Parenting with the Beatitudes

Parenting with the Beatitudes: Eight Holy Habits for Daily Living by Jeannie and Ben Ewing is an accessible way to grow in virtue as a family.

It's a good book for reading a little bit each night with your spouse.  Being written by a husband/wife team, it's helpful as it covers both perspectives.  I have enjoyed Jeannie's writing in the past, but it was refreshing to hear Ben's perspective, I think as my husband and I read it we found "both sides of the story" well-represented.

Each chapter focuses on one of the eight Beatitudes.  There is then a section in Jeannie's voice and then one in Ben's voice, followed by a section on either St. Joseph or Mary as they lived that Beatitude.  There is then a section on how to bring that virtue into the home, followed by an action plan, which details age-specific suggestions.  This would be a great work if parents ever had a chance to get together in a book study group.  I might consider discussing just over dinner with friends.  It's very accessible and easy to read.

I enjoyed the section on "needs vs. desires".  I think it is easy for us to blur the lines between the two. Ben Ewing had a good example of "thirsting" for righteousness and that it's far more difficult to desire God's righteousness.  He gave the example of "thirsting" for an impatient driver to get a speeding ticket and having a smug sense of satisfaction, not knowing that it was a parent who was hurrying with their child to the emergency room.  We don't have the knowledge to be judge and jury.

Parenting with the Beatitudes would be a great book for new parents, but also for those who feel they are in the rut or "too busy" phase of parenting.  Full of suggestions and helpful insights, it was a pleasure to read. The book is well organized, with commentaries by both authors.  At only around 150 pages, it is a manageable read.
 


“I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.”

Wouldn't we all like loud answers to prayer?

It all started with some severe storms we had a week ago.  I try to teach storm awareness to my five year old son.  Coming from a region where tornadoes were frequent, yet being married to a man from Florida (who didn't have a basement), it's is a topic we discuss.  It's a hard line between awareness and fear.  I try to prepare my son for what the proper actions are, but not to scare him too much.  I have actually seen with my eyes a tornado before- while I was driving and a water-spout (tornado on water) when I was on a cruise ship.  Weather can be both majestic and fear-provoking.

As I had my son grab our dog and I grabbed the cat, and we all went to the lower level of our house when the tornado warning went off on my phone, I was worried about the practical (turning on the local TV channel, minimizing hazards, etc.).  My son got down on his knees and promptly prayed to God out loud for the tornado to go away.  On one hand I was very proud of him and a little ashamed that prayer wasn't my first response.  On the other hand, it's kind of a hard walk to promote prayer and yet let him know that even if our prayers aren't directly answered, it's not that God's not there.  It's not that God's not listening.  Fortunately, there was just a potential for a tornado and no damage was done and everyone was ok.  My son concluded this was a direct answer to his prayer.

I think he was becoming more aware of the power of prayer as we have been listening to many stories about the saints.  Between St. Joan of Arc, St. Maximilian Kolbe and St. Rose of Lima turning pirates away, my son has quite an awareness of miraculous happenings and awesome prayer warriors.

A couple of days later, we were at the dinner table and my son mentioned, "I'm not sure God is listening to me."  We tried to reassure him that God does listen to him.  He doesn't always answer us, or answer us in the way we'd like.  My son said, "Well I don't hear anything at all.  He's supposed to talk, right?"  We tried to tell him that while some prophets and saints and others have directly heard God's voice, it's pretty unusual.  I told him I'd never heard God's voice, but I've felt his presence.  My husband gave an example of a time where he was in prayer and he felt the presence of someone/something clasping his hands in prayer.  The supernatural is pretty uncommon we tried to explain.  I told him that when I was discerning whether I should become a religious sister or a mommy, I was led to the answer by spending time with the Eucharist and feeling peace with my decision.

We tried to explain that listening is not just done with our ears, but with our heart and faith.  My husband and I looked at each other and said, "even grown-ups have difficulty learning how to listen to God."

I truly believe that sharing the lives of the Saints and the mysteries of our faith with our son is the correct thing to do.  Sometimes, it might make him think that the miraculous and unusual are expectations he should have.  I'm not sure I should totally quash these expectations.  While we should prepare our children for reality, I don't think we should minimize or rule out the possibility of extraordinary events.

It also reminded me how when I was puzzling over some things going on with the Church, I kind of threw up my hands and said, "I'm no Catherine of Siena, I have no prayer life like she did and I'm just a mom and veterinarian who's trying to do her best."  I don't have the expectation of miracles in my life or of God directly speaking to me.  Sometimes I'm content with good enough.  Perhaps my son reminding me of the largeness and greatness of God and large expectations is something I should be a little more open to.  Yes, becoming a canonized saint is unlikely for most of us.  But we are still called to aspire to that.