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Receiving the Gift of Newborns
Pure gift… words I dared to utter about our new babe. We named him Nathanael, which means “gift of God” because, after all, after loss and waiting, it’s harder to take the gift for granted. The first time around, I was so overwhelmed by all the newness that it took awhile for the magnitude of the gift to really settle in. So, this time we are acutely aware of what has been given to us. Gifts can be funny though. Sometimes we receive gifts we don’t want or didn’t ask for. One year when I was teaching middle school religion, a family gifted every teacher with a bottle of wine…
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Rest and Receive
One week into social distancing and I got the bright idea to potty train the two year old. I figured, hey, if we can’t leave the house, we may as well get her out of diapers, right? Now we are one week into potty training and we have realized that the gratification of being out of diapers is not instantaneous. It’s a lot of work and rather exhausting getting there. But it is important to note the power of one chocolate chip. It is enough to lure a toddler to do almost anything, including pee on a potty. Two chocolate chips still isn’t enough to lure this toddler to do…
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Learning to Pray
“He who does not pray deprives himself of what is indispensable for life.” St. John Vianney Tis the season of reflection, renewal, resolutions, and the like. It also seems to me a great time to consider your prayer life. Why prayer? Because this is one of the most essential (if not the essential) component when trying to live a life fully alive in Christ. Why? Because prayer is our source of connection to God. It puts us into communication with him and allows our hearts to be in a disposition of openness and listening. Prayer allows our hearts to be held and loved by the one whom we were created…
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What’s essential?
After a youth group meeting, a student who had been absent most of the year came up to me and apologized. This student apologized for not being there, but was ready to jump back into meetings now that their other activities were over. And then this person said something that I’ve never quite forgotten. “Mrs. Peiffer, I have a lot of priorities, and this is definitely still one of my top priorities.” Hold that thought… “This is definitely still one of my top priorities.” What’s a priority? In the dictionary, priority means “the fact or condition of being regarded or treated as more important.” This student was absent for most of…