So What if You're Young?!

So I suppose its no secret that I try to make my prayer time a priority. My morning prayers typically include reading from several different books of the Bible, doing some spiritual reading, visiting with the souls in Purgatory and trying to meditate without my kids waking up or interrupting.

Obviously he didn't have children ;)
photo Cred: facebook.com/thecatholicrose

Sometimes a wonderful thing happens when I say my prayers and its like everything comes together to basically beat me over the head. This happened this morning.

It started with me reading about a soon to be new saint, Bl. Jose Sanchez del Rio. He was just credited with the miracle he needed to be Canonized! He cured a baby who had a fatal stroke and tuberculosis. (Read the whole story Here) But here is what got me: he was a FOURTEEN YEAR OLD MARTYR! That's right. Fourteen. 14. Four-teen.  This of course made me think of my Godchildren!  God wants you to be saints too!

Bl. Jose Sanchez's story is pretty crazy. He was martyred during the Cristero wars in Mexico. These were wars against the anti-Catholic government that openly persecuted and killed Catholics. Bl. Miguel Pro, best know for shouting "Viva Cristo Rey" (Long Live Christ the King!) was also martyred during this time.  Bl. Jose was tortured before he was killed. The soles of his feet were cut off and then he was forced to march to his grave. When he got there he defiantly yelled "Viva Cristo Rey" like his fellow Cristero martyrs, and was executed.  Think about that. He was fourteen.

Bl. Jose Sanchez del Rio and the baby he healed being held by her Mama.
photo cred: Catholic News Agency

After reading about Bl. Jose I turned to my Bible reading. (Here's where it gets crazy). Having just finished reading through Isaiah, I began Jeremiah today and read this: "But the Lord answered me, 'Do not say, "I am too young," To whomever I send you, you shall go; and to whomever I command you, you shall speak.'" (Jer 1:7).  That struck me as a fun "coincidence" after having just read about 14 year Jose and thinking of my Godchildren.  So then I turned to 1 Tim 4 and read THIS: (verse 12) "Let no one have contempt for your youth, but set an example for those who believe, in speech, conduct, love, faith, and purity."

Well!! After all that, how could I NOT write you this blog letter and beg you to not listen to those who say that you are "young" and therefore not capable of living for God. Not capable of greatness. Not capable of becoming saints!

When I think about St. Philomena, martyred at thirteen. Maria Goretti, who was martyred when she was ELEVEN (and begged her attacker to stop because she was afraid for his soul!), Dominic Savio who died of illness when he was fifteen, Agnes of Rome who was thirteen when she was martyred, St. Francis of Assisi was in his early twenties when he renounced his family in a spectacular (and naked) fashion and gave his life to God alone, and lets not forget the Blessed Mother, a young teen when the Angel visited her!

I do not believe these young men and women were anomalies! Yet people today would try to have you believe that "kids are just different now" and that "back then children matured faster." I don't buy it.  Bl. Jose didn't live "back then." The Cristero Wars took place less than 100 years ago in the late 1920s.  No, I think people do you a great diservice when they don't think you are capable of being saints. Now. Today. Because you are. 

Why don't we expect MORE from you, as you are teenagers? You are capable of SO MUCH. Its a lie, a flat out lie that "now is the time to have fun." "You're only young once!" "Live while you're young." "YOLO" is a trap and an excuse to not live for something greater than yourself. Did Bl. Jose yell "YOLO" at his executioners? No. He yelled "LONG LIVE CHRIST THE KING." He lived for someOne not somthing. That, dear Godchildren is the difference.

Who are you living for?

Yourself? 
You will be empty and disappointed.

Christ? Others? 
You will have the capacity to be a saint.

You knew I couldn't leave him out ;)

See we have our perspective all wrong. We treat this life here on earth as the be-all-end-all. Its not. We are here so that we might go to Heaven. THAT is out goal. Not living it up. Not partying. Not getting away with as much as we can. Not living for ourselves. This is what all the saints understood! They understood that they were here so that they could learn how to love God in a way that would allow them to Love not only HIM in Eternity, but the world!

