A Rich Spiritual Life
What does it mean to have a rich spiritual life? What would your day need to look like in order to achieve that life? We have daily needs in our spiritual life that need to be met in order for us to keep making forward progress and in order for us to live truly free.
I’ve written many times on the topics of sin, temptation, and reconciliation. The theme of sin in our lives is one that we all share. We’re all in the struggle and the struggle is real. The more we resist sin, at least initially, the more challenging overcoming temptation is. There’s pushback, there’s relapse, and there’s getting back up.
I think that many of us, when working on amending our lives, fail to realize just how big of an impact our daily prayer routine and spiritual habits play in our success. The more time we devote to prayer and turning our thoughts back to God, the more resilient we are to temptation. The less we sin, the more free we are. The less we sin, the more we realize just how trapped our sin was making us.
As with all other aspects of our lives, success comes through integration. A rich spiritual life encompasses all forms of prayer at regular intervals throughout the day. It may include the Mass, the Rosary, the Divine Mercy Chaplet, or any number of devotionals. It may include time reading the Bible, meditating, using the Magnificat, or any other spiritual reading. It should include the more informal conversation with God. A combination of all of these types of prayer make up a rich daily spiritual life.
The key to success is not quantity or duration, but rather frequency. Small doses throughout the day help to maintain focus. Small interactions with prayer lead to increased clarity and awareness. When temptation comes, and it always does, you’ll be less likely to fall for it without a fight. Since your prayer routine has you engaged in your thoughts and your work, you’ll reason through the temptation and be able to dismiss it for what it truly is. You’ll be able to logically discern where engaging with that temptation will end up and whether or not it’s something that you truly want to do.
I believe that the most important part of a rich spiritual life is constant change. As you grow closer to God, you’ll change. You will become a new person, more unique than you were before. In the spirit of that constant change, your daily prayer routine should change with you. There will be times when you’re really into a particular type of prayer and other times when you’re not. If your prayer routine doesn’t change, you’ll become bored and more likely to abandon the pursuit of holiness. Change keeps things new, fresh, exciting, and suited to where you are in life.
A rich spiritual life is necessary not only to be the best person that you can be, but in order to be truly free. By engaging in prayer regularly throughout the day, in varied forms, you’ll live your live more alive and engaged with your day than before and be better prepared to reject Satan, and all of his works, and all of his empty promises.
The New Year Slump
It’s about that time of year when people hit their New Year slump. The grand plans, resolutions, and goals have encountered the first wave of resistance and most will return to their old ways. To expect a perfect journey is unreasonable and, frankly, was more crazy than the goal to begin with. Resistance provides the opportunity to reinforce the “why” behind what you’re doing.
There are all sorts of roadblocks to success, but only the diligent win. Instead of viewing the slump as a roadblock, see it as an opportunity. Plans always work out on paper, but translating them into real life can be quite messy. What things do you need to tweek and change in order to get moving again?
Goals are long term and nothing is a bigger threat to success than poor short term decision making. Think long term, make decisions based on the long term, get back out there and win.
Life In Sync
I once read that we ought to make a major decision once and then manage it daily. That’s decent advice. I want to live a life in sync where I have clear routines that ensure that I do everything that I want to do, and, most importantly, that my home stays clean. A clean, tidy home is necessary for me to work and make forward progress. Nothing slows me down more creatively than a house in disarray.
I oftentimes find myself feeling trapped in my schedule. I have taken on the responsibility of running a web design business and this blog, in addition to caring for Benedict, maintaining our household, and pursing my own goals. I have a very full plate that often only allows for breathing room on Sunday. When I look at it that way, it feels oppressive. When I get down to the details, I find that I have no room because I’ve accounted for everything: work, play, exercise, chores, reading, rest, and goals.
Getting back on track when things are not going very well is costly. I lose time that could be billable hours, I get fatigued quickly, and I feel overwhelmed. Even though cleaning the kitchen will only take 15 minutes, I find myself paralyzed, helpless to do anything. It all goes back to managing the decision daily.
Routines are the oil that reduces friction in our daily life. When you’re able to see in your schedule everything that you wanted to complete getting done, you relax. When you recognize the genius of your calendar, you understand that the plan is set and all that you need to do is follow the plan.
