Day 32: God's Graces Through Gratitude

My women's small group from church is reading Fr. Jacques Philippe's "The Way of Trust and Love: A Retreat Guided by St. Thérèse of Lisieux." While reading the chapter past night, I came across this passage, which struck me for a number of reasons. It is actually a quote from Thérèse via her real life and Carmelite sister, Sister Genevieve of the Holy Face from a memoir titled "A Memoir of My Sister St. Thérèse."

What most attracts God's graces is gratitude, because if we thank him for a gift, he is touched and hastens to give us ten more, and if we thank him again with the same enthusiasm, what an incalculable multiplication of graces! I have experienced this: try it yourself and you will see! My gratitude for everything he gives me is limitless, and I prove it to him in a thousand ways.

I recently read about how abundant God's graces are, but that so often we forget to ask him for them! I have started to try to remember this in my prayers throughout the day.

The passage also speaks to me, as through this blog I am trying to focus my year on gratitude and to overcome my tendency to complain. I do believe he will give me the grace to do just that if I ask for it and continue to strive in my practice of daily gratitude.

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Hey! Remember me?

Hey! I'm still here! I haven't given up on ye olde blog just yet, but I haven't had much to write about. I've been spending most of my time reading, mothering, household-running, reading, watching Instagram stories, and house hunting. Whew. Summer is flying by at breakneck speeds and I can barely keep up. I've read more books already than I did last year, which I think is saying a lot because I read more books last year than any year since I became a mother. I didn't set a number goal, but I did list out 10 or 15 that I wanted to get to. I've finished most, including the Harry Potters, but not all. It's a good reading year! Right now I'm reading one by a woman who gave up the Internet for a year. Insert scared emoji face. House hunting will likely be a whole separate post...someday. I have a few other posts in the rusty old brain, so we'll see if they come to fruition. I just didn't want you to forget about me!

Day 149: Date with Mom

Mom and I slipped away yesterday afternoon for a trip to town. We had a relaxing couple of hours away from all the chaos at the lake. We shopped, drove around town chatting, I visited the sacrament of reconciliation, and we picked up my favorite small-town pizza joint pizza for supper. I love my hometown so much, but don't spend much time there anymore now that my parents live at the lake. I enjoyed cruising around town catching up on the changes and updates. Mom caught me up on local news, and I accidentally bought a dress, two shirts and a travel mug. That type of thing happens when I hang with my mom, but that's OK! It was a wonderful afternoon and I'm grateful for our little escape.

Day 98: Audible

I love reading! However, as a mom with three kids under six, I don't get a lot of time to spend with my nose in a book. I do spend lots of time with my nose to my iPhone reading blog posts, which are much shorter than books and require less of a commitment. I vowed to myself at the beginning of this year that I was going to read more, since it brings me so much joy, not to mention the relaxation factor I so desperately need. I've also mentioned once or twice or fifty times that I love podcasts. Last fall, after listening to a few episodes of The Simple Show , I took Tsh up on her offer to try Audible for a month for free. The first audio book I downloaded was Patrick Madrid's "Envoy for Christ." Everything I've ready by him gets a thumb's up from me, so I loved it, and I also loved the platform. I could "read" a book while doing dishes, cleaning the bathroom, watching the kids play in the yard. I was hooked. It only took me a couple of mo...

With Praise and Thanksgiving

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