They understood that this life was passing, so they better not care so much about stuff and things that weren't of God and start caring for Eternity! They LOVED here on earth as best they could, yet they understood that they would be able to do so much more in Heaven! This is a worthy goal! This should be our goal too!

This is what we are ALL called to do, my Godchildren. To be saints. To Love, not ourselves here on earth, but to love God and love others so that we may love perfectly in Heaven! In Heaven we will be able to live so much more fully than we could ever imagine here!

Do you think when he was marching to his grave Bl. Jose thought he would one day heal a baby? Do you think he knew the impact he would have or the great things God would allow to happen through his intercession?  His life of love and faith has allowed him to do infinitely more now that he is in Heaven!

May we all be so blessed!

You can do it! You CAN BE SAINTS!

With Love,
Your Fairy Godmother

To Date or Not To Date, That is the Question...

Dating.

Everyone's favorite topic. Or not. Little G-man won't have to worry about this for a while. Or maybe he will be a priest. Then he can just date the Church ;) But my dear Goddaughters? I know this is a topic near and dear to your hearts. So its probably worth talking about, er, writing about.

free vector photo

Back in my day, the day of arranged marriages and dowries.... kidding, kidding... just checking to make sure you were still reading...

Dating can be confusing. I mean, being a teenager is confusing enough! Hormones, those pesky awful things that make us clingy and weepy one minute and raging lunatics the next certainly aren't helpful! They also tend to make us want to fall madly, deeply, truly, in love forever and forever and 4-EV-R...until we break up.... and then fall madly, deeply, truly, for REAL THIS TIME in love, smoochy smoochy....never mind, he was a toad. THIS TIME I am REALLY in love, like never before, its so much more awesomer, I feel so Uh-MAZE-ZING, I think there is music playing whenever we are together and our Instagrams are SO CUUUUTEEEEE, hang on, he's snap-chatting me again *duck face*....... sound familiar?

Photo Cred: https://britneydrotleff.wordpress.com/

Believe it or not, the Church has a lot to say on the topic of love and dating and marriage. Why? Because its THAT important.

Now, lets stop right here for a minute before I lose you.
This is NOT a letter about a twisted definition of "chastity." This is NOT a letter about "how far is too far?" This is NOT a list of what you CAN'T do. I hate those. I hate those talks and books that tell you how BAD you are for having feelings. I hate those things that make you think dating is a scary minefield of SIN and ITS ALL YOUR FAULT because you're so SINFUL AND BAD! I hate with a white hot passion those "chastity" talks that tell girls THEY are the reason boys sin so WEAR A CATHOLIC BURKA because little Johnny CAN'T CONTROL HIMSELF!  (Can you tell I hate that?)

So this ISN'T that. Like, at all.

What the heck is all this about then? It's about dating, I told you that, silly. But really, its about much more than that.

Dating is scary. Its pretty much the pits. I mean, the lead up to it is fun and exciting, and then YAY you're "together." Until you're not. Then the awful post-breakup despair begins. Repeat.

Why does this scenario play out over and over again? Why is dating much more likely to end in heartache and horribleness than it is in rainbows and unicorns and flowers and Happy Ever After? Because, dear Goddaughters, there IS NO "Happy Ever After." Not on this earth.

Wow, thanks for that. I'm never reading this blog again, ya buzz-kill. 

Pssst. There aren't really any unicorns either.

OK, That's it. I'm done. Can I fire my Godmother? She stinks....

This merry-go-round of happy then heartache repeats itself over and over, and each time we hit the "heartache" part, its worse. It hurts more. It stings longer. We think we aren't worthy of EVER finding that elusive true love, and darn we JUST WANT SOMEONE TO LOVE US! We just want someone to think we are the most beautiful, most awesome, most smart, most desirable girl on the planet. We just want to be happy. We just want to find the guy that will MAKE US HAPPY!

And that - that right there - is our problem.

