{pretty, happy, funny, real} volume 38 - Creche Edition and Day 12

{pretty}

We have a wonderful deacon at our parish.  The boys love to see him after Mass and over the years he's gifted us with several things that they were getting rid of that he thought they would like.  Over the summer he gave us three Nativity sets that they no longer had a use for.  How sweet is that?  One of them is a small Fontanini set that fits perfectly on our little altar/shelf in the front room!


Joseph and Mary are on their way.  In case you didn't know, they are big fans of JPII theology.


The wise men are coming from the east and got stuck on my makeshift nature shelf.


And they're made of resin but look like porcelain so the Lukenator can play with them without me worrying because, well...

{real}

the wait at the Bethlehem County hospital is a little long.



Just a flesh wound!

{funny}


John Paul noticed that the tree that came with it had a face!  There were ents at the stable, right?

{happy}

When you can observe a special feast simply?  That makes me happy.


Head on over to Leila and the girls for more!


--------One Day Less--------

Day 12

"Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth,
to devour her child when she gave birth.
She gave birth to a son, a male child,
destined to rule all the nations with an iron rod.
Her child was caught up to God and his throne.
The woman herself fled into the desert
where she had a place prepared by God."

Most of us recognize that above reading from Revelation for today's Mass and realize its first meaning in describing Mary bringing forth Jesus.  This morning as I read, though, it jumped out at me how our experience with our children can reflect that.  Our children are destined for great things.  Not ruling the world or being, you know, God great things, of course, but the Lord does want great things from each of them.  Holiness.  Vocation.  Heaven.  And there stands an enemy waiting to devour each one of them the minute they arrive.  This world is not one of peace, in many respects.  It is one of training our children to fight the war.  We can (and should!) try to arm them with the right prayers, Scripture, doctrine, virtue, most definitely.  But the most effective tool we have as mothers is letting our children be "caught up" by God.  He wants them more and they belong to Him first.  It's in Him that they are safest.  It's not all on us, and thank God for that, for that is terrifying.  We can commend our children to God, through Baptism and consecration and doing what we can to prepare them for the battle.  But then we must let go.  Constantly throughout their lives we must hand them back over when our grip gets a little too tight.  Then we step back into the desert and pray and trust and beg God for their protection and safety.  

Too often I forget to pray for my children.  Should I admit that?  I feel pretty embarrassed about it because as parents that is one of our main jobs, right?  We pray together as a family and I work myself hard to ingrain in them a relationship with the Lord.  But often, I fail to remember to step back and pray, to let go, and commend them to the Lord and His mercy.  He loves them more than I do.  Today I'm going to let go of some of that burden and make the effort to pray specifically for each one of my children and maybe pray over them as well, commending them once again to their eternal Father and Mother.



3 comments

  1. We're having tacos for dinner tonight, too! I'm REALLY bad at making special dishes for feast days, but tacos are right up my alley :)

    And your reflections are so so wonderful - I always mean to comment but haven't gotten the chance, but I'm so glad you're doing them. I'm absolutely with you on this one - I really need to be praying FOR my children more, especially when I'm praying WITH them!

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  2. Haha, love the tree! We have a nativity set made by Schleich, which is plastic and pretty much kid-proof, but quite nicely detailed, and it rarely stays in the same place for more than a few minutes! I would love to get another set that would stay somewhat set up throughout the season. :)

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  3. Thank you for the reminder to pray for my own children...I pray for so many others every day, and often forget the ones standing right before me. And what Rosie said....I do think it's good for our children to hear us praying for them.

    Love the Bethlehem County hospital - too funny!

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