Leave the Rest Up to God

Think

"I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe. I know what torment this is, but I can only see it, in myself anyway, as the process by which faith is deepened. A faith that just accepts is a child's faith and all right for children, but eventually you have to grow religiously as every other way, though some never do.

What people don't realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross. It is much harder to believe than not to believe. If you feel you can't believe, you must at least do this: keep an open mind. Keep it open toward faith, keep wanting it, keep asking for it, and leave the rest to God. " ~Flannery O'Connor from The Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor

Pray

Lord, I believe:
Help my unbelief.  Let my faith grow in its fullness and push away all the doubts in my mind. Let knowing You permeate my every thought. God, please grant me a joyful faith, one that sings with gladness and grants abundant peace to my soul. And when things get tough, make Yourself obvious to me. Hold me closer so that I don't falter. Give me a spirit of humility, always knowing how much I need you and always certain that You will provide according to my genuine necessity. 

Act

Flannery O'Connor's reference to electric blankets got me thinking. It's time to bless our families with blankets on the beds and warm clothing. For most of us, this is the time tackle the seasonal clothing switch. How can you offer warmth to the people you love today? 

~*~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Gathering my Thoughts and sighing it all out...

::outside my window

Who knows? I left my little girls with a giant bag of bulbs to plant, so hopefully, there's some fall gardening happening. But outside the window here...

::listening to 

Joel Clarkson.

::clothing myself in 

Jeans, t-shirt, gray hoodie--autumn uniform. I seriously need to work on this whole wardrobe thing. 

::talking with my children about these books

I've fallen into the Rick Riordan rabbit hole. 

:: in my own reading:

I listened to To Be a Runner twice. I really, really love this book. It's not just a running book, not at all. It's life book and one that I think holds a message for all of us. The book is thoughtful, spiritual without being sanctimonious, and inspiring in its own way. The author is Bill O'Reilly's co-author on the Killing... series; clearly, he's a gifted and skillful writer and that really matters to me lately. Good, good read.

::thinking and thinking

My thoughts are all over the place. I'm thinking about Advent. And about sewing. I'm thinking about running. I'm thinking about what's for dinner. I'm thinking about marriage. I'm thinking about having a long talk with a very old friend. Thinking. Always thinking.

::pondering 

I'm still thinking about this book, and about this quote. I know that I write way too often about the perils of fast-moving technology, especially social media. Increasingly, I find that mine is a lonely position. The reality, however, is that, for some of us, it's all too fast. It's all too disconnected. We sit here wonderingly, while the people we love are swept along in the fast-moving tide of constant interaction and constant change. And we know that we will  be left behind. We might be able to maintain our own calm and our own capable, but we will be in that peaceful state mostly by ourselves. 

...between digital technology and rising complexity, there's more information and more requests coming at us faster, and more relentlessly than ever. Unlike computers, however, human beings aren't meant to operate continuously, at high speeds, for long periods of time. Rather, we're designed to move rhythmically between spending and renewing our energy. Our brains wave between high and low electrical frequencies ,  our hearts beat at varying intervals our lungs expand and contract depending on demand. It's not sufficient to be good at inhaling. Indeed, the the more deeply you exhale, the calmer and more capable you become. --from Manage Your Day to Day.

::carefully cultivating rhythm

It's November, y'all! How in the world did that happen? It's time for me to really put some plans on paper and commit to some strategies for moving peacefully through the next couple months. So much going on! Nutcracker and important soccer games, holiday plans, and some running goals to meet. The planner--all on paper--is my friend.

::creating by hand

We've launched a Christmas Pajama Sewalong. Fabric is purchased and ready to cut and Kristin is all set to sew with me. Likely, we'll recruit my friend Nicole, too. And Nicole and I have stacks of Nutcracker costumes to alter. So, sewing is going to happen and happen and happen  in the next three weeks. Pretty pictures bound to be created. Stay tuned for a big edition of needle & thREAD on Friday.

::learning lessons in

How timeless the wisdom of the saints can be. My friend Lisa shared this with me a couple days ago:

““If a tiny spark of God’s love already burns within you, do not expose it to the wind, for it may get blown out… Stay quiet with God. Do not spend your time in useless chatter… Do not give yourself to others so completely that you have nothing left for yourself.” ”

— (St. Charles Borromeo)

::encouraging learning in.

Deadlines. My children prepared trifold poster boards for our parish's All Saints celebration. They each had a saint to research and they prepared images and text for the boards. It was a hard, fast deadline. There was no negotiating due to illness or soccer or time invested campaigning the week before an election. I recognized how rarely we have deadlines that aren't wiggly at all. And I recognized how important it is that they know how to meet those deadlines...

::begging prayers

::keeping house

We've been doing some deep cleaning before the winter chill has us close up the house and huddle close. However, I've been gone for three days, so who knows what my house looks like right now.