We've got dating all wrong.  We have been conditioned to believe that dating is all about what this guy can do for me, how he makes me feel. My happiness, my feelings, my desires, my needs.... and we think dating is how we become fulfilled. How we satisfy that NEED we have to be loved and wanted. Yet, it never works! Goddaughters, girls, we've got dating wrong.  Especially this whole idea of "casual dating." You know, dating "just for fun" because lets be honest, breaking up is NEVER fun, and that is always the result!

Believe it or not, dating actually has a purpose, and the purpose is not simply just "to date."  The purpose of dating is to find someone to marry. That was ALWAYS the purpose of dating (or courting, or *name your pre-marriage ritual of discernment here*).  Keeping the purpose of dating in mind is actually a HUGE weight off your shoulders! Because if the purpose of dating is marriage, then the pressure is OFF. We date someone only if we think we can marry them. The dating part is like the final test. It lets you get to know someone on a deeper level so you can decide if they would be a good husband.

Guess what? Its not even all about you either. Remember the purpose
of dating is to find someone to marry, right? Well, then lets talk about Marriage for a minute. Marriage is absolutely NOT about you.

Say what?! 

Marriage is not about you. It is about the OTHER. And when you have kids, its about the OTHERS. You put yourself last. That's how a GOOD marriage works - when you (the wife) serve EVERYONE ELSE, placing their needs, but most importantly, their SOULS as your first priority.  Sounds pretty exhausting doesn't it? Well, here's the cool part. Your husband, must be willing to do THE SAME THING. God wasn't kidding - in Ephesians 5 it says "Husbands, love your wives like Christ loved His Church." What did Christ do for His Church? He DIED for her. Girls, your husbands must be willing to DIE (physically and metaphorically) for you. They must be willing to put THEMSELVES last. See what happens? You end up fighting for "last place!" You, by placing your husbands needs and his soul as YOUR priority and HE, by placing YOUR needs and soul as HIS priority! Looky there! God is so smart! In this lovely design BOTH husbands and wives have their needs met and their souls cared for! In a completely non-selfish way!

John Paul II (my man!) was a pretty smart guy. He said, "Man cannot know himself except through a sincere gift of self."  In other words, this whole placing yourself last thing is the ONLY way you will be happy! And not only that, its the only way you will truly come to KNOW yourself! 

See, not only have we gotten dating wrong, we've gotten love wrong. Love is not about me, me, me, it is, just like marriage, about the other. It is about you, you, you. (or him, him, him).  Love is about sacrificing. That is why real love is required for a marriage like God intended. We just discovered that marriage is about living for the other(s), well, this is impossible to do without real, authentic love.  And what is love? Or maybe we should say WHO is Love? God is Love. And what did God do? He sacrificed. Himself. For the other - us. So love, real love, is IMPOSSIBLE if it does not involve two things: God and sacrifice.

Wow, this just keeps getting better and better. NOT! First, there are no unicorns, now you're telling me that love is sacrifice?

Yep, But there's a catch. With God you'll notice there's always a catch - a paradox. The catch is, when two people are willing to sacrifice for each other - the most beautiful, fruitful, fulfilling, exciting, amazing, life-changing things happen. Happiness happens.

You already know this is true. You've seen it, you just probably haven't thought about it this way before. Ask yourself, would you rather be with Guy A: who wonders how you are going to make him happy, demands your attention, your time, and makes you pay for everything while talking about how great he is or Guy B: who stops at nothing to make you happy and wants nothing in return, pays attention to you, respects your time, pays for everything, and is senstive to how you're feeling?

No brainer: Guy B of course!

Would you rather A) have a guy willing to fight for you to the death or B) a guy who hides behind you or uses you as a human shield?

Duh. A wins.

Would you prefer a family where A) everyone is looking out for themselves and pretending to care about others, or B) where they are looking out for each other - because they actually cared.

Seriously? Do I need to answer? B - no contest. 

We intuitively want sacrificial, unselfish love! We need it! We just get in our own way because we are afraid we won't ever find it. So we get selfish out of fear and wanting to fit in, and we want so badly to be loved we settle for something that isn't love but that makes us feel happy for a short while.

I want to tell you a little secret. A guy will rise to the level of the bar YOU set for him. No, scratch that. a GOOD guy, a WORTHY guy will rise to the level of the bar you set for him. So SET THE BAR HIGH!

