I’m participating in the Keeping LOVE in LENT Blog Link-Up 2013, hosted by Raising (& Teaching) Little Saints, Truly Rich Mom and Arma Dei: Equipping Catholic Families.
We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and real-life
experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices, prayer and
good deeds, and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a GRUMBLE.
Please scroll down to the end of the post to see the list of link-up
entries.
I had planned to write about
something else today – about some of the things the children and I are DOing this Lent. However, upon reflection about my day, I felt
moved to share something I am (re)LEARNING:
to soften my heart and savor relationships.
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| The candle says it all: love, cherish... |
Please, step back about 18 hours
with me to the ridiculous scenario that was my morning:
Three children, at different times
between 12 and 6 a.m. padded into my husband and my bedroom and crawled into
our bed. Eventually, their little bodies ejected my husband’s off our
queen-sized mattress. Thus, by 6:45, when
I got up, Mike was well into moving himself through getting himself ready work while I
was chastising myself for breaking my personal intention of getting up by
5:30/6 to pray and then do chores.
With a sigh, I looked at the clock
and groaned a bit. I knew that my
earliest risers would be up within a half hour and that I had more chores to
get done this morning than I had minutes to do them in. We had
guests expected in but a few hours and the kids would be up, needing
breakfast and ready for their lessons.
So, I forewent my usual morning routine (including focused prayer time –
gasp!) in order to get right into the chores.
After a quick hello in my head to
God, I barely said good morning to the man that he has gifted me with to share in
the call of marriage before I began to collect trash, put away dishes, sort
laundry... I was only a few minutes into
these mundane tasks when Jack woke up, followed by Nina.
Instead of greeting my God-given
blessings as I usually do in the morning and stopping to attend to their needs,
I pushed on, set on my own “needs”. My
narrow-minded focus and corollary monologue to the kids about why I could not
attend to their requests “until I finished (x-y-z),” did nothing for the kids',
nor Mike’s, morning mooda. Yet, me of
hard-heart and harder head, persisted.
Then, just as Mike was ready to
leave, Luke woke up. Within a minute, after Mike received big bye-bye
hugs and kisses from all three of our children, but only the most cursory one from
me, Mike departed for work.
Why only a cursory hug and kiss?
Because he was trying to get out the door and I was trying to do some extra chores. I thought little of it.
Instead, I paused from my to-do
list to ensure that the children were set up with fruit (which is what I encourage
them to eat before they attend to their Five
Before Breakfast chores and, then, eat breakfast with me.) I figured, if they had plenty of fruit, they’d
stay busy munching and I could continue chores.
My plan worked. They chewed on produce power while I powered
on to empty yet another trashcan. It was
then, a thought randomly occurred to me: It was February 19th, Mike
and my 8th anniversary and Mike had just left for work without either of us
even remembering (or at least neither of us recognizing) the day.
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| Eight years ago... |
Eight years ago, our focus was a joy-filled celebration of love among family and friends at the church
I grew up in and the reception hall afterward.
This morning, the focus was scattered and mundane. That struck me.
HARD.
So, I broke my Lenten promise to
Luke (which is to fast from the computer for three hours or more a morning once
all three children are awake) in order to email Mike to say, “Happy
Anniversary.”
I am weak. When I got online to do so, I fell to
temptation: Facebook. While I waited for my “slow” email account to
load, I popped onto FB and posted about the morning. No sooner did I do that than did one dear
friend post encouragement telling me not to worry because the day wasn’t over yet.
Indeed, it was not.
And, neither was my reckoning.
As soon as my email account was up, I saw a message from my
dad. I almost did not open it because it
seemed that opening it would bring me even further into my failure to stick to the
Lenten fast I had promised Luke last week I would adhere to. But, something told me to open the email
anyway. (Hmm, the Spirit, perhaps? Funny how God can work through all our
failures to get His message across.)
Luckily, I listened to that something.
I opened the email.
I learned that a long-time family
friend, who I love, but have not made time to reach out to in months, perhaps,
years, has just entered hospice.
