Praising Christ's Love...

Today's point of praise:  "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."  (Romans 8: 38-39)  Day #3

Sometimes that doesn't necessarily feel true for me.  There are so many times when I don't feel close to Christ and I know it isn't because he has moved away from me - but the other way around.  It's difficult to live a Christ-centered life when the biggest influences in my current life aren't focused on him and don't lead me closer to Him.  Again, not His fault, but mine.  I realize that the point of praise here is that no matter how far I stray or how weak my relationship with God is, He's gonna love me and be there for me anyways.  Instead of just blaming myself and feeling guilty over my lack of daily dedication to Christ, I've decided to come up with a list of ways to strengthen that relationship.  The list may seem like I move in a round-a-bout way... but hopefully that is good enough to lead me in the direction I'd like to head...

1. Start eating dinner at the dinner table.  Seems pretty silly, but for those of you who know Tony & I, we are the type of people who have a million movies and a bunch of favorite TV shows.  We also have a very nice set of TV trays from Granny that get TOO much use these days.  As a result, I honestly don't remember the last time we ate a meal at the dinner table together.  (I honestly think it was at least an entire year ago at a date night in at our old apartment.)  Once we start eating at the dinner table together, the goal is to start praying before meals together.  Also, for some reason, I just think the more structure we get in our home life, the better, and for some reason I think it'll make things better around here.  (Just bought some fancy new chair covers that will hopefully motivate us to use our table & chairs!  Something happened to the upholstery on these old chairs and they're very sticky, so we either had to get covers or new chairs.  I'll take before and after pictures once they come in!!!)
2. Make weekly mass a priority.  We've started to get better about this, but I don't feel like it's as much of a priority as I'd like it to be.  We're very much Saturday afternoon mass-goers or else we don't make it to mass for the weekend and that is one thing that needs to change.  I'd still like to shoot for Saturday mass because we do enjoy it so much - but if for some reason we don't make it I need to keep an open mind and make it to church Sunday.  There are so many churches in the area that offer a wide variety of mass times so there is really not much of an excuse in that department.
3. Find a way to take part at church.  This really scares me because I don't really like making commitments all the time - the really make me feel claustrophobic.  Not to mention, most of the ways to help out at church involve getting up in front of people which paralyzes me in fear!!!  I'm not sure where our church needs involvement and in what ways I can help but I've been wanting to take part somehow and now is a good time to change that.  I would love to find a way for Tony and I to both get involved together, as well.
4. Speaking of getting involved in a Christ-centered relationship as a couple, I'd like to start reading a couples devotional with Tony, as well.  Since we don't wake up together, I figure it's something we can take turns reading at night and talk about how we can apply it to our lives the next day?  Another way of getting the ball rolling between Tony and I is by going over the order of the mass with him and helping him learn the prayers that we say every week.  He reads them out of the book at mass when we go, but there's just something about praying from your memory that ignites your heart and head into it as well (or at least it is that way for me).

And that's the ideas I have for now.   I don't want to limit myself to this list, however, so I'm open and looking for any and all suggestions.  Any ideas out there you'd care to share with me?  Like I said before, my relationship with Christ is something I need to start taking ownership of myself and it's not a fad or a phase I'm looking forward to "going through" - it's a change of lifestyle that I'm looking to maintain forever.  I think a lot about bringing someone new into our family and into this world and God is something that I want to be present for my baby.  I want to give her the opportunities I had growing up and I want to go to church as a family as well as educate her along the way so that when she gets old enough, she can make an educated decision on whether or not Catholicism is for her.  I already think about getting her baptized and what that will mean for Tony and I as well as for our little girl and I can't help but get giddy about envisioning the moment with family and friends around. 

I still remember what it was like when I got to witness Tony getting baptized.  It was such a wonderful experience & a beautiful mass; it brought tears to my eyes and really caused me to think about the implications of his decision and made me so proud of him.  It was equally wonderful to be his sponsor through it all and sit with him along his entire journey.  If we could do R.C.I.A. (aka, the Right of Christian Initiation of Adults) all over again, I would love that.  I learned so much and I feel like meeting weekly and focusing on Christ in discussion with others every week not only strengthened my faith but Tony & I's relationship as well.  I really am so lucky to have gone through that with him.

Anyways, I am totally babbling and have so many things I need to get accomplished rather than reflecting on all these wonderful things.  Thanks for reading (if you made it this far!) and I'd love to hear your ideas on how to live a more Christ-centered life, bloggies.

There is no pit so deep that God's love is not deeper still.  

       Corrie ten Boom