Healing

I'm in need of healing. I'm reaching an impasse with someone close to me. It's times like these where trust in God isn't felt, but needed.

I suppose this is where the heart finds its strength in God alone.

Career vs. Baby-Making

Why is there such a sharp dichotomy?



GREAT (informal) video - this really sang to me. Anyone else? Thoughts?

Thanks to Katie at NFP and Me for showing me this. Follow MJ on Twitter too!

Friends Without Labels

A great story on Patheos today by Amy Julia Becker:

Early on in elementary school, Isabel came home with stories about the new cast of characters in her life. Kelson and Jenna and Bjorn and Rebe and Sam. Games they’d play at recess. Jokes they told at lunchtime. Who chose her as a partner in gym class.  

I noticed that many of the stories she told were about her new friend Sam. When their classroom was assigned a student teacher, Isabel reported that Sam initiated the practice of giving the young woman hugs at the end of the day. “Now we all hug her when we leave,” she reported. Another time, she told me that she’d failed a task in P.E. and was “really sad and mad,” but felt better when Sam told her it didn’t matter and gave her one of his hugs.  

“He gives me joy,” she said.  

When I finally met the famous Sam, I noticed his playful smile and the easy way he and Isabel related with each other. I also noticed that he had Down syndrome. That it was not the first thing she told me when describing her friend, but that Isabel never even considered this a fact worth mentioning was compelling to me.  

... Over the past few years, I’ve loved watching Isabel and Sam’s friendship grow. Sam lives near to Isabel’s best friend and the three of them play together in the summer on Sam’s trampoline or at the park across the street from his house. Once, years ago, Sam’s parents took Isabel and me aside and thanked my daughter for being kind to Sam. Isabel was puzzled and later remarked, “I don’t know why they’d thank me.”  

“Well, because he’s different. Do you see ways he’s different than your other friends?”  

“He’s shorter,” she said with a shrug. “And he wears glasses. And he’s never says mean things about other people.”

Read the whole piece here.

And happy birthday to my Dad!

Thank you for blessing me and always reminding me of my inherent dignity.

Talking About God Ain't TMI

Happy World Communication Day! In the Gospel today, before Jesus ascended into Heaven, he told us to go and preach the Gospel to EVERYONE, including the sneaky snakes and the ones who try to poison the culture.

Here's RomeReports on it:

 

As a confirmed and practicing Catholic, I have a duty to share the Gospel with believers in fellowship and non-believers in faith. This does not mean that I am responsible for someone converting or seeing the light, but rather remembering that we all have a role to play, if only to plant a seed.

This also does not mean that I know everything; Catholics do not become search engines upon receiving the Holy Spirit upon them (though I would have loved to pick up a language or two from Pentecost!). This is where we learn patience, humility, and understanding, all while holding onto our faith.

There will always be something to learn, something to see a different way, something to explain a different way - this is because our God is an awesome God, and he fits into and sanctifies the culture: this gives us reason, too, to live in the world without being of the world.

May your Sunday be blessed and your life bear much fruit, if only for the glory of God!

I Get By With A Little Help From My "Friends"

As a woman, I constantly need to be rescued. I can't say no. I do what I want, and if I can't, someone better give me the means to do it anyways. I am completely free and liberated!

Wait, what?

 I know what you're thinking: since when did liberation mean total dependence on the government?

Since... now! Welcome to 2012, baby! My name is Julie, not Julia, and I don't approve of this plan. Enjoy the show folks, and don't forget that your tax dollars paid for this govertisment.

Continue reading at The Imaginative Conservative>>>>>>>