This Bar was set high. He failed. 

How? 

Let's review. We shall call this the "Dating Flow Chart."

Dating = Marriage
             \/
Do I think I could Marry this Guy?     --->    No = DON'T DATE
            \/
          Yes
            \/
Get to know him by hanging out more with friends
            \/
Do I STILL think I could marry this guy?    --->  No! What was I thinking  = DON'T DATE
            \/
          Yes
            \/
Get to know him BETTER by spending more time together
            \/
NOW can I see this man as my husband?    --->    No way, Jose = DON'T DATE
            \/
Proceed to asking "The Questions"


The Questions:

1) Does this man love God?   Yes = keep going     No = Move along, there are more fish in the sea
2) Does this man help me love God more?     Yes = looking good        No =  CAUTION!
3) Does this man know how to sacrifice?   Yes = woot!     No = dangerous to proceed 
4) Does this man place me before himself?   Yes = sounding like a winner   No = rough times ahead
5) Does this man understand REAL love?   Yes =  wahooo!      No = this is gonna be a problem 
6) Does this man understand the real point of dating?   Yes = AWESOME   No = bummer. Not good.
7) After praying and trying to find God's Will, do I feel called to a relationship with this person?    (this one may take some time. That's OK. Be patient. Keep praying)

Obviously you want as many, or better yet, ALL the answers to The Questions to be YES.  If you're not sure, its OK. That's why you date.  But as soon as you get a big fat no, move on, because the longer you hold on, the more it's going to hurt later, and it WILL hurt later if you end up dating someone who doesn't understand love, or dating, or sacrifice, or marriage.

Don't date "for fun." Set that bar high. Demand that whoever you date actually "gets it." All of it. Make sure they understand love. That they understand WHY you even date in the first place. Make sure they understand marriage. If they don't, that is when you protect your own heart by NOT dating. By waiting until a guy who DOES get it comes along.

I promise you, if you remain faithful to God, faithful to your own worth, faithful to setting this standard and keeping dating in its proper place, he WILL come along.

Until then, you can always come and hang out at the Fairy Palace (aka: my house) ;)

Love,
Your Fairy Godmother

'Tis the Season

So I was going to sit and write something profound.

Was.

Instead I'm sitting here desperately waiting for kids to go to sleep, trying to remember what the heck profound thing I was going to write about. #BecauseChristmas.

See, Christmas is that magical time of year when I lose brain cells. In fact I think my brain cells die every Advent and then are finally Resurrected on Easter. Its like....my brain has its own interpretation of the Liturgical Year.

Someday I am going to miss all this. The frantic pace of keeping up with extra choir rehearsals and violin practice. Remembering to send Christmas Cards .... oops. #fail.  Giving a card and some small gift to the kids' instructors. Crocheting gifts and trinkets until I give myself carpel tunnel. The sneaking, the hiding,  the all-nighters, the imaginative explanations for why Mommy is so tired, the midnight coffee so I can drive home from Walmart, the midnight coffee so I can stay awake to wrap just a few more.... the coffee. The coffee. Did I say coffee?

So here I am, listening to my kids talk across the hallway about what Santa might bring, eavesdropping to make sure Santa got it right, and mentally encouraging them to fall asleep so I can remove the last of the boxes from the truck and make sure Santa's helper named Amazon Prime got it right too.

And yet....

And yet, the most important moments will be the ones in silence. The ones with family. The ones helping others. When Santa has done his job and I step back to admire the tree and all the gifts underneath, knowing that in a few short hours (OK, last year it was AN hour) there will be happy children and total chaos. Its when I go outside around midnight and stand in the stillness, looking up at the sky, finding the brightest star (which actually tends to be Venus) and wondering what it was like when the sky filled up with Angels. Wondering what the Shepherds thought.  Its when I snuggle with my kids on the couch in our Christmas PJs and eat cookies and watch the movies Santa wisely brings. Its when my husband and I tuck in the kids, crack open the champagne, and toast a job well done, and a happy family. Its when we drop off the gifts for the giving tree. Its when we hand out granola bars and shelter info to the homeless man on the corner. Its hearing the kids sing their solos for a packed Church. Its paying for the stranger's meal just because. Its not sleeping for 3 nights straight and wondering how Mary and Joseph made it to Egypt after fleeing Bethlehem. Its realizing that Christmas, all of it, happens because HE LOVES US.

