Ash Wednesday Quick Resolve
As I say every year...
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Assuming you have a smart phone, and assuming that you wish to have a spiritually fruitful Lent, here’s my perennial advice:
Don’t take your phone to bed. See if your husband can also leave his phone outside the bedroom.
Maybe today, get an old-school alarm clock, if that’s the issue.
That old tricky prince of darkness likes nothing better than to have you start scrolling first thing.
Cheerfulness:
On this day of fasting and penance, it is good to remember the Gospel: “Moreover when ye fast, be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad countenance.” (Matthew 6:16)
Go look in the mirror at your normal resting face. Is it full of cheer? Not “of a sad countenance”? I fear that the constant talk we hear about our “woundedness” and “trauma” and “mental load” is making our faces look sad, which is not doing anything for anyone around us!
I am a big fan of knowing one’s temperament, but don’t fall into the error of thinking that if you’re not sanguine by nature, you have a pass on radiating cheerfulness. “I’m melancholic” is not an excuse! We want our children to be cheerful; it follows that we need to model cheerfulness with them, regardless of our predisposition. Children reflect what’s on our face!
As a confirmed choleric, I have to work on this too. My resting face is probably radiating exasperation… but maybe I should be mindful of how God restrains His exasperation with me!
Let’s work on this together.
Let’s be at least as cheerful as a medieval lady communing with her pet squirrel!
Apply my thoughts here to your situation with discernment, prudence, and confidence — and a sense of humor! Who am I? Go here.
Be happy at home!
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For the longer version of this Substack and much more on this topic:
My 3-volume book on Order and Wonder in Family Life:
That is a very large squirrel!