Living a life in sync, where you execute your plan, is all about freeing up creative energy. The things that you need to do in order to be successful depend on each individual, but the overall message is the same. Set the plan, do the work, rest when the job is done.
Persistence Wins
If you work long enough at something, you’ll see results and win. Persistence is the most helpful attribute that you can have when you’re pushing for a goal of any kind. The diligent always prosper.
In order to win, you have to combine persistence and personal conviction. The long game is filled with challenges. You face not only routine setbacks, but fatigue. That’s why the only goals that people achieve are ones that they set for themselves.
At my former employer, at one year end review, I was informed that I was one of 12 team members in the State that met my goals in a particular year. The reason? We were given our goals. There was little personal conviction amongst the staff because they had no input on how realistic the goals were. So, when the email when out with everyone’s goals attached, we were already starting from a deficit because we didn’t believe that it was possible.
Persistence helps you blast through setbacks. It not only reminds you of what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it. That “why” will help you to overcome adversity of any kind and hit your goals.
The University of Scranton says that only 8% of people will achieve their New Years Resolutions. What do all of those people have in common? They combined persistence with personal conviction and blew it up.
Honor Your Mother
During the years when my dad was in the Air Force, he seemed to find himself frequently in jobs that deployed on a regular basis. As a fighter pilot, his squadron was often sent to the desert for 90 days at a time. While it was a somewhat manageable amount of time compared to the length of deployments that other service families have had to endure in the past decade, the frequency was fairly brutal. During those times of deployment, my mom was left mostly alone to care for us.
We hear in the Gospels that we should love our mothers, but I think that too often we don’t recognize the full scope of what they do for us. Watching Alison provide for Benedict in all of the ways that she does gives me greater insight into the time, effort, and attention my own mother gave me.
The fact is, moms go above and beyond. I’m reminded of a [YouTube video released last year about the “World’s Toughest Job]. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB3xM93rXbY) In the video, applicants are involved in a video interview for a position that sounds borderline illegal, only to have it revealed that the job they are interviewing for is that of mom. The nature of moms leads them to be very nurturing, resulting in tireless work.
How can we best honor our moms? Calling her is a good start, but so are random acts of kindness. Flowers, mailed cards, or any associated gestures can be wonderful ways to show your thanks and appreciation for your mother. If your mom is in a Nursing Home, be sure to visit her often and take her on outings.
Being a mom is not easy and we owe so much of who we are to our mothers. Make sure she knows just how grateful you are.
Grading Your Performance
It’s a good idea to think about your performance as a man and husband in terms of a grading scale. In days past, while you were still in school, you had some subjects that came easily to you in which you easily achieved an A with little effort. In some other subjects, you had a natural ability, but had to apply yourself more and may have hovered in the B range. Finally, there were (hopefully) a few areas where you truly lacked a natural ability and had to really work hard to achieve a commendable grade. Life really is no different.
Understanding where you’re strong, and focusing attention where you’re weak can elevate your game. No one enters into a marriage with the expectation that they’ll be a failure. No man says “I do” with the full intention of being a deadbeat or a loser. We all aspire to something greater. We want to be that couple that has a 50 or 60 year marriage. The truth is, when you first get married, you’re really quite bad. It’s not you, necessarily, it’s just a whole new reality. Think back to when you were first married, you may have been going through the motions of what you thought a good husband was or what a good husband does, but you were lacking the “why” behind those actions. Now, as time passed and you and your wife matured within your marriage, the dynamic shifted and you both better understand one another. While time is an ally in helping you to both mature, it presents the danger of complacency.
That’s where grading your performance comes in. I try to go through this process on a regular basis, or anytime I feel like Alison and I are getting out of sync. It’s all about overcoming the natural inclination to place blame and instead to accept responsibility. I want to be honest about where I need improvement because I want a 60 year marriage and I know that the joy, happiness, tranquility and strength that a good marriage can bring to a family and a community is only possible when I do everything within my power to live my vocation faithfully. When I’m honest in my evaluation, find resolutions, and then focus on achieving those outcomes, Alison, and our children, are the real winners.
