery and stay home with our kids.  I change most of the diapers....

You get the idea. 

As a mom, I sacrifice for my kids.  I give each of them my body to live in (read: possibly ruin forever) for 9 months.  I give them my time and energy.  I answer endless questions.  I clean up countless spills.  I give up time with friends, family, and dates with my hubby.  I haven't really slept a full night in years....

You get the idea....

I know I sound like I'm blaring a trumpet for myself, but my next thoughts were about my heart and my attitude when offering these sacrifices day in and day out. How often do I feel sorry for myself or keep a list of all the sacrifices I've made so that I can throw it back to the person when they hurt me or I feel tired?  Sadly, my answer is often.  

I get discouraged, too, that all the sacrifices I make seem to be so small.  So ordinary.  I want to be a Saint. How will I ever get there if my life is so filled with ordinary house-wifey sacrifices?  

All too often, I look at the sacrifices I make as mere tasks that need to be done each day.   

Matthew 20:28

Yesterday this verse was the end of the gospel.  He came to serve.  Jesus ransomed his life for us.  He sacrificed everything.  

It hit me that, for Jesus, healing the afflicted wasn't a task.  

Preaching the good news of the Father's love for us wasn't a task.  

Spending time in prayer in the desert wasn't a task.  

Feeding the 5,000 wasn't a task. 

Washing his disciples feet wasn't a task.

Dying on the cross wasn't a task.  

Sacrifices? Yes. 

Mere tasks? No. 

Because there was purpose.  

There was LOVE. 

Isaiah 53:5

He died for me.  He died for me, so that I could live.  

And yet, so many days, I can't even die to myself and offer myself in service to my family. 

Why?

1 Corinthians 13:1

Because sometimes my purpose is to be noticed, to receive praise or affirmation.  Because sometimes I don't have love.  Sometimes I'm just going through the motions and my heart isn't in it.  Sometimes I forget why I am even sacrificing in the first place.  

We love because he first loved us (1 John 4:19).  

We serve because he first served us  (Matthew 20:28) 

Ephesians 5:2

When I find that my sacrifices have become tasks, it's a wake-up call to make more time for prayer.  To make more time to bask in His love for me.  To take more time to reflect on HIS sacrifice.  

And I can do it while I am doing my daily tasks.  

When I'm tempted to be angry that my husband can more easily go out for an evening with friends than I can, I can remember Christ hanging on the cross for me.  When I'm cleaning up a diaper explosion, I can remember Christ reaching out to heal the leper.  When I'm washing the dishes, I can remember Christ washing the feet of his disciples.  

Because the truth of it is, there is nothing I will ever do on this earth that can ever top what He has done for me.  

But I can praise Him for His sacrifice and love for me. 

Hebrews 13:15

And I can offer my daily sacrifices up to Him, even the things that seem menial.  

Yesterday at my mom's group, we read this prayer by Brother Lawrence and it was perfect. 

 Just what I needed. 

"Lord of all pots and pans and things, since I've no time to be a great saint by doing lovely things, or watching late with thee, or dreaming in the daylight, or storming heaven's gates, make me a saint by getting meals, and washing up the plates.  Warm all the kitchen with thy Love, and light it with thy peace; forgive me all my worrying, and make my grumbling cease.  Thou who didst love to give men food, in room, or by the sea, accept the service that I do, I do it unto thee. Amen."

It's easy to thank God for obvious blessings, but it's harder to praise him for the little things and even the sufferings.  

Today my hope is that I can view my daily sacrifices as love offerings to the One who did it better, and perhaps quench His thirst for love of us just a drop at a time. 

Link-up at blessedisshe.net with your post or comments about sacrifice.  

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Prayer Journaling for Kids

I mentioned in a previous post about how I enjoy prayer journaling. My daughter recently finding my journal and adding her own bit, gave me an idea that perhaps she would like to begin a prayer journal as well.

So here I am to share about our ideas for starting a prayer journal for young children.  My daughter is 5, so though she is just starting to read and write, she is limited in the number of words she knows off the top of her head.  Currently, her prayer journal is mostly pictures that she draws, but we have found ways to add other elements that she can use more and more as she grows and becomes more familiar with language.  And she loves it.

To start off, I grabbed a cheap spiral notebook for her to use.  She decorated the front with stickers and her name.

Yes, all we have in the way of stickers at the moment is Minnie, Hello Kitty, and Doc McStuffins...

I finally found a use for the holy cards, bookmarks, etc that come in the mail from all the lovely Catholic organizations asking for money.  I save them for Kayla to put in her prayer journal now.  

She loves the pictures that remind her of holy saints and Jesus, and sometimes she uses them to look at and draw her own version.  Some of them have little prayers on them as well, which she glues in and she'll bring me the journal at various points in the day to pray some of them.  

The next tool I made to aid her in prayer journaling is a Word Book. 

Ta-da!

