AMDG JMJ+

As I sit here eating a delicious breakfast and sipping awesome coffee, I saw snow falling out the window. Big puffy snow flakes, really pretty snow. It reminded me of the presence of God, and that reminded me, of my mother...

My mother is a very good mother. She loved us, and she taught us to love God more than anything else.

My mother was always aware of the prescence of God. I remember, when I was little, my Mom's watch broke, and she needed a new one. She was very insistant to find one with an alarm that rang every hour. She was having trouble finding one, which frustrated her. I ask why she needed an one hour alarm. She said that she like to be reminded of the prescence of God every hour. That's why the falling snow led me to this conclusion. I live next to a church and whenever those bells ring (every hour), I am reminded of the prescence of God.

My mother told me always to keep God at the beginging of my day. My mother was a list person. Every moring she would make a plan for herself. And she would always write at the top AMDG and JMJ+. She told me they stand for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (All for the Greater Glory of God) and Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

I feel very blessed to have a mother who taught me these things. And I hope I can be a mother like her.

I'm Gonna Teach You a Lesson

Today John got into a fight with a grown up. I'm going to refer to this person as Janet.

I'm telling you this because it inspired an interesting conversation.

John says to to me, "Well I'm going to teach Janet how to be nice, because she is being mean!"
I smirked and said, "You know, the best way to teach her is to pray for her that she is nice." And I walked away to change a diaper. John followed me and continued,
"I'm going to teach her a lesson, on how to be nice!"
"You can't it's not your job to teach a grown up how to behave."
"Well, who's job is it?"
"Her parents did the best job they could teaching her how to be nice. It was their job when she was little."
"But who's job is it to teach Janet now?"
"No one's... It's her job... She is supposed to work at becoming a better person all the time. I am too. Grown ups are always supposed to be working at becoming better people..." John was not satisfied and walked away grumbling.

 I often think it's my job to teach certain people lessons, without realizing that it's not my place. I really have to remember to let people be and just be meek. I should offer up the hard stuff and pray for them, rather than correcting them. Not to say there isn't a place for fraternal correction, I think I just do it too much.

 Constantly I'm trying to figure out how to behave like the Blessed Mother. She was perfect, is Perfect. She is a mother, and she raised a son. Given her son was perfect, but how does a perfect person deal with imperfection? What did she do when she was devalued? Or when someone was rude to her? When children in the neighborhood misbehaved how did she react?
It seems like a leap but this is were John's question brought me.

Anyone else wish for Spring?

I know that's a stupid question. Just about everyone wants it to be spring already. I have never been like this. I love the winter. As a kid I loved playing in the snow, as an adult I love looking out into the white world reminded of the presence of God. But now being a mother of three, I've had enough.

I am done wrapping them up and toting them around all bundled, only to have them either unbundle in the car or unbundle where we are and bundle them up again. I'm also done with the cabin fever. My kids are bored. They have so much energy and when I try to get it out of them by sending them out side they don't do anything out there. They just walk around and get cold. Then they come in all charge from the cold. My son spent 5 minutes spinning in the kitchen. just spinning. My poor kid.

So come on spring come back!

Pen name

 Perpetua Amatia. It was my assumed name for Latin class in high school. It means loved by The Perpetual, meaning God. Why would that make a good title for a blog? But I felt drawn to it. Something about that particular phrase drives to my heart.

God is the Perpetual. He is Infinity. He is eternal.

What was engraved on my wedding ring which I lost last year was "In Aeternum". Some Latin website had it as "phrases to engrave on wedding bands". They translated it to mean "for eternity". But the actual translation is actually far more profound.

Literally, because the Aeternum is in the accusative it is the object of the preposition, translated more accurately as "Into Eternity". That means more because it shows movement, force. We have made a commitment to each other that won't exactly last "for eternity" but will hold us until we move into eternity. Until we join full communion with Eternity, GOD.