Blood Money

This trailer caught my attention. The documentary film has no distributor yet, but it seems like an awesome effort to expose the truth about the abortion industry.

Are we high-needs children?

"High-Needs" or "High-Demand" is a fairly common label for many infants. These babies require much more attention from their parents, and are known for being fussy, colicky and easily overstimulated. Despite the fact that they spend a lot of their early months crying, studies show that given the right environment high-demand babies will hit their developmental milestones right with their "easy-going" peers. This is likely to be because high-need babies are held more, rocked more, sung to more, and touched more. In essence, their parents are required to give more in order to meet their demands and help these babies to thrive.

Going through this experience with my son has had me reflecting on my own relationship with God the Father. I often feel "high-needs" when it comes to the faith. I "need" sacraments such as the mass and confession regularly. I constantly fall, and need God's merciful love to pick me back up. I am coming to the conclusion however, that this might not be a bad thing. Some of the greatest saints, such as St. Paul and St. Augustine, were "high-needs". These lost sheep required a immense amount of mercy from our Lord, but their conversions are some of the greatest known to man. Being high-needs provides opportunities for God to constantly pour out his love on us, and guide us closer and closer to Him. My son's need for his parents for his developing mind and body is very good, and our need for God's love for our developing souls is infinitely awesome.

Help with Humility

How are you at asking for help? The past months have been a struggle for me, as I've been learning to deal with a very high-needs infant. I have had several family members offer to help, but in my prideful determination to maintain my "perfect-mom" image I've mostly declined and truly failed to reach out. Deep-down I know that accepting aid will actually make me a better mother to my son, but it sure takes a lot of humility to accept this!

Jesus modeled the path of humility by entering into the world as a small helpless infant. He depended on mere human beings to take care of him, as all babies do. Later in life, He established the priesthood through his apostles to help him spread the Word. Even during His walk with the cross, Jesus accepted help from others such as Simon of Cyrene. If the Son of God needed a hand during his earthly mission, what makes me think that I do not?

As women, we tend to put a lot of pressure on ourselves to be perfect at everything. We need to learn that being open to help is a sign of humility, and not a sign of weakness. Moreover, we all go through times when much is demanded from us, and we need to remember to support and help each other whenever possible. Where would Christianity be, had Mary not accepted her call to help in God's plan?