::crafting in the kitchen 

I did some bulk cooking before I left and I brought meals with me here. It's really nice to have a weekends to get ahead on weekday cooking. I'm really sorry, however, that my weekend unexpectedly opened up when Stephen unexpectedly lost in overtime in the State Cup semi-final. The "threepeat" was not to be.

::to be fit and happy

I've reached a pretty major goal. I wanted to be able to run a 5K regularly, at least three days a week. I got there a couple weeks ago. Now, I'm trying to extend one of those runs a little longer every week. I'm also making friends with the bike in my closet again. It's looking like a very cold and snowy winter .

::giving thanks 

for Kristin. She's the creative force behind the photo graphics for our new #morningrun feature. Honestly, I could not have imagined this kind of relationship--not just the blogging together, but the doing life together. It's so much richer, so much more than I ever hoped (and I had very high hopes). She's a best friend. She's a big sister, especially to my girl who has never had a big sister. And by golly, she's really great mom. "Daughter-in-love" doesn't even capture it. So grateful. 

::loving the moments

spent inhaling autumn. Good, good runs these days, even with the hills. Especially with the hills.

living the liturgy

I picked up this book again today. It's 33 days before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. I'm very fond of that feast and this seems the perfect time for a little bit of a retreat.

::planning for the week ahead

I'm in Charlottesville right now. Paddy has a game tonight. Tomorrow will be all about re-entry. I see a lot of sewing in the next few days and a weekend spent at the studio making last year's costumes fit this year's girls. Truth be told, I have an incredible fondness for tulle so I'm looking forward to it. And, I'm trying super hard to pull together an Advent workshop. The ladies from last spring's Restore Workshop have asked about something late this fall and into the early winter. Trying to see what I can do ...

Light and Life: Gifts

Think

How great is God’s love for men! Some good men have been found pleasing to God because of years of work. What they achieved by working for many hours at a task pleasing to God is freely given to you by Jesus in one short hour. For if you believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved and taken up to paradise by him, just as he brought the thief there. Do not doubt that this is possible. After all, he saved the thief on the holy hill of Golgotha because of one hour’s faith; will he not save you too since you have believed? From today ‘s Office of Readings

Pray

Act

We counted 25 burned out lightbulbs in our house. Almost all the recessed lights in the basement were out. A few more were out in the kitchen. And every single light in the ceiling fixtures in the upstairs hallway was burned out. I'm guessing this is rather extreme. Most people probably replace their lightbulbs promptly. Not us. We wait until so many are burned out the the cost of replacing them is over $100 at Costco. But oh, when the lights go on! It's lovely, really. Replace your lightbulbs today. Give thanks for the great gift. And if you are so put together that you have no lightbulbs in need of replacement, light a candle and say a prayer for the rest of us;-).

~*~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my #morningrun

Preach by the Way You Live

Think

"Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head."

— St. Charles Borromeo

This is such a mom quote, isn't it? We know the right thing. We are all intentional about how we want to behave and how we want our children to behave. We know that we must practice what we preach and that they are such brilliant little sponges. And then, there's sin:

“What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.”

— Romans 7:15

We mess up. we lose our composure, our temper, our good nature, and our best intentions. If we leave it there, we begin to sow a legacy of hypocrisy. What if? What if we took that great big mess-up and instead of failing to live the way we preach, we lived apology and forgiveness and we preached humility without ever uttering the word?

Pray

Dear sweet Jesus, Today, grant me humility in abundance. Help me to recognize my shortcomings and admit my mistakes. Lead me to seek wise counsel and to graciously accept help. Father, give me humble awareness of my own shortcomings and let me graciously welcome loving rebukes. Grant me the grace to be gentle with those entrusted to my care, to praise much more than I criticize, to encourage with patient endurance. Shed your light on the people I love. Let me see them as you created them and to always think the best of them. God, give me the grace and strength to say, "I'm sorry."

Act

Apologize today. Early and often;-)

~*~*~

I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.

Let's Sew Some Christmas Pajamas!

I ordered my fabric and it was delivered promptly. I love the way new fabric looks. The Fat Quarter Shop sent it all nicely folded and in a neat, tight bag--and super fast!. Out it slid, bursting with the promise of happy hours watching it become something altogether darling! I'm looking forward to sewing in the next couple weeks. It's going to be a genuine, in-real-life sew along 'round these parts. I need to make three sets of pjs before The Nutcracker, which is the weekend before Thanksgiving. Kristin will come over and really, truly, sew right along with me--and you.

Are you in? Ready to sew? Got your fabric? What did you pick? I settled on Sugar Rush--seemed so perfect as the prelude to Clara's journey to the Kingdom of Sweets.

Michelle Diment has some shopping to do! She's the winner of the Fat Quarter Shop $25 giveaway! There will be a $50 giveaway at the end of the sew along, so start stitching!