And some of you had questions about it. So, I'll be addressing those questions over the next few weeks.
- How we do bedtime routines,
- why our kids don't have their own beds,
- letting our kids go places on their own,
- encouraging independence in our kids, and
- how we incorporate prayer into our family's daily routine.
Since that last question came from the estimable Haley at Carrots for Michaelmas, I did that one first. . . .
I want perfection in prayer. At least I think I ought to want it. Raptures, ecstasies, levitation, my heart literally bursting into flame. That’s what a good prayer life looks like in my imagination.
In reality, I’m not a cloistered nun or a desert hermitess, able to spend hours deep in contemplative prayer. My prayer life has to happen within my vocation to motherhood. It’s stolen moments, and frequent interruptions. And it mostly has to happen alongside my children. So there’s no levitating, but there are requests for crackers, and bathroom breaks, and whisper shouting. But it’s better than nothing. It’s so, so, so much better than nothing.
That’s what I’m slowly coming to understand. If I wait for the perfect time to really get serious about my prayer life, I will never have a prayer life at all. If I wait for my children to be ready, they’ll be grown and gone and we won’t have started yet.
A perfect prayer life would be lovely. But since that’s not possible, we have found ways to incorporate prayer into our daily family routine. It’s very imperfect, but it’s happening.
The rest is guest posted over at Carrots for Michaelmas!
And the Day in the Life post is contagious, check out Jenny's at Mama Needs Coffee! (Where other things are contagious too, ugh.)