Living the vocation of a wife and mother to the fullest

[simple_soul]

*Since it is the month of May the Blessed Mother Mary’s month. And since it is Mother’s Day this Sunday. I thought it would be appropriate, for those of us who have a vocation of being a wife and mother, to honor the greatest mother of all, by discussing how we can fulfill this vocation to the fullest. Through her example and through the examples of other saints who were mothers too.
I am sure she would love us pondering and learning about how we can love her Son and know His will for us more deeply than we already do.

I recently read the story of the life of St. Gianna Molla and was so moved by it that I wanted to share a few of her words with everyone to ponder.
I took these words of hers from one of her letters to her soon-to-be husband, Pietro Molla.

“My Dearest Pietro, How can I thank you for such a magnificent ring? Dear Pietro, to reciprocate, I give you my heart, and I will always love you as I love you now.”
………and….“Pietro dearest, you know that it is my wish to see and know you are happy. Tell me how I should be and what I should do to make you happy.”
………and………“ I ask you a favor from today on, Pietro. If you see that I do something that is not right, tell me, correct me. Do you understand? I will always be thankful.”

The things these words make me ponder are the following:
How do we give our hearts to our husbands?
What do we do to make ourselves see and know that they are happy?
How willing are we to accept being corrected by our husbands (even if we know they are wrong and we are right?)

To me giving my heart to my husband is letting me form my heart to his so that his desires become mine this then helps me to ensure that I know and see what it is that will make him happy and I am always asking him if I am causing him any stress. It unsettles me if for some reason I sense he is not content with something. I tend to loose my inner peace and only find it when I know and see that he is at peace himself. I know that when I am at peace with this I am a much better mother.
The one thing that I believe I am beginning to understand is how much our relationship with our husbands should reflect the relationship one has with God and the more we work on this the better wives and mothers we will be.

Please add your thoughts, advice, and comments….*

 

[momslosingit]

Funny, I came across this post tonight when I have been so heavy in my heart lately for my children. I have seven, and sometimes iI feel so out of control. I feel as if I am always yelling at them for doing something wrong, and they never listen. We used to homeschool, and my mother-in-law and my husband were so insistent that i put them in school, so I did. I have hated every minute of it. There attitudes are horrible, they have become disrespectful, they are not close anymore, and I feel out of control!!! Now, on top of that, I am angry with my husband for not “seeing” what is going on. I find myself saying I should have never married him when I knew our views of raising children were so different. He is a good man, but not a spiritual leader , in any form or fashion. Please help… What should I do?

 

[simple_soul]

Funny, I came across this post tonight when*** I have been so heavy in my heart lately for my children. I have seven, and sometimes iI feel so out of control.*** I feel as if I am always yelling at them for doing something wrong, and they never listen. We used to homeschool, and my mother-in-law and my husband were so insistent that i put them in school, so I did. I have hated every minute of it. There attitudes are horrible, they have become disrespectful, they are not close anymore, and I feel out of control!!! Now, on top of that, I am angry with my husband for not “seeing” what is going on. I find myself saying I should have never married him when I knew our views of raising children were so different. He is a good man, but not a spiritual leader , in any form or fashion. Please help… What should I do?

*Dear momslosingit, (I know those moments )

My first thought is to give you a big spiritual hug!:hug1:

Then I wonder, maybe you are raising seven St. Augustine’s? From what I remember he was quite the handful growing up.

Coming from a family of ten children and being home-schooled myself. It was a bit of a shock, to say the least, when my husband said he wanted our children to go to a public school. At first I was disappointed with myself that I had not thought about clarifying this with him before we were married. Then I thanked God that I did have the presence of mind to to clarify our children’s spiritual education with him.

The main reason I did not fight him on it was because I do not have any knowledge of it being a “sin” for our children to be educated by the public school system so why would I not obey him?

A couple of thoughts that gave me hope is that some one once told me "there is no utopia to educate your child. You just do the best you can with how you choose and with what tools you choose to use for your children’s education and trust God for the rest.
I do not look at the school as educating my children. It is still my husband and I who educate them. We just use the school to help with the academic side and at the appropriate times step in to use it to drive home and strengthen the spiritual and truth side and try to trust God to fill in the gaps.

If you are needing spiritual advice for any of this I would strongly advice you to talk to your priest about it. I have found that keeping our family active in the parish helps my worries very much.

Have a wonderful blessed Mother’s day and just remember when you are having to correct your children for the millionth time how much patience God has for us mothers.