Inside I have a section for each letter of the alphabet and I wrote a bunch of sight words as well as the names of some of her favorite saints and words that often relate to prayer and the Bible (i.e. grace, pray, sing, love, light etc...)

She is pretty good at being able to sound out a lot of words, but obviously the Word Book still requires some assistance from me at this point.  If she wants to write "Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord..." she can pretty much always find the right letter for each word, but sometimes needs some assistance finding the word under that letter category.   Eventually this book will give her the ability to prayer journal pretty much entirely on her own and add new words as she grows and learns more and more.  And of course, her sisters can use it as well when the time comes.  

And just for fun, here are some examples of a few pages from her prayer journal.  I love that she loves praying decades of the rosary with us as a family, saying prayers at bedtime together, learning our new family consecration, singing her own little songs to Jesus, and memorizing scriptures, but I am thrilled to see how prayer journaling has given her a whole new way to pray and relate to Jesus on a more personal, individual level that is unique to her.  

 

On the left is a picture she drew of Jesus and the right is part of a scripture verse that she memorized and loves.

And this one is Mary

I love this page where she wrote a bunch of prayers to some of our favorite saints asking them to pray for our family.  

Little hearts are so beautiful and pure.  I hope and pray that she always stays this close to Jesus. 

God's Word-filled Wednesday: The Story of the Grateful Leper: Luke 17:11-19

Wednesdays are the day I go to a mom's group at the local parish.  It's also generally the one weekday where the girls and I go to daily Mass together (just before the mom's group).  We tiptoed in (our usual 3 minutes late) during the psalm (it was the 23rd Psalm today; I LOVE that psalm so much), and got ourselves not-so-silently settled into the pew just as the priest began the gospel reading.

Picture found here on Pinterest

Normally, I just share one short verse, and I've highlighted the verse that really stood out to me from the entire story, but I think the surrounding story makes it more powerful.  What an incredible story and how sad that so often when Christ heals us, we never even come back to give our humble thanks.  A fitting reading to reflect on as Thanksgiving Day approaches.  

Luke 17:11-19

As Jesus continued his journey to Jerusalem,

he traveled through Samaria and Galilee.

As he was entering a village, ten lepers met him.

They stood at a distance from him and raised their voice, saying,

“Jesus, Master! Have pity on us!”

And when he saw them, he said,

“Go show yourselves to the priests.”

As they were going they were cleansed. 

And one of them, realizing he had been 

healed, returned, glorifying God in a loud

voice; and he fell at the feet of Jesus and

thanked him. 

He was a Samaritan.

Jesus said in reply,

“Ten were cleansed, were they not?

Where are the other nine? 

Has none but this foreigner returned to give thanks to God?” 

Then he said to him, “Stand up and go;

your faith has saved you.”

Also, I'm not sure if any of you are prayer journal-ers, but my mom encouraged it when I was younger, and it's something I've always come back to as a staple in my spiritual life.  When I was younger, it was pretty much just me writing letters to Jesus and then sitting quietly and listening and writing down anything I felt he was saying to me.  As I have grown older, I have added other elements.  Sometimes I still write letters and some entries are more like an art journal or a Bible verse or quote that really spoke to me.  

The other day I opened my journal and found that my 5 year old had added an entry of her own.  

But wait there's more....

On the next couple pages, she had drawn her VERY FIRST attempts at stars (and did very well I thought).  So during my journaling time, I added some color and scripture to her handiwork.  A little love letter to the Lord from my daughter AND me.  

           

Her sweet, random (though very appropriate) entries in my journal inspired me to work on developing a way that she can do some prayer journaling.  Stay tuned for a future post on that!  

All Saints Day- 2014

Last year, we had a very fun feast and you can find some of the exciting things we did in this blog post.

1. SAINT BINGO- This year we kept some of last year's ideas as well as tried out a few new ones.  Saint BINGO could be played all day around here.  The girls love the Saints, the game, and the BINGO prizes, so in addition to last year's BINGO, I thought we might try one that was a little more advanced.  I found free printables for the BINGO cards here on Pinterest.  It was definitely a bit much for the 3 year old and 2 year old who needed quite a bit of extra assistance, but it was still fun, and will be a great resource to have around for many future years too.

2. SAINT PAPER DOLL CHAIN/WREATH- I found this awesome idea that the girls really enjoyed.  I made the paper doll chains prior and for my younger two, I helped them choose saints and draw them and they colored them.  The 5 year old looked at saint books, drew her own, and colored them like a little pro.  She wants to do another one tomorrow...

3. SAINT THEMED GUESSING JARS- There are really great guessing jar ideas AND printable labels for the jars available here, but I saw it last minute so my versions are way lamer, but still a fun, easy idea to put together.  My kids are really a little young for this, but with a little help and strategy discussion from Daddy, the 5 year old was able to make some pretty decent guesses.  And we got some great counting in because I had them count for practice.  The 3 year old did some of the smaller count jars by 1's and my 5 year counted by 2's on the larger count jars.  

