Happy All Saints Day!, NaBloPoMo Post 1

Hi all.  My twitter friend Elsha mentioned that today starts NaBloPoMo. I have never participated in NaBloPoMo before, but I was thinking, why not? And so I am at least going to try this out.

Today was All Saints Day. Happy All Saints Day! I want to say that we did more for it. I saw lots of beautiful Saint costumes out in the blogosphere, but we didn't do any of that. The boys did trick or treat last night in angry bird costumes, but seeing as everyone does that whether or not they know the origins of Halloween, I'm not sure that's saying much. Not to discredit the fun of Halloween, it was definitely fun, we had a full angry bird family going on. I mean even my inlaws bought some last minute angry bird costumes and joined in on the fun. I mean can you imagine a 57yo woman dressed up as yellow bird handing out candy? Well, that is what we had.

So really for All Saints Day, two small things did happen. It made me think about getting saint namesake dolls for my kids for Christmas, so I did through this shop called St. Luke's Brush. I have been told amazing things about them, and I love that they add to the richness of this Catholic faith that we are part of and are not yet easily breakable by children, something that we struggle with at times.

The other small thing was that we read an excerpt for Loyola Press.com about All Saints Day for Kids. It went like this:

"Saints are big dreamers. They believe that with God on their side, no one and nothing can stop them. Saints are go-getters. They don’t wait for someone else to do good first; they jump right in. Saints are love-bringers. They try to see Christ in every person and every situation. Saints tell us what matters most in life is not what we earn or own, not the job we have or the people we know. What really matters is how much we love God, others, and ourselves, and how well we show that love in all we do."

I loved this, and it really hit home for me with how I should approach my strong willed oldest, whom I've been struggling with lately.  Because this is who he should aspire to be, a saint.  And we can approach his formation as a person positively, instead of feeling like we constantly have to hold him back.  I am reminded of the closing of the Catholic Answers program.  "Be a saint, what else is there."  It is so true.  I think that if direct him in a positive way with his bold personality,  maybe there will be a Saint Benjamin someday.  And its not to say that he is more important than my other kids or any other kid out there. He's not, he's loved by God just the same.  But I am thankful for this reminder that we can do great things and we can be great people for Jesus.