In order to effectively gauge your performance, it’s necessary to be hyper observant in your daily live. Marriage happens in that reality: the daily experience. If you’re not carefully paying attention to your behaviors, attitudes, and reactions to situations, you’re not going to be able to find areas for improvement. Oftentimes these observations lead to brutal truths about yourself, character flaws, and past hurts. We all have to confront the uncomfortable in order to move on to greener pastures. Analyzing your responses, especially in times when you’re stressed, frustrated, or reacting poorly to a given situation can help you to identify trigger points and chain reactions so that you can better contain yourself in the future.
It should be noted that evaluating yourself is as much about celebrating the good things that you’re doing as it is about correcting the things that need to be fixed. The fact remains that you are doing some things very well and exceed not only your peers, but your wife’s expectations. Those good things that you’re doing should be reinforced, and the underlying actions and principles that result in your high marks should be duplicated in areas that could benefit from them.
The unexamined life is truly not worth living, but even more likely is the fact that your wife has zero interest in staying married to the man of her wedding day. She married you because she wants to share a life together and to grow old together, not stand still with a young, wild, and slightly immature man while she and the world keep spinning. Keep doing good, understand where you’re falling down and grow in those areas. Then you’ll both benefit from a rich life together.
Why I’m Optimistic
Inviting God into every aspect of your life is clearly an excellent idea. Having His help and guidance is like having a cheat code in life. There are many areas, however, that I don’t even think to invite Him in. Guidance on a major purchase, request for help while working towards goals, or even just increasing the prayers of thanksgiving and showering Him with gratitude are places where I have room for improvement.
For the past 3 and a half years, things have been pretty tight in our household. With Alison in training and our family happily growing, we’ve been striving towards this goal of getting Alison trained, certified, and out in practice. While taking this journey, we’ve had the weight of a huge student loan following us around. In fact, it’s precisely the student loan that’s caused everything to be so tight. This isn’t a complaint. Those loans enabled Alison to go to school, get trained, and soon, have a big toolbox to fix the mess with, even though it will take time. This also isn’t a vote in support of student loans. I think it’s safe to say that Alison and I will be strongly dissuading our own children from taking on the burden of debt in any form.
I share all of this because I’m extremely optimistic about 2016. This is the year that we go from being on defense to going on offense. Diligent budgeting, incentive programs, my growing web design business, Alison taking on an extra shift once a week, and the potential financial benefits of Alison signing a contract for work this year means that we’re going to have a lot coming in.
This is exciting not in that we’re suddenly going to have a very full budget, but because we’re going to make real, sustained progress. The money coming in has already been spoken for. I’m excited for the psychological effect of seeing our debt decrease. After treading water for years, I’m ready to start swimming.
I hope that you and your family have something to be optimistic about this year. Whether it’s welcoming a new member of your family, reaching the last leg of a goal, or even getting everything straightened out in your family budget, this is the year to do it.
In this new year which brings with it so much hope and optimism, I hope that you find peace. More importantly, I hope that both you and I are better about inviting God into all areas of our lives so that He can guide and bless us and make 2016 the year that we start something amazing.
Parenting is Innate
This blog post was originally intended to be a reflection on how the beauty of shared parenting reveals the true design of parenthood. I was going to discuss the many times when Alison has been there to help ease my struggles with caring for Benedict and how our system ensures a consistent experience for Benedict. As I sat down to write this post a few weeks ago, Benedict was crying. Usually he’s asleep at 5am on a Saturday morning, so this behavior was unusual. I waited a few minutes to ensure that he was actually awake, not wanting to disrupt what may have been just a momentary expression of emotion after a bad dream.
I concluded that he likely just needed some clean pants. I intended to briefly get him up, change him, and then lay him back down for the balance of his rest. As I opened the door, the waves of heat hit me. I immediately looked down to see his space heater had not shut-off as it should have, and instead was giving me a reading of hot, hot, hot! Benedict was hot and unhappy. Who could blame him?
I got him up and placed him in bed with Alison, who until that moment was asleep. I got him a cup of cold water and a cool cloth for his forehead. He cooled down and calmed down, but was awake and playful. Alison, still tired from a week of work, asked me to take him back and so, at 5:52am, with less than half of my writing complete, I stopped working and took him downstairs.
