All Before His Altar

I ran to Adoration at my local parish last night about 8:30pm, for a quick New Years Eve celebration with my Jesus. Our dates are usually like that, short (20 minutes or so) and spur-of-the moment (as in "Hey, #6 is playing in the basement with the other critters and hubby is happily ensconced on the computer, I should run to Adoration!").

Sometimes I have an Agenda to discuss with the Lord of the Universe, but mostly I walk in and kneel right in format of the Monstrance on the floor and spontaneously begin my praise or thanks or petition (or sometimes complaints, as much as I try to avoid this)...

I started thinking on this New Years Eve about what my "goals" should be for 2011, perhaps what "word" should guide my choices or decisions, how I could know God's will for me in this coming year...

what popped into my head was "Live for the Lord."

wow.

simple. yet so complex.

I moved to sit in my favorite chair and thought about what this really meant.

It meant that I could disregard whatever "fad" I read about and became convinced I should follow in detail for the next 90 days... It meant I could forget about pleasing other people or what others might think about me or what I do... It meant there was one clear standard I could look at for both my little daily to-do's and the great big decisions I face...

Live for the Lord.

Which of course includes service to others --- which means I need to take care of myself in order to do the above, but to be mindful of "dying to self" in matters of vanity, pride, laziness and self-indulgence.

So in a concrete situation, like trying to decide whether or not to run a 1/2 Marathon this May, I can look at how doing so would help or hinder me in "living for the Lord." I believe that the training and resulting fitness level would help me to keep up with the physical demands of my family life. I also know from past experience that having this focus usually makes me more organized and helps me to get motivated to get up earlier and go to bed earlier (when I am much more inclined to swing to the later side of mornings and evenings). I also have used (especially when training for the 2010 1/2 Marathon) the quiet running time for prayer and meditation, often working in a few decades of the rosary or quietly breathing invocations and short phrases in time with my cadence. One of my favorites was begun when I started running over 10 years ago when my #3 was a baby and I would fit in runs between breastfeeding sessions.....

"Hail Mary, nursing Jesus, Hail Mary, loving Jesus, Hail Mary, bring me to Jesus"

over and over, as my feet hit the pavement over and over as I had to breathe deeper and heavier to make it home....

so this is the Year I stop reading self-improvement books for anything more than organizing tips, this is the Year I stop trying to figure out what would get me more attention from the masses, this is the Year I stop trying to read my hubby's mind to discern what he really wants (instead of just ASKING), this is the Year I stop trying to "fit" God's Will into my own will...

This is the Year I Live for the Lord.