For me that is the biggest thing. He comes, despite us. He comes whether or not we are ready. He comes not because we have done something, but because He knows we need Him. He comes quietly and we might miss it if we don't stop for just a minute and take it all in.

I guess that is as profound as I can manage at the moment considering one of my dear children just came out to quiz me on Christmas. And Santa. And the North Pole. And Elves. ANd if Santa dresses like a Bishop on Christmas Eve. And if Santa got to hold the Baby Jesus. *sigh* I'm gonna miss this....

Merry Christmas,
Love,
Your Fairy Godmother

A Quick Thought...

"It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

It is Jesus who stirs in you the desire to do something great with your lives, the will to follow an ideal, the refusal to allow yourselves to be ground down by mediocrity, the courage to commit yourselves humbly and patiently to improving yourselves and society, making the world more human and more fraternal."

- Pope John Paul II

❤️

Ps: I love you guys so much I published this from the plane I'm sitting in, waiting to take off 😘😉🛫✈️

Why Moms Can't Get Sick (Or Take Medicine)

This post is purely for your entertainment, dear Godchildren. It may serve as a reminder that your Godmother is not only human, but that she regularly needs large doses of humility.

I have been sick with an ugly cold all week. After canceling kids' activities, quarantining the house, and imposing strict handwashing rules on my cooped-up kids, today I ventured to break out of our self-imposed prison to bring Noah to his violin lesson.  So I loaded up on tea, cough drops, and most importantly, Alka-Seltzer Cold & Flu Multi-Symptom. (I like how it fizzes in the glass, and I hate swallowing pills!)  I sort of forgot that cold and flu meds make me a little spacey.

Off we went. 

Except Noah's teacher didn't show up. Darn it. I even put on mascara in an attempt to not look like a plague survivor. 

After waiting for her to show up for 40 minutes I had the bright idea to give her a call. No answer. So I left a message and we headed to the supermarket for bread and more cold and flu meds. 

Grocery stores are notoriously places where, if I haven't yet been sufficiently humiliated, I can make up for it. 

As I stood in my post-medicine stupor staring at too many options for hand soap (foaming, not foaming, vanilla + peppermint scent, peppermint + holly scent, Christmas scent, organic, non-paraben, glycerin-free, lavender and chamomile, bar soap, soap on a string, pump soap.....) I notice out of the corner of my eye that Noah is curious about the price of something in the freezer case. So curious in fact, that he is climbing it. 

Now I'm sure somewhere in my brain it registered that this might not be a good idea, but that thought took a while to make it into my conscious mind, especially since my head was still trying to figure out what paraben-free, glycerin-free, fragrance-free, gluten-free, milk-free soap was actually made of. Plus, let's face it, I know he is a good climber, so my brain obviously didn't register "danger." (Trust me, when Mommy brains sense danger its like a full on possession by body-building-ninja and moms can leap tall building and take out anyone and anything in their path to save their kid from said danger). 

Anyway, as I am slowly coming to the realization that I should tell Noah to not climb the freezer case, an elderly lady shoots me the look of death and says "is that YOUR child?"  

You know that saying, "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all?"  Yeah, that's my life motto. Because in my head I had already responded, "No, is he yours?"  followed by "what child?" and "I leave my children locked in the car with no heat or air while I shop."  So instead of replying to the woman I blinked at her slowly as my Alka-Selter mind caught up to the present situation and shook off the soap question. (who needs ingredient-free soap, anyway?) and I looked at Noah who was quite proudly announcing what the price of the eggnog in the freezer case was as he nimbly stretched across it. "My son could be a gymnast. A mountain climbing gymnast," I proudly thought to myself. Then I blinked at the lady one more time, still couldn't come up with something worth actually saying, smiled at her, and then said, "Thanks for telling me, Noah, lets go get cheese."  And my mountain climbing gymnast extracted himself quite quickly from the freezer case and grabbed my hand to go find his favorite food.  

