It's Never Too Early to Teach A Child How To Pray

"Now, I lay me down to sleep. I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
 If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take."

This was the first prayer that was taught to me as a child by my parents.  My dad, who is a Catholic Charismatic preacher has taught us more than one ways on how to build a close relationship with God and this can be done through the medium of praying.  At home, I try my best to gather everybody around to pray and recite the rosary for our family prayer but if schedules are tight, then it leaves only me and the the small ones.

I find it fun and an exciting experience to teach them (my children) how to pray when they're still young.  Actually, I don't really call it "teaching" because I don't like them to think that there's supposed to be a process when praying.  What usually happens is that, like what I do now with Zef and ZJ, when I pray I tell them to sit beside me.  So what follows is that they imitate what I do and say.  Let me share how it came for ZJ to pray with me always.  It started with this simple conversation:

ZJ: "Mom, (what) are you doing?"
ME: "I'm talking to God."
ZJ: "Ah, ok.  I will talk to God also. God, please hold my hand."

And it touched my heart.  That's a prayer that's so pure and straight from the heart.  It came from an innocent child who only knows that Jesus can't be seen but who you can talk to anytime and anywhere.

Just like what my father taught me, prayer shouldn't always be monotonous.  Yes, there are correct prayer methods but forget about this.  Urge your children to start talking to God just like talking to a friend.  Don't mind if your child would include the song of the ABC in his prayer.  That's fine.  As long as he's comfortable in his ways of communicating with God then that's what matters.

Children have strong faith and they trust easily.  This is one characteristic that we parents can learn a lot from them.  As children are transparent in expressing their thoughts in a prayer, this tells us to talk to God also in a way without a hint of doubt.  Our fight of faith may be a little more complicated than those of our children but we can make it with God' help.

Scholarship Granted for My Two

The month of August had been a busy one for me.  There came trials and blessings altogether but it's the latter that I'd like to talk about right now.  If you're one of my readers then you would've read about the scholarship that we've been wishing for my DanceSport kids or you can read it here.

It isn't an easy job to send two kids to a private school and supporting them with their passion and sport as well which is dancesport.  For some who doesn't know, Troy and Tracy had been dance partners for six years now.  They also had joined local and national competitions and bagged some awards.  During those times, their school could only commend them for a job well done but not enough to grant them a scholarship.  But all those changed this year.  I am happy to say that finally, their school created a varsity team for danceporters and since they have seen and recognized the skills of my two kids, they have automatically considered them for scholarship.  You can't imagine how financially relieved I was when First Grading exams came and I didn't need to pay for their school fees. Whew. ;-)

I am just thankful also that the school have seen my children's hard work and that they're deserving for a scholarship.  Although, I still remind my children not to slack off.  This means more hard work for them specially in maintaining their school grades.  With all these, expectations are moved higher for them.  I see their dedication and passion for education and dancing but with their young minds, they are still easy prey for temptations.  Discipline is needed and that's why I teach myself to "dance" with them as well.  Not to the literal meaning of the word but to support them all the way and most importantly, to carry them when they're all tired and dreary. That's what a caring stage mom do. :-)

Failure Is Part of A Process

Ok, I've been out for a while.  Three weeks to be exact.  And it's killing me for not being active with my blogging activities for those weeks..and for the coming weeks actually.  I wonder if I'm missed. Hmmmm....?   Anyway,  I'm super busy with a lot of things lately.  Family, kids, business and a new venture.  But for those weeks that I've been away from the blogosphere, one thing I've learned in the real world is that FAILURE is inevitable.  But it doesn't mean that you give up because you have failed the first time.  There would be more failures in the future.  It's there to make one stronger, IF, he is willing to take the challenge.  Personally,  I am weak in that aspect but since I want some changes that would lead to success, then I have to experience failure.  Deep huh? Oh well, that's all there is for now.  I wish to be back soon and in full swing again. Ta-ta!

P.S.  Let me leave this quote before I leave, hoping to mark something of significance in what I've written above even if how short it may be.

Praising on Sundays: The Words of Eternal Life

Gospel Jn 6:60-69

Many of Jesus' disciples who were listening said,
"This saying is hard; who can accept it?"
Since Jesus knew that his disciples were murmuring about this,
he said to them, "Does this shock you?
What if you were to see the Son of Man ascending
to where he was before?
It is the spirit that gives life,
while the flesh is of no avail.
The words I have spoken to you are Spirit and life.
But there are some of you who do not believe."
Jesus knew from the beginning the ones who would not believe
and the one who would betray him.
And he said,
"For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me
unless it is granted him by my Father."

