“Pick a saint, any saint.”
That’s what I told my kids at the beginning of the summer.
See, we’ve had this list of virtues that have been hanging on our wall since–
well, okay, I admit it, since Lent.
Because, let’s face it, I am incurably unrealistic.
Every Lent, every Advent, every summer, every beginning of the school year, every New Year . . . .
I make the list of how I’m going to lead my family to holiness and then–
life.
basketball, baseball, football, swimming, singing, school plays, altar serving, homework . . .and about 100 other things (per week) pile up, interfere and quite frankly wear me out.
So we do so some, and then it all gets left behind or its sporadic . . . .At this point all I can say is I hope some is better than none and even the things they hate doing (reading a chapter of a Matthew Kelly book and journaling about it every night we could one Lent, for example) that they still get something out of–even if they’d never admit it.
So anyway, back to the virtue list hanging on the wall:
The next step in our Lenten project was supposed to be to pick a virtue you need to work on and then a saint that exhibited that virtue and do a little report about them and how they show that virtue. It just never happened. And then some wise person said to me at the end of Lent, “Just because Lent is over, doesn’t mean you can’t still do it.”
Well–yeh–I guess that’s true. I guess not meeting my Lenten goal doesn’t mean I’m a failure or all is lost. It’s still a good idea, they can still learn from it, and on the bright side, they’ve had to share at the list of virtues for several months now–burning it into their brains, right?
And so, summer begins, and life doesn’t exactly slow down the way I always imagine it will, but while we are catching our breath here and there (in between packing and unpacking for baseball games, school trips and retreats), I tell them to pick their virtue and pick their saint.
So it’s taken all Lent, all spring and half the summer but next week, our saint project will finally be done.
I look forward to sharing the reports with you!
I am looking forward to this. I really applaud you – I think it’s important to always keep trying – that’s something that you are teaching the kids just through this activity – what’s that saying, “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again” That attitude is a reflection of ‘hope’. Hope that you can improve, accomplish, make it to the finish line. Hope is so very, very important in life. I think you are very inspirational.