Did I mention that we went to the store with Ben dressed as a Knight? And that he was speaking in an English accent pretending to be a Dwarf a la Lord of the Rings who was leading an expedition against the Orc army? I may or may not have asked him to "command his troops to follow him as he protected His Lady, Queen of the Dwarves, as she hunted food for her people." (I always wanted to be Snow White....)

Did I also mention that Noah had "I love my Mom and Dad" written on his FOREHEAD at the time of this encounter? (His siblings tattooed him and he was so proud of his statement of love for his mom and dad he refused to have it wiped off. "But Mommy, I want EVERYONE to know I love you!" How can you argue with that? Apparently when I'm sick, I can't.)

After our little excursion, which, while it may sound rather extraordinary, was actually pretty normal (for us), we headed home for lunch. 

Keep in mind that at this point I feel rather sick, am coming off the Cold and Flu daze, and have a pounding headache. 

We get home and as everyone is getting situated I walk into the kitchen to find children in varying states of "don't let mom see" panic. What did they not want me to see? Just the blue tempera paint smeared all over my floor. How did it get there you ask? Because a curious, unnamed child (They close ranks when they think they are all to blame) wanted to know what it was. So of course, he squeezed it. And when you see a giant blob of blue paint on the floor, you try to clean it up. With your hands. So you smear it. And well, after that, its like finger painting and the more you try to "clean it up" the more it smears. Everywhere.

This is one of those many motherly moments where you have a choice: Get angry, or realize that your children are very imperfect little people whose best intentions almost always end in messes. I chose the latter (its a habit now) and decided the silver lining was that I now had a totally legit excuse to make my kids mop and clean my floor. #winning

I managed to get lunch made and served for everyone, and was delegating clean up duties when Noah decided he needed more pickles, so he perched himself inside the fridge and tried to open the pickle jar. Well. The good news is he did. The bad news is he opening it with such force that pickle juice spilled all over the fridge. All over the floor, and all over him. 

By now my head was approaching migraine territory so I dutifully took more medicine. Then I noticed that the pickle juice was mixing nicely with the blue paint. I may have had a fleeting thought that "it looked pretty" as it swirled. Until I remembered it was on my floor. I extracted Noah from the fridge and we traipsed to the bathroom to give him a bath (silver lining here: no more forehead tattoo!).  

After cleansing himself and my bathroom floor (Yay, I don't have to mop that either today!) Noah was once again dressed and ready to......make crystals on my couch. Yeah, not sure how that happened exactly but in the time it took me to wipe down the bathroom he had managed to find Gabe's crystal growing kit and got down to business on the nearest surface that was a sufficient height. 

I had to make a split second decision to either start throwing a toddler style tantrum and yelling "I DON'T FEEL GOOD EVERYBODY STOP!" or brewing more tea and turning this into a science lesson. It was a hard decision. Really hard. 

Science won. 

We relocated to the Kitchen. 

And wouldn't you know, as soon as I said "school" no one thought crystal growing sounded that exciting anymore. Which was fine with me, because I had a floor that needed to be washed! 

So there you have it. The inner thoughts, the daily struggles, and the reasons why moms simply can't get sick (or apparently take Cold and Flu Medicine).

Love,

your (sniffling, coughing, feverish) fairy Godmother

PS: yes, you were supposed to laugh at this. 

Fake It

We've all heard it. "Just fake it."
We've all done it.  Fake it, I mean.

But I want to suggest that there is only ONE time when its actually OK to "fake it."

No. Its not at the family party you didn't want to go to. (Gasp! How did she know?!  I'm in the same family, remember?)

No, its not online. (Umm photo editing apps, anyone?  Add enough tint and EVERYONE looks perfect)

No, its not at school. (What?! But if they knew the real me I wouldn't have ANY friends!)

The only time its acceptable to "fake it" is when it comes to faith.

