I follow the blog, My child, I love you. It's beautiful. It's funny and caring and patient. I'd like to quote from Lindsay's entry made January 20, 2010. She says:
"We are made saints by doing our daily work beautifully. Not
necessarily without tears, without frustrations, but with the resolve
that God is teaching me something through this. Please open my heart.
It may be a fussy baby. It may be a baby that doesn't sleep. It may be
job insecurity. Whatever the issue, it is much bigger in the spiritual
realm than we even know. The crosses I had picked for myself were
along the lines of things outside our home. I didn't know that He was
going to ask me to simply hold a fussy baby, be kind to John when I am
filled with worry about a certain child, clean up vomit without
complaining. Everything that happens now I try to respond in my head,
"I'm coming, Lord." I try to treat everything as if God is calling me.
I see the house a mess, "I'm coming, Lord." I have a fussy baby at my
leg, "I'm coming, Lord." I hear the baby crying for the eighth time in
the middle of the night, "I'm coming, Lord." It is my goal. Most of
us will not die a bloody martyrdom for our faith, but we will be asked
to die a dry martyrdom. Each day, one fuss at a time we can grow closer
and closer to His heart. I want to be faithful in the small things. I
hope at the end of my life He will say to me, 'Well done, my good and
faithful servant.'"
This is my mid-year resolution. "I'm coming, Lord."
Also, she posts this--a note her mother wrote to her, following her husband's (Lindsay's dad) death.
"Wish I had Known"
"If I could rewind my mothering career, I would have put more energy and emphasis into being a better wife. Our primary vocation is to be a wife first
and then a mother. Because of the exhausting demands of small children,
most women lose focus on their marriage. Either they overlook their
spouse and put him on the bottom of their “to-do” lists or they begin to
treat him “as one of the children.” The bond of marriage is stronger
than the bond of children because in marriage, “two become one
flesh”—one flesh—you are no longer a single person after marriage you
become absorbed into your husband.
I wish I had known how a man feels like a failure at work each day, and look to their wives to make them feel like a hero. If he comes home to a wretch, he feels like a failure at work and at home.
I
wish I had known that a man is afraid that he can’t be a good provider,
good husband, and good father, and that he doesn’t know what to do with
his fear. I believe that anger is a sign of fear. I wish I had known
that he wasn’t mad at me and that he was only afraid of NOT having the
answers to life’s problems or quandaries.
I
wish I had known that a man is afraid of NOT measuring up to other men,
sometimes his own father and sometimes he’s afraid of NOT being able to
measure up to the expectations of his wife. I wish I had known that God
leads through the husband—not the wife. And even if the man’s decisions
turn out to be disastrous, that a wife’s obedience will be blessed by
God.
I
wish I had known that the problems in raising children are the devil’s
most powerful attacks on a marriage. The devil is after the marriage NOT
the child. If he can destroy the marriage, he has captured the whole
family in one swoop.
I
wish I had appreciated the 1 million unseen, taken for granted acts of
service. When they are gone there is a hole. My dear mother said “when
you have a team each player has a role that is irreplaceable. When one
member of the team is gone the entire team feels the loss.”
I wish I had been a better listener to his daily ups and downs instead of being focused on the woes and workings of my life.
I wish I had been more willing to fulfill his needs instead of trying to fulfill mine.
I
wish I had been a better friend. As St. Francis said perfectly,
“Master, grant that I may never seek to be consoled, as to consol. To be
understood as to understand, to be loved as to love.” I wish that I
could have consoled him more, understood him more and loved him more
than I expected of him.
Be an excellent wife, you never how long you will have him."
I, Katie,
get so, so, so caught up in the everyday failings of my life. In the
everyday "I should have done betters." I wonder what the point is, I
wonder what I'm doing. "Really, Lord?! This is how you want me spending
this precious gift of life you gave me--going to track meets and
reheating leftovers and sorting underwear? Argh. I've made this bed a
hundred times and I hate it everytime I do. Why doesn't anyone else pick
up their stuff? Why am I the only one who sees the shoes everywhere?! I
wasn't made for this. I'm not good at it. I'm failing."
This is sinful and discouraging and so damn easy to fall into! Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Make me a saint.