    

4. FAMILY LITANY OF SAINTS- This is a neat idea I found on Pinterest from Catholicicing .  I made up a simple version in Microsoft Word and my 5 year old LOVED choosing Saints for the Litany and decorating the border with symbols of each saint she chose.  She was even more thrilled to read off the litany at bedtime when we said prayers and concluded with this.  

5. SAINTS, SAINTS, WHO DO YOU SEE? - We have not done this yet, but we are going to make our own version of this at some point in November because it is SO cute and I know all three girls will LOVE it.  

picture from sarahrosessupposes@blogspot.ca

6. READ SAINT BOOKS/STORIES- We read the last several chapters in a St. Elizabeth Ann Seton book that we've been working through for the past month.  We also read a great many short saint stories from a Lives of the Saints book we have.  The girls love to look through the pictures and choose saints to read about.  Some of them we've read over and over, and every so often they choose one we've never read about together.

7. COLORING PAGES- There are so many resources for Catholic coloring pages out there if you look.  Check out my religious crafts and learning Pinterest board for just a few... or do a quick search and find your own.  My kiddos love coloring, so this is always a win.  

8. DRESSING UP AS SAINTS- This year we had a St. Lucy, St. Cecilia, and a St. Elizabeth of Hungary.  We headed to Mass in the morning and they all wanted to wear their costumes.  The costumes stayed on for a good portion of the day for the younger two, but my 5 year old kept hers on all day including our trip to the grocery store.  I love how proud and uninhibited kids are.  

St. Lucy is wearing one of her Dad's sparkling white undershirts with a red ribbon sash and a construction paper crown fashioned lovingly by her mother.  

St. Cecilia is wearing one of our princess-y, dress-up dresses with a crown made last year out of a small plastic wreath and fake flowers and greenery.  It got a bit battered over the course of a year in the dress-up box, so Mom had to spruce it up a little with some green felt and fabric glue to make it look fabulous once again.  

St. Elizabeth of Hungary is dolled up in a Sunday dress with a swiftly fashioned felt cape and paper crown decorated with stickers.  

9. LITANY OF THE SAINTS SONG- We listened to and watched this version of Matt Maher's Litany of the Saints .  The girls like singing along with the "pray for us" parts as well as listening for some of their favorite saints like St. Lucy and St. Cecilia especially.  We also sang a few other praise songs like "Here I am to Worship" and "I Have Decided to Follow Jesus".  We like music around here. 

Happy Feast of All Saints Day!

Next year, my goal is to actually plan a party and invite some friends to celebrate with us. 

God's Word-filled Wednesday - Job 1:21 and 33:28

If you are at all familiar with the story of Job in the Bible, then you know that God allowed Satan to send trials and sufferings to Job to test his faith.  So you've got Satan on the one side saying, "This guy only likes you because he's got a great life with a nice wife, good kids, and a lovely home and estate , good health, and friends."  To which God answers, "No way.  Job is filled with love and trust for me.  And to prove it to you, I'll let you take all that stuff away from him and we'll see how he reacts."

Alright, so I'm paraphrasing, but basically what happens is that Job is that he loses everything.  His kids die, his wife starts nagging him, he develops boils on his body, he loses all his stuff, and his friends assume that he's actually not such a great guy and insinuate that God is punishing him for his sinfulness. 

Throughout all these tests, Job trusts in the Lord.  One of his first responses is one the one that sticks out to me (probably because a song I love, "Blessed Be Your Name" is taken from it):

"The Lord gives and the Lord takes away.  Blessed be the name of the Lord!" (Job 1:21)

What faith!  What love!  Eventually after he gave this kind of response to everything Satan threw at him, God speaks and essentially humbles them all, saying that who are they to question the God who created all things; they don't know what he is doing.  And he blesses Job again for his faithfulness and restores his riches and health and family.  

I have to think that after having everything stripped of you, one would be pretty near despair.  Yet, Job trusted God and the following verse is simple incredible.  

 Job had done nothing to deserve scorn and hate, but yet he received it.  It's a wonderful reminder that no matter how close to the Lord you are and no matter how far away you are, you still need to be redeemed by the Savior because the holiest of men is still unable to do anything apart from God's grace and mercy.  It is he who redeems us so that we can live in the light!  

I love that Job blessed the Lord through both his trials and through his joys.  Generally when I am going through a hard time, I ask for God to help me deal with it and I ask him to fix it, but rarely do I praise him for it.  When my daughter is throwing up, I don't think to praise him.  When I run out of sugar baking brownies, I don't think to praise him.  When our car breaks down, I don't think to praise him.  When people I love hurt me, I don't think to praise him.  When I developed a thyroid problem, I didn't think to praise him.  

But God never tells us we need to understand everything.  We just need to praise him. Plain and simple.