What the wha?!  (Pssst. We got a reject Godmother. She is telling us to fake faith!) 

So aside from faking Faith, which we will get to in a minute, lets say why its NOT OK to "fake it" in other circumstances. The short answer is because God created you to be authentically you. Only YOU can be the person He created you to be. Only YOU can fulfill the purpose He has for your life. Being fake just mucks it all up. He doesn't want you to be fake. He wants you to be YOU because - are you ready for this - because THE WORLD NEEDS YOU.  I am so not exaggerating. 

It might sound like a Youth Group Cliche, but its totally true that God made you to be YOU because He knows that the world needs YOU. But it needs REAL you. Not Fake you. Satan LOVES to confuse young people. He lies to them and tells them that aren't good enough. Aren't pretty enough. Aren't strong enough. Aren't smart enough. Aren't popular enough. Aren't worth enough.

LIES!!!! LIES!!!! Think about it. If any of those things were true, the devil would't try so hard to convince you of them!

You know, I love Pope John Paul II (shocker, I know). He was loved by SO MANY young people. And one of the reasons why was because he saw who they were, and he told them they were GOOD! In his eyes, no one needed to be fake. No one needed to put on an act. No one needed to fake it.  He saw young people the way God does. GOOD! BEAUTIFUL! GIFTED!

If God thought the world didn't need you, didn't need what you have to offer, He wouldn't have created you the way you already are. 
Whoah.
Mind. Blown.

So. Be YOU. Authentic, imperfect, sometimes awkward YOU. And a funny thing will happen.

You'll be happier. You'll be freer. You'll be less stressed (lets face it, faking it is exhausting. So is worrying about people finding out that you're faking it). You'll discover more about yourself. You'll make BETTER friends. You'll have deeper relationships.

But you still have to be polite at Aunt Gertrude's family party. Being real doesn't mean you get to be rude. (Yes, I know we don't ACTUALLY have an Aunt Gertrude but wouldn't it be sort of cool if we did?) 

So back to faking faith. 

Its actually not my idea. I got it from the Bible (uh.... We're Catholic, we don't read the Bible. < bad joke> ) 

Throughout the Bible we are reminded that we are to have Faith. But what do you do when you feel like you don't? You make an ACT of faith. To put it bluntly, you basically fake it. And then a funny thing happens. It comes. Faith isn't a feeling. Its not magic. Its not something you can even consider tangible. Its a gift. And the fastest way to get God to give you MORE of this gift is to get His attention by acting as though you already have it.  Here's the trick: don't give up. Decide. Do I lack faith? Do I want more or deeper faith? Then I shall simply go about my life as though I already had it. I PROMISE He will give you all the faith you lack AND MORE.  Its one of His favorite things to do. 

John Paul II gives us a great reason why its totally worth it to "fake it" when it comes to faith:

We ALL want to be happy. If Jesus is what is going to ultimately make us the MOST happy, and we need to have Faith in order to know Him, well then, lets start Faking it! 

(Actually, I thought of ONE MORE instance when its totally legit to fake it. When your God mother asks you if you like the blog and you think to yourself, "actually its kinda lame" FAKE IT and instead say "I LOVE IT. ITS AWESOME!"    ;)   )

Love,

Your fairy Godmother

Let's Get This Party Started!

So I had the idea to write this blog for my GodChildren. Because blogs are cooler than letters. And cooler than emails and (eek!) much cooler phone calls. (Wait, does anyone say "cool" anymore?)

A blog is kind of anonymous but not. I mean, I am never going to actually SAY the names of my Godchildren, so who knows, you could know them. You could go to Church with them. One of them could be your BFF - and you'd never know. Its like.....its like I have Ninja Godkids. (you're welcome.)

So for anonymity's sake (and to keep the to the code of the Ninja Godchild) I will simply sometimes refer to them with nicknames. There is the adorable G-man. (He can't read yet). There's Mo, and there's Helen. They are going to forever hate me for giving them these unflattering names. However, they can be SURE their identities are protected!

So. Welcome to blog you-know-who-you-are.
Stay tuned,
This is going to be fun!

Love,
Your fairy Godmother