Build 'Em Up -- Bringing Faith To Life

I'm linking up with some truly awe-inspiring bloggers today on their series "Build 'Em Up." The first topic is "Bringing Faith To Life" -- ironically something I have a very hard time doing. So why do I think I can write about something that I admittedly frequently fail? Well, in the words of Jennifer, Kelly, Erin, and Courtney, this series is about "[dropping] the judgment and [building] each other up...To break the misconception that good equals perfect, and to seek out the meaningful even in the midst of the mundane."

Every Wednesday night for the past 7 weeks and even before then intermittently, my family and I have gone to church to eat supper with many parish members.  After supper the kids are shipped off to their age-appropriate nurseries while Bobby and I (sometimes me alone) take a class with our parish's Young Families group.  Last Wednesday night -- as is the case most nights -- our priest was walking around greeting and mingling.  I drug Rob by his earlobe strongly suggested that Rob, age 6, go speak to Father and ask him for his prayers.  You see, this was 2 nights before Rob was to have surgery to place his third set of ear tubes and remove his adenoids.  Rob told me he would be so embarrassed.  He didn't want the attention.  He didn't want Father to single him out.  But after quietly being prayed over and given a quick pat on the shoulder, Rob realized and mentioned "that wasn't so bad."  Fast forward to the morning of the surgery.  An extremely groggy Rob was waking up and looking around the room.  I was loving on him and telling him how well he had done.  He looked at me with all honesty and said, "those prayers must have helped." 

You see, I believe that anyone can pray in his or her heart.  Even the most remote love of Christ is reciprocated.  But I also believe that Christ built his church for us to have a home.  In a world so full of hate and evil sometimes God's love gets pushed to the background of our lives.  Therefore, finding a church that welcomes you, and then becoming an active member of that church brings your relationship with God into a more tangible experience. 

My kids have memorized the blessing we say over our meals.  So perfectly have they memorized this blessing that they often rush through the words and rush to take in their food.  Every once in a while I make them stop and say it very slowly.  I will over enunciate some of the words to force them to remember we are actually saying a very formal "thanks" to God for providing us with nourishment.  It is too easy to rush through all communication with God, especially prayer.  Sometimes we need to slow down and make sure our message is genuine. 

Easter is coming up.  I love Easter.  I love all the pastel colors, the new pretty clothes for the kids.  The fun backdrops for the portraits.  Hmm...what haven't I mentioned?  Oh yes, the Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus...the reason for Easter.   Now this is a hard one for me.  It's easy to teach the kids that Santa is named for Saint Nicholas and he wishes to remind us with presents that we are celebrating a birthday.  But how to you teach that a bunny is to remind us Jesus was wrongly convicted and severely executed so that we may have eternal life?  I'm seriously asking here, because I really struggle with this.  However, this Easter, I plan to try to incorporate as many Christian traditions as I can muster up, thanks in part to a little old site called Pinterest.  I found and repinned this gem full of ideas:


Source

I am a very faithful person at heart. I love the Lord and I believe He loves me. Now, do I live that faith everyday? Not exactly...but again, I am not here to confess my failures. I am here to remind myself that what I do right still matters and still impacts my children.  So I look forward to reading other entries in this series and gain some perspective.  I also will accept all of your prayers that I may raise my children to know God and hopefully continue to choose to have a great relationship with Him.

Happy Easter! (A Recap in Pictures)

We had a lovely Easter weekend!  On Saturday we went to lunch hosted by Jonathan and Laura in their new house!  Laura really went all out, too!  She was quite the happy, newlywed hostess!  We had a spiral ham, homemade mashed potatoes and gravy, macaroni and cheese, deviled eggs, green beans, and a terrific Easter chocolate cake made especially by you-know-who!  (That would be ME for those of you who lean towards the slow side.)

Think Rob loved my cake?

Saturday afternoon turned out to be a great, lazy afternoon at home with the kiddos.  Bobby went to the ballpark to coach, but when he got home we geared up for the next morning.

Sunday morning we woke up to find that the Easter Bunny had paid our house a visit!  The kids were super excited!  We went to early church which is a change for us.  We are usually an 11:00 AM service kind of family.  So hustling and bustling on Sunday morning took some getting used to.  But thanks to Bobby's steadfast ways, we were on time!

I was so excited to see on Twitter and other social media how many people were mentioning Christ's rising from the dead on Easter morning.  I really worry that today's society is doing everything in its power to shove Christianity into a closet or allow it to collect dust high upon a shelf.  Every single holiday has gone so commercial!  I have to admit that I lead a lot of commercialism in our home, too.  It is a struggle for me to raise good Christian children; I struggle with setting an example for them first and foremost.   But on Easter Sunday, I tried to mention Christ plenty of times more than eggs, bunnies, cake, etc.

After church we headed to my mom's for lunch.  Oh...my...goodness she made an Easter staple for us.  I was not raised on hams and gravies.  For every holiday we had some derivative of this:

 ...pictured above is the results of a two-day cooking event...homemade lasagna with secret family-recipe sauce and all the works! It's wonderful! We had a plethora of desserts to sample, then it was on to a very exciting egg hunt for the kids!

Well, it's time for a few "shots" and then we will call this day done!

I love this woman!

I love this man!

Me and my sister-from-another-mister!

This is real life on film...sometimes you just have to put the camera down!

Happy Easter, everyone!  This holiday is a wrap!