It is no secret that as young adults, we experience many changes. Very few of us are stationary during these years of our lives. Many of us attend college, begin careers, move out of our parents' home, move back into our parents' home, change roommates, get married, begin families... You get my drift. It seems as though year to year, things are always very different!
One of my biggest challenges has been maintaining my spiritual life and habits through major transitions. Its obvious that my spiritual life would be different as a single person than it would as a married woman. After the wedding however, my husband and I were surprised how difficult it was to learn to pray together throughout the day.
Most recently I became a mother-- and in the midst of the sleepless nights, feeding schedules and diaper changes, I realized that I was barely praying anymore. Many of my spiritual habits that I had previously formed no longer seemed compatible with my daily life. As much as I enjoyed it in the past, reading 20 minutes from a spiritual book before bed is just not compatible with my sleep deprivation! At this time I can barely concentrate long enough to read a silly magazine article! That being said, I have been so caught up in my newborn that I hadn't developed a new spiritual plan to grow in my vocation as a mother. I need to be creative in finding ways to make my new daily routine prayerful, and hopefully form new habits. As my baby grows, I need to continually make adjustments to my spiritual life (hopefully bring back spiritual reading) based on where God is calling me. It truly is beautiful how our journey here on earth is always changing and allowing us to grow in different ways.
2 comments:
It's nice to know that I'm not the only one struggling with this. I've had a super hard time trying to set a regular prayer schedule when my days are anything BUT regular. Right now I'm just trying to start with going to daily mass whenever possible (which is not often) and just offering up little prayers all day long.
So true! Creativity is necessary. The good news is, as they get bigger, it gets a little easier, because they pray with you. We pray before meals now, and will many prayers together throughout the day as the desire to teach Mina compels me to pray more. You'll also probably get into a nice routine as you press through this transition time.
One thing that really helps me is having alarms on my cell phone for the Angelus and Chaplet of Diving Mercy. They're shorter prayers that are easier to do no matter where you are and the daily alarms help me to not forget to just stop what I'm doing at 12 & 3. I've also found nursing to be a great time for meditation in silence, or spiritual reading.
Does anyone else have any practical tips? I could use some more!
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