Faith and Family First

What are you passionate about? What do you give your time, talent & treasure to? If you could do ANYTHING for the rest of your life, what would you do? Many of us are so busy getting by, that we haven’t taken the time to consider the answer to these questions much less, acted on them! 

Someone asked me the other day how I make time for everything and how we keep our hectic lives straight. I told them that we prioritize! I explained how we DON’T do everything, our kids aren’t in EVERY activity under the sun, sometimes we have to choose between events, we don’t go,go, go. We have decided what is important to US and we schedule the rest around that. Our Faith and our Family are priority NUMBER ONE the rest has to fit around this. We don’t fit family time into our busy lives, we give up what isn’t building our family as a unit. 

With a family of 8, I am sure you can imagine how much we have going on just with sports and school activities, but it might surprise you that we sit down as a family and eat supper together about 95% of the time. We end our evenings reading the bible together as a family and discussing the Gospel lesson of the day. Helping one another learn to apply these teachings to our lives today gives each of us the support and encouragement we need to survive in today’s society. We attend Mass together, we volunteer together AND separately depending on what our passions are. We complete chores together and we PLAY together! 

After Mass last week a friend told me that she loves our family and that she sees so much Grace in how our children interact with one another. This brought a tear to my eye because it makes me proud to know that we are raising children that are having a positive impact on others. I was reminded of just how impactful our actions are when in our fifth grade Religious Education class this week when we were talking about vocations and about discipleship. One of the verses we read was “Lord, I don’t know how to tell others about you! I am too young!” The Lord answered, “Say not, ‘I am too young.’ Wherever I send you, you will go.” Based on Jeremiah 1: 6-7 Being a disciple of Christ isn’t just about preaching the Gospel and telling others how to live like Christ, it is by SHOWING others how to live like Christ. 

I often feel that society has created a desire in us to DO it ALL, to HAVE it ALL regardless of the consequences. Our children see what is important to us and they model this. If we make possessions and money the center of our lives our children will too. 

I have a friend that is a successful businessman with two children. He has made a habit of reading to his children each night before bed. His children are now 11 and 13, yet he still makes this ritual a priority. The message this sends his children is, “I value our time together”. He travels quite a bit for work, but he makes time to be with his children. He gives his children the gift of his time. Imagine how this makes his children feel to know that they are a priority to him and think of what an impact this will have on them as they grow and become parents themselves. 

We can have a positive impact on the world by beginning at home, make your love of Christ and your family your priority and see what difference it makes in your world. Concentrate on giving yourself to God and to your loved ones, let’s focus on what really matters; Relationships. 

In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:6

Blessings!