 

[momslosingit]

Thank you so much for the encouragement! You have a great Mom’s day as well…

 

[sdtouchton]

Let’s honor those Christian mothers who:

~~ate half of what they wanted because money was tight and there wasn’t enough to go around

~~displayed cardboard and glitter decorations in prominent places in their homes as if they were original Rembrandts

~~were as thrilled with roses made out of Kleenex as they would have been with a florist’s bouquet

~~sacrificed huge chunks of their time in booster clubs, PTA’s, and the like on behalf of all the moms who didn’t have the time (and for all the children who had moms who didn’t care)

~~read the same story books twice every night for two years even though they were bored out of their skulls

~~ate an entire box of marzipan even though they hated the taste just because their child bought it for them

~~stayed up all night holding a bowl under a sick child’s chin while suppressing the urge to throw up themselves

~~sat in more bleachers than people with season tickets to professional sporting events in order to support their child

~~stayed up late cleaning, sewing, and/or ironing a special item of clothing

~~got up real early to make sure their child got up on time and had a good breakfast

~~drove to the school to drop off a forgotten lunch pail, homework assignment, permission slip, or snack for a class party

~~shoveled up dog poop that should have fallen under the promise, “If you get me a dog I’ll take care of it!”

~~stayed up four hours (or longer) after their bedtime to re-type a school report that was accidentally deleted from the computer, that was ruined when a glass of milk overturned, or that blew out the car window

~~bought carpet they didn’t like because it had the colors of spilled Kool-Aid, spilled milk, and dirty feet already in it

~~came to the conclusion that pretty dishes, knick knack collections, and fragile heirlooms were not as important as having healthy, happy, and active children

~~alternated mopping up blood and bending over in order not to faint

~~never had any cash in their wallets for themselves

~~never saw a television movie all the way through

~~cried every time their child left home, even if it was just for a few days

~~repressed the urge to cringe and grimace at their child’s elementary school band concerts

~~forced themselves to dish out tough punishment because they knew it was in the best interest of their child

~~said, “No,” when they longed to see the smile that would appear on their child’s face if they said, “Yes,” because they knew that they were doing the best thing for their child by saying, “No.”

~~tried to make peace between brothers and sisters, brothers and brothers, sisters and sisters, or husbands and children

~~couldn’t thoroughly enjoy their night out or their vacation because they were thinking about their children

~~missed an entire movie, play, or performance because they had to take their crying baby outside so as not to disturb anyone else

~~continued to do the laundry, cook the meals, take care of the children, and hold down the fort when they had a 102 degree temperature because it all had to get done

There is only one thing that is similar to a mother’s love for her child and that is God’s love for His children. A mother would gladly sacrifice her life for the life of her child. A mother’s love is unconditional. She loves her child even when her child says, “I hate you, Mom!” She loves her child even when her child is in jail for committing a crime. She loves her child even when her child lies to her. No matter what her child does, that flame of unconditional love never goes out.

A mother knows that her prayers will be heard so, through all circumstances, continues to pray for her child. She also nurtures the hope that her child will achieve success and happiness. She finds God’s will for her child and focuses on that instead of focusing on what she sees taking place in front of her eyes.For more details
biblicalproof4catholicfaith.blogspot.com/2010/05/christian-mothers.html

Author: Kay Meyerett

 

[zaramarie81]

Thank you so much for the encouragement! You have a great Mom’s day as well…

Just wanted to pipe in here and also recommend a good book on helping Christian kids thrive in public schools. It’s called “Going Public” by David and Kelli Pritchard

amazon.com/Going-Public-Thrive-School-ebook/dp/B001EHEDBA

I am not yet a mother, but looking forward to it. I am getting married in November. I love my fiance dearly and we both take our vocation seriously (and want to be parents) but we do butt heads sometimes. I don’t think schooling is something we disagree on (neither one of us is a fan of public schools), but oh we are SO are opinionated on other things, and are learning to work things out when we our opinions differ. Pray for us!

 

[simple_soul]

*Dear sdtouchton,

That was a beautiful post! thank you for sharing.

 

[simple_soul]

Just wanted to pipe in here and also recommend a good book on helping Christian kids thrive in public schools. It’s called “Going Public” by David and Kelli Pritchard

amazon.com/Going-Public-Thrive-School-ebook/dp/B001EHEDBA

I am not yet a mother, but looking forward to it. I am getting married in November. I love my fiance dearly and we both take our vocation seriously (and want to be parents) but we do butt heads sometimes. I don’t think schooling is something we disagree on (neither one of us is a fan of public schools), but oh we are SO are opinionated on other things, and are learning to work things out when we our opinions differ. Pray for us!

Thank you zaramarie for sharing. I will have to check it out. I could always use extra insight for this.