For me, this story is the embodiment of what it means to be a parent. More than that, it demonstrates the innate code that each one of us carries within ourselves to be nurturing parents. The situation was urgent and, without thinking, I acted. Although Saturday early morning is my one time during the week to write, there was something more important afoot.
Alison, though tired, made the same sacrifice. Sleep is crucial to health and wellbeing, and yet she was willing to give it up to comfort her child. She asked me to take Benedict at the appropriate time when it was evident that he wouldn’t be going back to sleep, but she was nonetheless willing to sacrifice her sleep to care for her child.
Just as there are clues within nature that point to the ordered way in which we are to live our lives, so too are there clues within our behaviors and choices that point to the way we are to care for children. I’m thankful to have Alison by my side as my wife, teammate, and partner in life to care for and raise our children.
Long Term Thinking
Life in the Collins household has been in full motion as of late. Just after Thanksgiving we bought a van and expanded to a two car family. Then, late in December, my trusty Prius essentially died. We were able to sell it for a fair price, but we’re back to just one car. Of course, I was mildly devastated to lose my signature car.
As you may have seen on my Twitter feed, Alison has started receiving emails and phone calls from recruiters making inquires about her interests after graduation. All of these events have caused us sit down and answer the question: 10 years from graduation, where do we want to be? We’re calling our answer the “10-Year Plan."
We know what kind of medicine Alison wants to practice and we know where we want to be living, but what do we want our financial situation to be? What do we want our home to look like? What do we want our family situation to be? The answers to all of these questions, in broad strokes obviously, are even today impacting our decisions.
The vehicle that makes any plan work, especially our 10-year plan, is the finances. Money gives us the opportunity and ability to do things. Oftentimes we’re firemen when it comes to our money. We think in the short term, patching holes and putting out fires. Since graduating college, we’ve been those firemen. Now, after years of hard work and planning, we’re transitioning to a long-term view of our money. This is the key to wealth building… making financial decisions based on how they’ll impact you 5, 10, and 20 years down the road, instead of how they’ll impact you next month.
I like this long term, big picture, strategic thinking. While working for the Boy Scouts, I was routinely given high marks on my ability to see the big picture and execute on the small tasks to achieve that overall goal. While 10 years seems a long way off, and it certainly is, there’s no doubt that the buying decisions that Alison and I make today impact our ability to hit our 10 year goals.
A key to success in making financial decisions with long term thinking is to make them before they come. Money ebbs and flows, meaning it can show up quite unexpectedly and in large amounts. Delineating between needs and wants, and having a plan laid out for any and all “extra” dollars can accelerate progress. When you make decisions before money shows up, you minimize the chances that it’ll be delegated to the wrong objective.
Getting to the point of long term thinking in your life is something that takes time, takes planning, and takes unity with your spouse. When you do get there, buckle up because there’s nothing that you can’t accomplish together.
The Sky Rarely Falls
People have been predicting the end of the United States and the collapse of the dollar since the very beginning of our Nation. There are plenty of threats and things to fear out there, but the sky rarely falls. If you find yourself living in constant fear of the economic or political collapse of your society, then you’ve placed your trust in the wrong god.
None of us can know what’s going to happen in the future, and we’ve all experienced economic, political, and social unrest. The fact remains that things always recover. Our emotions can be so easily manipulated by the media that we consume–it’s important for us to keep our priorities straight. We trust in God to provide for us, we act with common sense, and we build our homes on solid foundations.
I, too, find myself starting to worry when things falter economically, but that fear is more about my lack of security than anything else. I then take that fear and direct it towards sound financial decision making that sets my family on solid ground. While things may be bad today, when looking at the big picture, this is just yet another blip. If I save, eliminate debt, and plan for the future, I won’t be at the mercy of the market.
I don’t fret about political elections because there’s no way of knowing what’s going to happen. In the ten months between now and election day, so much could happen. Worrying about the outcome does absolutely nothing. Instead I research the candidates and vote when the polls are open.
Many claim the sky is falling, but they are shown to be silly when the next day, the sky is still where it ought to be. Place your faith, and trust, in God. Make wise decisions and focus your creative energies on those things that will improve your life and the lives of those around you.