Greetings Parents,
"I'm starving Mom!" How often I hear this - sometimes even when school ended early but they had the normal size lunch. Are they really hungry or is this just "Pavlov's response" in which being hungry is associated with the act of coming home from school (usually close to dinner time because of extracurriculars)? Regardless, they're convinced they are famished and must stop somewhere for a bite or suffer immensely (we don't stop and they survive the suffering). Arriving home and being dissatisfied with the fruit offered, they manage to survive awhile longer until dinner is ready.
This can be maddening to us parents when we have to have the debate, hear their complaints, and offer the same rejected solutions, only to have the initial plan played out because they don't like our other options.
Can I learn a lesson from God in this? I don't remember complaining like that to my parents, although fruit was fortunately a tasty option to my sisters and I. Also, perhaps it is a faulty memory... In other areas of life, however, perhaps my behavior is more like my sons than is favorable. Are there times when dissatisfaction leads to prayers for a change, sometimes to begging for that change, for His help in some way, perhaps seeing other options but dismissing them all because they aren't "good enough?"
In prayer life this certainly could be true! I ask for help to have a better prayer life, wishing there was regular time for quiet without interruptions. "Just give me this, Lord, and I can pray better!" Meanwhile, there's time for a quick game on the phone, a half hour or so of a TV show, or even driving time when the Catholic radio station (740 am) has good info on the faith (prompting ponderings on the faith, which can be a form of prayer). Do I instead listen to the crass comments of a radio DJ whose words promote actions God tells us are harmful, but in which we can find some humor? However, being so focused on "needing quiet time," I miss these other options provided by God.
What if God knows I'm not ready for that? Stilling my mind is not an easy thing - so many tasks for so many purposes that so many people need done so quick. We get so busy asking, "Um, God, how am I supposed to get quiet time with that?"
that we can miss recognizing fulfilling answers. Do I really want to pray better, or do I just want God to make it easier? (Are my boys really hungry, or they just want something to make them happier for the moment?) Perhaps He knows that first I need little conversations, the simplest of prayers said only one time, praying for the annoying person who cut us off, and stepping out of the negative thought dwelling into recalling the many blessings we have (family and friends who care about us, place to sleep, country that - however imperfect - helps the poor and makes it easy for me to help those in need, open access to Mass, and certainly no lack of things to do!).
Perhaps in preparation for Christmas this year, I'll try to shift all of my "please God can I..." thoughts to "How much do You care for me? Let me count the ways!" Probably He has all along been helping me to better ways of prayer, but my mind was stuck on my solution. Perhaps that quiet time will show up when I've used the other options He offered and so am ready to wisely use the quiet He later presents. Finding it effective, perhaps it will seem more like a treasure and less like an obligation...
Ask your family's guardian angels to lead all of you to pray without ceasing - being in constant conversation with God - that you all might better hear and follow Him, and then be of one mind - the mind of God! Think of the harmony that would follow! Remind your children that their guardian angels are with them. May God's blessing pour upon your family in abundance!
- Linda Bader, CRE, St. Thomas More
P.S. Did you know... there are 9 choirs of angels, each choir's rank indicating not power or privilege, but the degree to which they behold God's Presence.
More like mentors than a human hierarchy of power, the"higher ranks" inform in a teaching way the ranks below so that all can grow ever closer to God.
The lowest ranking angels inform... us!
