Embrace the Ordinary vol. 18 “Pray Before Everthing”

This week, it’s been a doozy. I’m exhausted, mentally, emotionally, all the ways. Kids have been sick, kids have been kids, kids have been letting us in on their needs. I’m so grateful that I have a fabulous husband and friend by my side everyday to love our family through it all.

Weeks like this, I feel like curling up in a ball and doing nothing. Only doing that would get us nowhere, dinner wouldn’t be made, the husband would be left doing the laundry (which he’s a great help with already), birthdays and Thanksgiving would be left unplanned, etc etc etc.

There is a lot going on. The list of to-dos is getting smaller, but some new added things my husband and I need to consider feel really big. Such as, is homeschooling still the right fit? Our second daughter just let us know that what we’re doing isn’t exactly working for her. So as hard as that is, when as parents we’ve been trying to do our best for each of our children, now we know that we need to find some other solutions. Maybe it’s more activities, maybe it’s a new school (but not the one we left last year–that was a disappointing experience), we don’t know yet, but we do know change needs to happen.

And that is our ordinary, lately. Discovering our children’s needs, their changing needs as they grow and mature, and doing our best to meet them. For just one child, that takes a lot of mental, emotional, and spiritual strength. For five children–woah. Thanks be they aren’t all having new needs pop up at the same time, but we do have two birthdays, celebrations, germs flying, and outside commitments which are all demanding attention as well.

All these things, they can be hard to manage. And even though I do begin each morning with a prayer, another post from a very wise mother reminded me that I ought to pray before everything. Prayer first, before anything else. Pray first, because it is most important. Pray before everything, every new thing, because pray opens my heart and mind to God’s guidance in every thing I do, every need I try to meet. Pray before every thing, because without prayer, without the nudge of the Holy Spirit, I might drop the ball, do less than my best, miss the point entirely, or feel totally incapable of even acting.

My ordinary days right now are demanding. But, with prayer and God’s grace, I think I can manage.

Please keep me in your prayers, even once. Lord knows I could use the extra help.

 

“…there is something holy, something divine hidden in the most ordinary situations, and it is up to each one of you to discover it.”  St. Josemaria Escriva, Passionately Loving the World

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