It seemed the score for the
morning was: Poor Priorities and Choices of How to Use Time 2, Importance of
Relationships Focused On 0.
My heart began to soften. Tears began to fall. I got the message: Love. Relationships. People. Friendship.
FIRST.
God sent his only Son for us.
Jesus died for us. Our Lord wants
a relationship with us. He builds
relationships through us... when we are not too hard.
Wow. I certainly was called up short.
So, I paused life to fast from my own hard-heart and equally
hard-head. I prayed with every letter of
the A-C-T-S acronym that I sometimes help my kids to pray with (Adoration,
Confessions, Thanksgiving and Supplication.) Then, I made time to send a note to our
family friend and his wife, offering a long overdue and heartfelt message of
love and prayers. After that, I emailed Mike
at work to share anniversary wishes. Then, I hugged my children and dug out Mike and my wedding candle
and a photo to put in the front room as a reminder of our special day eight years
ago.
I gave the children full focus
during their school lessons and then found the proofs album from Mike and my
wedding (since we never had a real wedding album made due to a mishap with the
photographer). With that, I snuggled onto
the couch with the kids to share the story of Mommy and Daddy’s wedding day
with them – complete with a recollection of how, when I sat outside the church alone
in the car waiting for Grampy to come take me into the church to give me away, I
looked up at the steeple of the church framed by a bright-blue sky, thought
about the heavens and prayed with utmost gratitude and hope, thanking God for
Daddy as an answer to my prayers and imagining the family He might give
me. The very family I was snuggled with
on the couch... The children smiled,
asked questions, laughed and learned more about the legacy of love and faith
that Mummy and Daddy’s marriage is a part of...
Then, as we flipped another page
in my wedding album, our friends pulled up outside the window. So, we put the album away until later in the
day. We went out to enjoy sledding with our friends and, then, warmed up together with cocoa, lunch and indoor play.
After our friends left, it was
onto snuggles and stories with the kids – both read alouds and more perusing of
our wedding album and sharing stories of that day – as we got Jack to nap. Then, and only then, it was back to to-do’s – household chores and work prep for tonight –
but with a much softer heart and greater sense of authentic purpose.
Later, before Mike got home and
before I left for work, the children and I set the table for a quick celebration
of Mike and my anniversary. We even set
up a CD player with some special wedding songs that tend to make Daddy good-teary.
When Daddy got home, we lit
the candle from our wedding day, took a self-timer shot in the hall, danced as a family to the songs as happy tears
brimmed in Daddy’s, Nina’s and my eyes and felt
true gratitude for the blessing of love that God has given each of us in one another.
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| Eight years in... |
After that, it was off to honor work
commitments, before coming home to do more work stuff. Finally, soon I will be off to bed – quite late,
but with a full and thankful heart.
Before sleeping, however, I wanted to
record the facts of this day as a reminder to myself and others: Life
IS good. To-do’s are important
sometimes, but not as important as relationships – relationships gifted to us
from our Lord, ones that should be savored and celebrated, just as our
relationship with Him should be.
I am so glad that I failed in my
Lenten fast this morning so that God could break through my hard-headed-and-heartedness. For fasting means little if it does not soften
our hearts to our Lord and to love – HIS love, our love for Him and for one
another.
Just like the good old Baltimore
Catechism professes, “God made (us)
to know Him, to love Him, and to serve Him in this world, and to be happy with
Him for ever in heaven.”
Oh, that none of us forget to live that truth throughout
these 40 days, and all the days we are gifted with after that.
Have you already failed at
a personal fast? Did love win anyway? Or
has your unfaltering fast softened your heart?
Do share your reflections of Lenten Love.
Discover new Catholic Blogs to follow!
Check
out the Lent reflections participating in the Keep LOVE in LENT Blog
Link-Up 2013! We'll be sharing different ways, tips, stories and
real-life experiences that will help us focus on Lenten sacrifices,
prayer and good deeds, and how to carry them out with LOVE instead of a
GRUMBLE.
