Living At Home

"...the Holy Child is my model, my strength, my consolation; in short, He is the complete joy of my heart.  He is my model of patience and resignation, Who teaches me by His example, as He rests silently in the crib, content to wait thirty-three years before consuming His sacrifice, to the glory of His Father...Therefore I am content to wait together with Him...But what was the chief occupation of Jesus during His Childhood, I ask myself.  The answer is that He was ever intent on glorifying God's Holy Name..."

I recently read this paragraph in "The Golden Arrow" by Sr. Mary of St. Peter (a wonderful book by the way, and well worth reading, especially for Lent!) and it struck me as being a great subject for meditation by stay-at-home-daughters.  We all tend to get a little restless as the years go by, and we feel that our lives are being wasted by remaining at home instead of doing something "useful" like everyone else.  I had never thought much about the fact that Our Lord spent thirty years living at home with His family before He began living His vocation.  It seems you can find an example in the life of Our Lord for every situation and state of life! While He lived at home, Our Lord was not idle or dependent on His parents; on the contrary, we can be sure that He was a huge help and comfort to St. Joseph and Our Lady.  During this time that we are waiting to know God's Will for our lives, we should try to imitate Our Lord's childhood and young adult years as well as we can.  For instance...

Building Our Spiritual Life...

I used to know a girl who always seemed to be unable to say anything for herself on religious matters. When we would talk about anything religious, everything she said was repeated directly from her parents.  While it is definitely a good idea to learn from and listen to your parents, she carried it a little to far by being uninterested in learning anything on her own, or even researching the things her parents told her.  When another friend commented on this, she said that when she got married she would build her own spiritual life, but while she lived under her parent's authority she would just do whatever they thought was necessary.  This is a very distorted view of living of home, and not a very Godly one.  You shouldn't delay building your spiritual life for ANYTHING, and the responsibility for it's growth belongs ultimately with you, not with your parents.  The time we are spending at home is meant to be a time of preparation for the life ahead of us, when we will most likely not have as much time as we do now.  A good priest I know once told me that before I got married, I needed to have a strong religious foundation that would be enough to last me through my whole life, because once I had a family of my own, I would be busy with more worldly cares (groceries, a clean house, home-schooling, etc.), and would be hard pressed for time to grow spiritually, at least in the beginning.  Learning from our parents is one very important part of growing in our spiritual life, but we need to learn and research our Faith ourselves.  It's much harder to shake someone's faith if they have learned and lived it themselves, than if they are merely imitating their parents.

Learning Accomplishments...

A lot of people believe that accomplishments are just things girls use to "catch" a husband.  Apparently they think young men are going to review every eligible young woman's list of skills before they decide to pay any attention to her.  In my experience (and I have four brothers), the only accomplishment that usually attracts male attention is the ability to cook well (a young man I know even told me once that the best way to get a guy to like you is to either cook him something really nice or buy him a box of cigars.  I am not exaggerating :)).  But we're not supposed to be trying to "catch" a husband, are we? When God's pre-ordained time comes for you to meet your prince, it will happen! In the meanwhile, you should be learning different skills and accomplishments not to attract a husband, but to bring joy to your family and to grow in virtue.  Not to mention all the fun you will have learning and improving yourself! Living at home should be just that; living! Your life at home is not just an "in-between" time; it's your chance to make yourself into the person you will be for the rest of your life.  You don't know how long you're going to be waiting for God to call you away and you should be learning and growing now instead of waiting until you find your vocation.  Learning to play an instrument, to cook and bake, to sew, to knit, or any of the hundreds of others feminine accomplishments is a wonderful and enjoyable way to spend your time and will be useful to you and your family, right now and in the future.  And an intelligent, accomplished woman is so rare nowadays, there will be no need for her to "catch" a godly husband.

Our Lord's Childhood was hidden and unnoticed by the world, and yet we could never number all the many graces He bestowed and miracles He performed while He prepared for His mission from His Almighty Father.  While we live at home we should take the Child Jesus as our model and ask Our Lady to help us grow to be as holy, productive, and ready for our vocations as her Divine Son was.

Holy Child Jesus, pray for us!