Taking Up the Cross

In Mark's Gospel, Jesus tells us "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross and follow me." (Mark 8:34) What are the crosses in your life? Depending on our own particular vocation and stage of life, we each have our own challenges.

My mother used to tell me that the day we get married, we pick up our cross! While that may be an unusually negative view of marriage from a woman who has been married to her high school sweetheart for over forty years, there is some truth to the statement. Marriage involves giving up oneself for another. Love means putting your spouse first. Ideally, this goes both ways, with the husband sacrificing for the good of the wife and the wife sacrificing for the good of the husband. But life is not ideal, and it often seems like one party is giving up more for the other. (Ironically if you ask both parties in a marriage, both will probably maintain he or she is doing most of the giving!) Add children to the mix and the need for sacrifice grows even more. Love requires it.

It sometimes seems as if many people forget that component of marriage. People want the joy and companionship of marriage but they don't want the work. They don't want to give up any of their individuality. They don't want to put the marriage before their own needs or desires.

But Jesus tells us that following him means giving ourselves up and accepting the challenges that come our way with a willing heart. He calls us to love as He loved - completely. For those of us who are married, we love Jesus and follow Jesus when we love our spouses and children. When we clean the house for the umpteenth time, take out the trash, make dinner, do the dishes, change diapers, nurse broken hearts and kiss away boo-boos, we are serving and loving Jesus. When we put aside something we wanted to work on in order to read a book or play a game with our children, we are serving and loving Jesus. When we listen and truly pay attention to our spouse talk about the joys and sorrows of his or her day, we are serving and loving Jesus.

We do not need to search for our cross. There are a hundred opportunities in every day to deny ourselves and serve another. Jesus is calling us to love fully and completely. In doing so, we follow His lead.

David's 1st Soccer Game

David had his first soccer game today. I have to say, I enjoy watching soccer much more than I enjoyed his t-ball games. T-ball involved very little action. At least this has kids running all the time and there are things to cheer for on a regular basis. It is also shorter than T-ball - a big plus with Isaac repeatedly saying "Please can we go home!" For the record, David's team won 3-2 and the boy had a great time running around chasing after the ball.

The Mother Who Cleans Up the Mess

I love this new article by Pat Gohn I just posted on my website - primarily because I am so domestically challenged myself. Check it out!

The Father Who Sees in Secret (and the Mother Who Cleans Up the Mess!)

Gutenberg would be proud

3 1/2 year old Isaac loves words, especially big words. His love affair started with a Charlie Brown book that contained the word "acetylcholinesterase." My mother than introduced him to the perennial favorite - "Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious" from "Mary Poppins." His latest hobby is to sit down with the dictionary and pick out big words and have me write them down on a piece of paper for him. Then, he will take these same words and use his letter magnets on the refrigerator to spell them out, or he will have me spell them out on the floor using lincoln logs or change from his piggy bank. These words go across our entire living room.

Well, yesterday he decided he was going to move on to a paragraph in a "how-to" manual he was looking at and he went to the refrigerator to attempt to spell that. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough magnets. So, this morning at computer time, I told him he could type out his paragraph. And sure enough, he did. He looked up letter after letter and typed it in. Ofcoursehewriteslikethis with no spacing, but still, I told Bernie if they still had manual typesetters, I could get that boy a job!

Our Lady of Sorrows

Today is the feast of our Lady of Sorrows. The words of Simeon must have echoed throughout Mary's life - "and you yourself a sword will pierce" - Luke 2:35
While Mary's sorrows were certainly unique in human history, I think all mothers can relate to the "Mater Dolorosa." At some point all of us will be hurt as a result of our love for our children. Love and pain often go together. To love completely is to allow oneself to be hurt. It hurts to see our children in pain, whether that pain be physical or emotional. It hurts to see our children make bad decisions or to struggle with the challenges that life gives them. Yes, motherhood can bring great joy, but the sorrows run just as deep. In those times of need, we can turn to Mary for comfort and understanding.

The Crazy Pace of Life

I was finishing up reading "No Greater Love" by Mother Teresa and came across this passage:

"Everybody seems to be in such a terrible rush, anxious for greater development and greater riches. Children have very little time for their parents and parents have very little time for their children and for each other. So the breakdown of peace in the world begins at home."

This is just so true. I see it in my friends' families and it is no one person's fault. These are good parents. There is just this push to have children involved in everything so that they won't be left behind in any area. Children have lost the time to daydream, to play, to just be, or even to make a meaningful contribution to the family because they just aren't around to do so. Meanwhile, parents (often both of whom are working outside the home) act as cheuffeurs and social calendar schedulers. The whole thing is just so crazy. Spending time together is the most valuable thing we can do as a family. We should guard that time much more carefully.

Bringing Kids to Church

Here is a great article on the "ABC's of Bringing Your Children to Church" on the CatholicMom website:

http://www.catholicmom.com/martz.htm