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A New Day

Lately, I have been feeling like a failure less than adequate at my vocation as wife and mother. I read other blogs and instead of finding myself inspired, I just feel tired and defeated. When you don't have nice thoughts, you don't post much. At least I don't.

I desire to be better. I desire to feel better. I beg God each night to help me be better.

Wanting the best for my family, both physically and spiritually, I yearn for the ability to provide them with food that is not processed beyond recognition. I long for a small farm where we can spend our days working together growing good food and raising a few animals. I dream of a solid, orthodox parish where we can grow in our faith together. These are my dreams. But not everyone in my family shares these dreams. They have their own dreams and goals that do not involve a little land and a lot of elbow grease. How to mesh these differing ideals seems almost impossible and I am left feeling tired and defeated.

So I am trying to appreciate the things I can do for my family where we are right now. I cannot afford a cow share that allows access to nice, fresh milk. I buy organic, but I am not sure how much better it is condsidering that it is ultra-pasteurized. I limit the amount of processed foods that come into our house. Everyone needs an Oreo dunked in ultra-pasteurized milk occasionally. Right?

We used to attend the Saturday evening vigil Mass in Georgia, which lent itself nicely to going to confession on a regular basis. Now we go to Mass on Sundays so that Olivia can play guitar in the teen choir. Confession became sporadic at best. I recently acquired my first Ipod. I discovered the alarm and started setting alarms to remind myself of all the things I seem to forget. Last Saturday, we were actually at our Church for the fall festival when my ipod started chiming. Wondering what I was supposed to be doing, I looked down and sheepishly realized that I had set the alarm for getting to Confession! How pathetic is it that I was at the Church and couldn't remember to go to Confession?

The desire is strong, but I am weak. So I woke up this morning and thanked God for a clean slate and asked for His help to try again to live my vocation as He intends.


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Comments

  1. BarbaraOctober 13, 2011 at 10:10 AM

    Jenny, God only asks us to try. He does expect perfection. Maybe more time away from the Internet will help. I always figure if a woman is spending so much time making her life look perfect to others, it can't be so great for real. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jamie JoOctober 13, 2011 at 6:29 PM

    I was going to say something similar to Barbara's, that if a woman's life looks perfect in blogworld, it's lacking somewhere. They are not telling us everything. We only get glimpses of perfection. It's a great thing, these blogs, but sometimes, the devil uses them to create jealousies and inadequacies. God made you these kiddos' mama and you are what they need. You can only do your best, which you are doing.

    I hope my blog is not one of those blogs...believe me, it's not perfect around here, laundry piled up, supper always late, around 7pm!! I feel like I'm always playing "catch up".

    I'll pray for you.

    ReplyDelete
  3. ElisaOctober 20, 2011 at 10:55 PM

    I had a post very similar to this written up this morning, but I didn't post it. It was about how I get jealous of other bloggers. I get jealous of their little patches of grass, the chickens they raise, the garden they grow. It is a life I wish for myself and my family, but we are military, so it's not going to happy anytime soon. I've been thinking so much on this. Mostly it boils down to trust and surrender to God and His divine Will.

    ReplyDelete

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