Our Mom's Morning discussion in January was on "simplicity" and although I'm not posting a follow-up until two months later, perhaps it was meant to be --- as we have now started the Lenten season. My personal goal for Lent is to focus more of my energy on my family through prayer, fasting and almsgiving. Many of my prayers will be for them, much of my "fasting" -- like giving up Facebook -- will come back to benefit them (not seeing me on screens, more intentional time with them, getting more laundry done, etc...) and together as a family we are placing "dollars" in a jar with a simple goal of $40 in 40 days. We have some other little things we've instituted and have multiple discussions with our kids throughout Lent on how they are doing and reminding them that when giving something up, they should also pray -- especially when they are really missing what they want to have!
So ... ON to simplicity! Although many moms may have come to the morning anticipating ways to have a cleaner, more efficient home or de-clutter their lives in some way; it was incredibly humbling to research the Christian view of simplicity. What I discovered is that although doing all of the above is well and good and can have many benefits to bringing us peace and calm; the TRUE MEANING OF SIMPLICITY is SEEKING ONLY TO DO THE WILL OF GOD (without regard to self-sacrifice or self-advantage).
What I didn’t see in my research, is that leading a SIMPLE LIFE doesn’t mean that there won’t be chaos and that life can’t be BUSY. The busy-ness of life is going to happen regardless, BUT, certainly there are ways (even small ways) to help us as moms LIVE in a way that will help us to do the will of God and in turn, help our children to want to live God’s will for them as well! For some of us, that might mean slowing down … for others, it might mean speeding up!
We discussed a number of ways and had several resources to share on how to seek to do the will of God by living a life of simplicity. (And of course I left the paper from our discussion behind, BUT, hopefully this will allow you to come up with some ideas on your own AND there are numerous suggestions in the PDF file below!)
Blessings & Peace to Your Day,
Becky
· If you would like to download the PowerPoint presentation, it is located below!
· The PDF document with my notes (which contains a lot more info), including items that were not presented that day is also below. ENJOY!
· Want more? Look up Catholic, Simplicity, Moms in a web search ... lots of spiritual and practical info out there. This article (from the UK) was my original inspiration.
So ... ON to simplicity! Although many moms may have come to the morning anticipating ways to have a cleaner, more efficient home or de-clutter their lives in some way; it was incredibly humbling to research the Christian view of simplicity. What I discovered is that although doing all of the above is well and good and can have many benefits to bringing us peace and calm; the TRUE MEANING OF SIMPLICITY is SEEKING ONLY TO DO THE WILL OF GOD (without regard to self-sacrifice or self-advantage).
What I didn’t see in my research, is that leading a SIMPLE LIFE doesn’t mean that there won’t be chaos and that life can’t be BUSY. The busy-ness of life is going to happen regardless, BUT, certainly there are ways (even small ways) to help us as moms LIVE in a way that will help us to do the will of God and in turn, help our children to want to live God’s will for them as well! For some of us, that might mean slowing down … for others, it might mean speeding up!
We discussed a number of ways and had several resources to share on how to seek to do the will of God by living a life of simplicity. (And of course I left the paper from our discussion behind, BUT, hopefully this will allow you to come up with some ideas on your own AND there are numerous suggestions in the PDF file below!)
Blessings & Peace to Your Day,
Becky
· If you would like to download the PowerPoint presentation, it is located below!
· The PDF document with my notes (which contains a lot more info), including items that were not presented that day is also below. ENJOY!
· Want more? Look up Catholic, Simplicity, Moms in a web search ... lots of spiritual and practical info out there. This article (from the UK) was my original inspiration.
simplicitytalk2017january.pdf |