As a result of this,
many of his disciples returned to their former way of life
and no longer accompanied him.
Jesus then said to the Twelve, "Do you also want to leave?"
Simon Peter answered him, "Master, to whom shall we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have come to believe

and are convinced that you are the Holy One of God.

Praising on Sundays: Bread of Life

source: Google

Gospel: John 6:24–35

When they saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they got into the boats and went to Capernaum looking for Jesus. When they found him on the other side of the lake, they asked him, “Master, when did you come here?” Jesus answered, “Truly, I say to you, you look for me, not because you have seen through the signs, but because you ate bread and were satisfied. Work then, not for perishable food, but for the lasting food which gives eternal life. The Son of Man will give it to you, for he is the one the Father has marked.” Then the Jews asked him, “What shall we do? What are the works that God wants us to do?” And Jesus answered them, “The work God wants is this: that you believe in the One whom God has sent.” They then said, “Show us miraculous signs, that we may see and believe you. What sign do you perform? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert; as Scripture says: They were given bread from heaven to eat.”  Jesus then said to them, “Truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven. My Father gives you the true bread from heaven. The bread God gives is the One who comes from heaven and gives life to the world.” And they said to him, “Give us this bread always.” Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall never be hungry, and whoever believes in me shall never be thirsty.

My Reflection:
On some Sundays, I find myself guilty for not being attentive to the priest's homily or to every part of the Eucharistic Celebration for that matter.  You simply can't focus specially if you have kids with you like I do.  Our church doesn't have a separate room or a playground where children can play while parents are attending mass.  That's not a typical set-up in a Catholic church anyway.  Other than family, there are other reasons that keeps me from listening to the priest and his sermon.  It may be that my mind's elsewhere or that I can't hear the priest clearly as a result of sitting too far in the back.  Today in church, it was almost the same routine for me.  Almost because we sat in the left corner of the church.  Not on the pews but on mono block chairs that's to be used for those who came in late.  But at least we were nearer to the priest.  I guess it was God's intervention because I could clearly hear what the priest was saying (or at least half of it because my mind's still wandering somewhere..again).  In the roar of his voice in the microphone I heard him say " 'Is there no time for your children? Is your time all for work? How about for God?' "  He was saying a lot but it was this line that stirred my spirit.   I remember, one of the things I learned from my father whenever he conducts Charismatic seminars, is that God is a jealous God.  But he is also a generous God.  He even gave us HIS son to die and save us from our sins.  The same son who is the bread of life.  From the old testament to the new testament his words live on through the bible.  And only when we live in his words that we get to be saved.   This made me realize to be zealous with my time for HIM.  Sometimes I falter in my faith because I think I am alone with my burden.  God allows this to happen because it's more of a reason for me to call him and pray even harder.   

Ibong Adarna and My Lady

As independent as my daughter is, seldom does she ask for my help with her school works and assignments.  

Even when she was campaigning for a Mayoral position in her classroom never had she asked me to make 

her a pitch or create campaign tools such as banners or leaflets.  

I remembered that it was my dad who made my speech when I ran for the Student Body treasurer.  

But that’s me, a daddy’s girl. 

Last week, she surprised me when she asked that I draw Ibong Adarna in her assignment in Filipino 

Literature.  I readily jumped to the given task since I enjoy drawing and coloring so much.  

But it was the thought that she asked for my help that got me excited and made me feel that I am still part of 

her life and that she still needs me.  

She’s becoming a young lady and soon, just like the ibong adarna, she'll flap her beautiful wings and fly to 

her own freedom.  But to me, she will always be that upturned nose and curly haired little girl who 

greeted me with a tiny cry when she came out in this world.  

She is my only princess and my mini me who'll always take my breath away :-)

My Blog in Progress

Pinterest

I made a few tweakings in my blog again.  I am very dependent with the Blogger templates as of now so it practically looks the same with the old one I had.  There's not much to choose from anyway but this will do for now.   I didn't realize it would be this colorful.  Maybe it just suited to my mood that day.  I'm holding back the urge to have my blog designed and have my own domain until its first year anniversary.  That would still be few months away so I still have ample time to look around for inspiration for a nice design and a giveaway maybe *wink!*.

I remember when I started this blog, I really didn't know what I've gotten myself into.  My only thought was to write my ideas and motherhood experiences with my children.  Basically, it was supposed to document about my dancesport kids and their events.  Looking back, I guess I have made more than that.  Even more, I gained lots of virtual friends who share their own aspirations and dreams with me in the blogging world.  Everyday is unique in each way and it is something to be written about and documented for.  That is my goal for August and the next months to come.  To continue to share my life story, to express my deepest thoughts or show pictures of wonderful people and places.  ;-)

P.S.
But I still don't know how to put a signature at the end of each post.  I still need to figure that out.