March 16, 2010

Verse of the Day
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, on your own intelligence rely not; In all your ways be mindful of him, and he will make straight your paths."
Proverbs 3:5-6

Song of the Day
The Coloring Song by Petra
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXSugnTCWbs&feature=related

Food
A sugar-free lent is not proving to be as difficult as anticipated. I am wondering why I provided so many treats before. I also found the key to getting the kids to eat vegetables. Eat at 7pm and then make sure the steamed broccoli is done first! I thought Race Car was going to eat the entire bowl. Then he proceeded to eat 3 helpings of chicken, 2 helpings of rice-a-roni, yams, corn, some of my roasted cauliflour and 2 bowls of fruit. Scares me a little, since he is a bean pole and only 5 years old. Can you imagine when he is 16?

"Stuff" Detachment
Boy, a trip to my jewelry box is like a trip back in time. Found some real treasures today, two of those handmade weaved ankle bracelets and a mood ring. I am so sad to be riding this house of those items.

Spiritual Growth
The Divine Mercy Chaplet has been going well, other than the fact that I forgot today. Race Car took it upon himself to lead a few days ago without even being asked. I have also really enjoyed the simple fact of a break in the day where they all come and cuddle around me. Who wouldn't like that? We do it at 3pm, the hour of Jesus' death on the cross.

Mass is also going well. Curly has become a little amusing. During the prayers of the faithful, the priest offers up a prayer and we respond "Lord, hear our prayer." Well, Curly has caught on to the word "prayer", but instead of saying it in unison with the rest of us, he says it nice and loud right after we say it. For example, priest says "For all the poor in spirit, that they may find comfort in our Lord, let us pray to the Lord", we say "Lord hear our prayer", then Curly says "PRAYER!"

Book Discussion
Book: Searching for and Maintaining Peace
Author: Fr. Jacques Philippe
Section: One Abandons Oneself Completely or Not at All

I decided to separate this section, so that those who aren't real interested in this can pass over it and those that love the deep stuff can find it immediately.

What a fabulous section today! I spent the last hour prior to writing this cutting up fruit for my "fruit cup" which entails sectioned oranges and grapefruits and grapes cut in half. Takes me about an hour. By the time I was done, I was so worked up. My mind was in spin mode. Within the next month, Joke-A-Lot has her birthday, we have Holy Week and Easter, and then Joke-A-Lot is celebrating her First Holy Communion. I was getting overwhelmed with all the details, but also with all the costs that would arise. Then, I sat down to read this section to discuss with you. It couldn't have been more perfect. I am pretty confident that I am not the only one out there with things similar to this running through their heads. So, hopefully you will find this as useful as I did.

"We must put everything, without exception, into the hands of God, not seeking any longer to manage or "to save" ourselves by our own means: not in the material domain, nor the emotional domain, nor the spiritual . . .The measure of our interior peace will be that of our abandonment, consequently of our detachment."

"The one who clings to something, who wishes to protect some domain in his life in order to manage it at his convenience without radically abandoning it into the hands of God, is making a very bad mistake: he devotes himself to unnecessary preoccupations and exposes himself to the gnawing sense of loss."

"This is the way to happiness, because if we leave God free to act in His way, He is infinitely more capable of rendering us happy than we ourselves are, because he knows us and loves us more than we can ever know or love ourselves."

Saint John of the Cross said "All things were given to me from the moment when I no longer sought them."

"If we detach ourselves from everything and put them into the hands of God, god will return them to us a hundredfold, from this day forward."

So, the last hour while cutting the fruit was an utter waste of time, managing only to take minutes off my life because of the worry. I think I need to go back and listen to the God is Faithful song from a few days ago. I try so hard to control things and manage things because if I can just look at things differently, than maybe I can make things work out. It is far more comforting and freeing to just let go and trust God. In the past, when I have done this in very small ways, I have seen the miracles that God had ready to give when I loosened my grip just a bit.

Today's Menu
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs, toast with butter or peanut butter, pears

Lunch: Flour tortillas with taco meat and cheese, baked apples with cinnamon

Dinner: Baked chicken with salt, pepper, paprika and onions, yams with butter and cinnamon, corn, Rice-A-Roni (I know it isn't good for you), steamed broccoli, fruit bowl (strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, pomegranate seeds, grapes, bananas, and pears)