Preach by the Way You Live
/
Think
"Be sure that you first preach by the way you live. If you do not, people will notice that you say one thing, but live otherwise, and your words will bring only cynical laughter and a derisive shake of the head."
— St. Charles Borromeo
This is such a mom quote, isn't it? We know the right thing. We are all intentional about how we want to behave and how we want our children to behave. We know that we must practice what we preach and that they are such brilliant little sponges. And then, there's sin:
“What I do, I do not understand. For I do not do what I want, but I do what I hate.”
We mess up. we lose our composure, our temper, our good nature, and our best intentions. If we leave it there, we begin to sow a legacy of hypocrisy. What if? What if we took that great big mess-up and instead of failing to live the way we preach, we lived apology and forgiveness and we preached humility without ever uttering the word?
Pray
Dear sweet Jesus, Today, grant me humility in abundance. Help me to recognize my shortcomings and admit my mistakes. Lead me to seek wise counsel and to graciously accept help. Father, give me humble awareness of my own shortcomings and let me graciously welcome loving rebukes. Grant me the grace to be gentle with those entrusted to my care, to praise much more than I criticize, to encourage with patient endurance. Shed your light on the people I love. Let me see them as you created them and to always think the best of them. God, give me the grace and strength to say, "I'm sorry."
Act
Apologize today. Early and often;-)
~*~*~
I like to pray when I run in the morning. Often, I listen to Divine Office and pray Morning Prayer or the Office of Readings. Then, I just take up a conversation with God. I'd love to pray for you! Please leave your prayer requests below and we can pray for each other, no matter how we spend our morning prayer time. Meet me back here tomorrow and I'll share the ponderings from my morning run.
