Baptismal Day--O Happy Day!

 My sixth grandchild was baptized yesterday. Such a wonderful, joyful day. The grace of God was all over it. Such peace. Such a sense of gratitude for all that God has done and continues to do.

All but one of my grandchildren were there. (The missing one was sick.)

Just looking at my children and grandchildren fills me with joy. I know I'm extremely biased but they are adorable. There was a large immersion Baptismal font that pulled the kids like a magnet, to put it mildly.

Father explained to the children before the Baptism started that we only put our hands in the holy water when we are going to bless ourselves. You should have seen them, repeatedly dipping in a little finger and then making a quick little sort-of Sign of the Cross. The seven-year-old, the only one who could really do it would make his Sign of the Cross with a slight head bow and then look at me as if to say, "Is this OK?" before doing it again like the others. I always gave him a little smile, resisting the impulse to say, "Stop playing with the holy water." Not my children. Not my responsibility. My job is to just love them. And that's what I did. 

Glory to God. He is so good.

Grandchildren-- the Best!!!

 Just returned from a delightful three day visit with my son and his family. Grandchildren. They are the best. So cute. So engaging. So wonderfully devoted to their grandparents and the feeling is mutual.

When we arrived they came running out of the house yelling, "Nana! Grandpa!!" Their faces were filled with delight, as were ours. 

I took a walk later with my three-year-old grandson when he saw a neighbor. "Hi," he shouted. Then, "This is my Nana!" Heaven must be something like this.

We played a simple board game called Orchard. The dice rolls one of four colored circles so, no need to know numbers. Each player gets a little wicker basket in which to collect the little fruit that is the same color that you rolled. For very young children this is a fun game because there is nothing complicated about it. And all the players are working together to collect all the fruit before the raven comes to eat all of it. 

I must have rolled the dice eight times in a row turning up the blue circle for plums each time. They thought it was hilarious and I was able to share their sense of humor, even exaggerating it, in a way that does not happen with adults. "Blue?? Again?!?!" They laughed hilariously as did I. Was it funny? Yes. But mine was more a laugh of delight in sharing the mindset of young children.

With grandchildren your only job is to love. I tell them how great they are, how smart they are. When I'm not speaking to them I'm loving them with my eyes.

Raising them is not my responsibility. I don't need to set boundaries except to enforce the parents' boundaries when I'm babysitting. I always support the parents and try to reinforce whatever their rules are. I don't make any rules. It's great.

It's so much fun to just love. All children bring joy into the world. But grandchildren bring a unique joy-- the joy of familial bonds, of seeing the next generation, of delighting in that child just for being who they are. 

God is good.

Weeding- Avoiding Procrastination As Well as Perfectionism.

 

All right. It's been a while. Time to write here again.

I spent several hours weeding my gardens this morning. It was not too hot and I knew I'd get more done in the morning than later in the day. 

Just as in life, it's easy to get overwhelmed by the presence of weeds in the garden. We finally had several days of good rain and the weeds clearly loved it.

The challenge for me in weeding is to not let procrastination or perfectionism get an opening. It's easy to put off weeding. Well, the weeds will be easier to pull when they're a little bigger. You know, more to hang onto. Yeah. Well, maybe.

Or on the other side perfectionism pipes up. -- there are too many weeds. I will never catch up so why get started. It's a losing battle. To fight this thinking I make my goals small. I'll just get the ones right around the plants first. Those are the ones stealing nutrients from the beloved flowers and veggies. Or...I'll just do what I can in one hour. Or even a half hour.

Invariably, I get more pulled than I had planned. Why? Because it doesn't take that long to weed. And...truth be told, I kind of like weeding. Why? Because it gives me a chance to hang out with the flowers and veggies and they give me joy.

I'm thinking theres a spiritual metaphor here. Procrastinating about pulling weeds is akin to ignoring sins and character flaws we'd like to get rid of. It's too hard. That's just the way I am. It's not that bad, etc.

Perfectionism convinces us not to try. The effort is too great. I will never succeed. Why try, etc.

Oh Lord, please help me to avoid the extremes--to be diligent and work hard but also to be humble enough to realize I will not perfectly succeed but I may indeed please the God mercy who likes the effort.