Hello and welcome to Beyond the Pew. August is here and school is officially in session. I remember back when I was starting school, that I was always filled with a little bit of dread when school is about to start but also a little bit of excitement. Dread because oh no we have to wake up early. School’s in session. I don’t have the freedom that summer gave me. But also excitement because I always had goals I wanted to set. I got new teachers, new classes, new backpack, new folders. And I always was kind of looking forward to what I could accomplish and what I could attain throughout that new school year.
So as August is beginning all of us are start we’re now starting our routines we’re waking up a little bit earlier getting our kids up. They’re waking up earlier in making sure that they’re getting to school. We’re picking them up from their sports or activities whatever it might be. And now is the time that we’re starting to kind of iron out what our routines are for the year, and as we do that we can’t let our faith fall by the wayside. We need to make sure that our faith has a place of priority in our lives especially if there are some areas that we weren’t satisfied with in the previous year.
So what I would encourage you to do is to think of some goals you want for this upcoming year when it comes to your faith and your family. Spend some time in reflection with how did we succeed last year as a family in our faith life and then how could we improve our faith life and our family. And as you think about those things start coming up with some goals that you want for this upcoming year.
It doesn’t have to be anything huge like daily Mass every day, like if you can do daily Mass every day, that’s great, more power to you. But find something that’s attainable that you know is possible. If your family struggles with making Mass on Sunday maybe make that a goal. Make Mass every Sunday an attainable goal and maybe ice cream afterwards or something like that.
Maybe your family is good with going to Mass on Sunday but you could improve when it comes to communication between you and your kids ,when it comes to our faith life. So maybe for those of you that have kids in youth group, making sure that you’re having a discussion after youth group and making that a routine every Sunday or Wednesday or whatever day that they go to youth group, make that an attainable goal. Or maybe morning prayers together or night prayers together as a family making that a goal that you can do every day together to improve your faith life and to make it stronger.
I do want to challenge those of you parents that have kids in athletics to take the ultimate Beyond the Pew parent challenge. If there’s a retreat or youth event coming up that conflicts with a sporting event I challenge you to help your kids to choose to go on that retreat or go on that youth event instead of that sporting event. That is the ultimate Beyond the Pew parent challenge which I know is really really hard. But I encourage you guys to do it. I know you can.
And we here at Beyond the Pew are praying for all of you and again I want to just encourage you to set those attainable goals. Don’t make them too lofty or too big take them one step at a time. And then when you reach those goals make a new one. All right, we’ll see you next week. God bless