Grow in Grace

Grace - Eleanor can say that word and loves to quickly retort it when I say, "Hail Mary, full of..." She is so precious and I love hearing her say it. I need to work on striving to be a woman of grace and strive to even be a portion of what our Mother in heaven is in that respect. I love the verse for today:

But grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory now and to the day of eternity. [Amen.]
- 2 Peter 3:18 -

I so enjoy teaching Eleanor about our faith and well more right now, it is more just teaching her that Jesus loves her and she loves him, and pointing out Jesus/Mary/the saints wherever we see them. In order to encourage her to grow in knowledge of our Lord, I can only do so by setting an example of someone who strives to do so. What can I do to learn more about our Lord? Starting with diving into scripture and devoting time to Him before my trash TV or even maybe before my daily cleaning, I hope to do a better job at putting Him first. Why is it that when we wake up, the first thing we do is read a book or put on a show while Eleanor drinks her milk? Why do we not FIRST thank our Father for a new day? We are diligent about praying before meals and with Eleanor before bed as a family but I feel like there is always room for improvement. My hope is that Andy and I will continue to model for Eleanor giving thanks and praise to our Lord and asking for His guidance so that she might desire to give "praise and glory to the day of eternity." :)

Lent 2012

I can't believe Lent is upon us again. It seems like the years are flying oh so quickly! Andy and I got so caught up in new jobs and the business of life that we really felt like we kind of "fell off the beaten path" with God lately. I love how Lent falls right at the beginning of the year and can serve as God's "kick in the butt" to help us get back on track. One of the things I discerned to do these 40 days, was inspired by a post I found on pinterest about 31 Days of Praying for Your Child. I (as with ANYTHING I find on pinterest) decided to modify it some but love the gist of using scripture to pray for our children. I (like many Catholics) am terrible with my scripture and have always had it as a "back of my mind" goal to dive into God's word and really learn and know it like so many of my Protestant brothers and sisters do. SO, what a better way to learn it than to learn it through prayer for my baby girl. I also love how the person who wrote this article would pray the scripture throughout the day and then recite it to their child at the end of the night. Since it is only 31 days, I will find some virtues/fruits/etc. that haven't been covered and will add them near the end but the verse for today is:

1. Salvation:
Therefore, I bear with everything for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, together with eternal glory. - 2 Timothy 2:10 -

It is amazing how our God entrusts us with the responsibility of teaching our children about Him so that they may learn to live to model their lives after Him and seek His kingdom as their ultimate goal. Lord, thank you so much for the gift of your daughter, Eleanor. How blessed we are to know her and pray that we can do exactly what you will us to in raising her to know and love you!