“You must make a sound and firm resolution to submit yourselves totally to His will…” (Saint Anela Merici).
When my children were little, I made sure that I sent them to pre-school for a year or two prior to their starting primary school. Although I worked while my children were little, the preschool was not really to be used as a daycare, but rather, it was designed to be used as a way to prepare my children for the demands of primary school. I was intending that they would learn to follow instructions, sit or stand as requested, socialise well with children who were not their siblings and understand that though I dropped them off at the door of the school in the morning, I would not be gone forever, but rather, that I would return for them in the afternoon.
My eldest son and my youngest child, my daughter, only attended preschool for one year before they started in kindergarten. However, my second son had TWO years in preschool instead of one. There were a few reasons for this, including that he would be among the older children in the class when he did start kindergarten (due to the timing of his birthday) and therefore had more time at home prior to school and also because he was in need of improvement in his communication skills.
At the time when I was booking my second son into preschool for the second year, his father asked me whether I would consider sending him to kindergarten a year earlier than we had originally planned. And though I considered it for a moment or two, I opted against such a decision because it was clear that the child was not ready for school. I knew that had I forced him into a kindergarten environment a year earlier than planned, he would have struggled to keep up – not only in kindergarten – but for the rest of his academic life.
And I have been thinking about this readiness for school as I have been thinking about being ready for the life that God gives us.
Saint Anela Merici said, “You must make a sound and firm resolution to submit yourselves totally to His will and, with a lively and steadfast faith, to receive from Him what you have to do for love of Him. And in this (whatever may happen) to persevere with constancy to the very end.”
And I have been thinking about that too. You see, God is my Beloved and my parent. And He is the One who decides what I do and how I do it. And He does this – not by forcing me – but through His direction of me. And just as I held my son back from school for an extra year because I wanted to be sure he was ready, so too does God sometimes hold things out of reach for me, just to ensure that I too am ready.
And today – as I strain against the barriers that God has allowed me in my life – I stop and give thanks. For my Beloved is sanctifying me – one little barrier at a time – until I am ready… Just until I am ready…
For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
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