Be Grateful for the Simple Things

by David Lins  |  10/03/2021  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

Virtually every night, my family huddles at our preschool daughter’s bedside and we say our prayers. When Georgiana prays, it gets interesting.

“Dear Lord, thank you for Jesus, Mommy, Daddy...” So far, so good.

“Thank you for my toys, ::insert random preschool classmate name here::, kitties, doggies...” Okay. Nothing wrong here.

“And unicorns and hippopostamusses and Paw Patrol...” Wait. Did she say “hippopostamusses?”

“And Chase is on the case and pizza face and beep boop bop...” Aaaaand we’re done here!

Her attention span holds for the first few innocent and beautiful intentions and then it sort of slides of a cliff.

I have to admit—in my lesser moments—I struggle a bit. Why hasn’t she memorized as many prayers as our friend’s kid? Why can’t she stay focused for a three minute prayer? Why isn’t she levitating yet?!

She is four. Calm down. Pray with her. Teach the Faith. It’ll take hold. She’ll learn. Until then, she just knows Jesus knows her and loves her and has a plan for her.

And yet... I think we need to be very careful assuming who should be learning from who. I’ve known several priests who’ve learning great truths about the Faith from various parishioners. I’ve known teachers who learned important lessons from their students. I’ve even known surgeons who’ve...no...that’s not true. But I have seen so many “cradle Catholics” learn about the Faith from converts.

In this Sunday’s Gospel, Jesus says, “Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.”

I am supposed to accept the kingdom of God like Georgiana.

I’m supposed to be grateful for the simple things. I’m supposed to believe Jesus knows me, loves me, and has a plan for me.

...possibly with a better attention span...

Questions? Comments? Reach David at dlins@oloj.org

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