Since most young families in our program participate in youth sports, this BLOG posted on John O’Sullivan’s Changing the Game Project website might strike a chord. Called "The Race to Nowhere," it sheds light on the main source of most self-inflicted chaos:
The reason? FEAR!
We are so scared that if we do not have our child specialize, if we do not get the extra coaching, or give up our entire family life for youth sports, our child will get left behind. Even though nearly every single parent I speak to tells me that in their gut they have this feeling that running their child ragged is not helpful, they do not see an alternative. Another kid will take his place. He won’t get to play for the best coach. “I know he wants to go on the family camping trip,” they say, “but he will just have to miss it again, or the other kids will get ahead of him.”
There are no more family trips or dinners, no time or money to take a vacation. It causes parents untold stress and anxiety, as they are made to feel guilty by coaches and their peers if they don’t step in line with everyone else. “You are cheating your kid out of a scholarship,” they are told, “They may never get this chance again.”
“The chaos, noise and distractions of secular society lure millions of souls away from God. But it doesn’t have to be that way,” says Tom Peterson, founder and president of Catholics Come Home® (www.catholicscomehome.org).
There is an alternative. Parents should not only listen to their gut, but also rely on their faith.
“God has a wonderful plan in store for you. Discovering God’s plan for your life is rather easy, yet, to be honest, somewhat difficult too. It starts with saying yes to the Holy Spirit and allowing Him to guide you," says Peterson. "Does saying yes to God mean saying no to the secular world? To an extent it does, but let me tell you, the exchange rate is in your favor when you trade in your old life for a new life in Christ!”
To discover God's plan for ourselves and our children, we must spend time with Him so we can hear Him. By our example, we teach our children how to listen to and leave room for God - or not.
It’s no coincidence that our family dinners mirror the Eucharist. In his blog above, O'Sullivan notes the demise of family dinners due to busy schedules. Mass attendances often suffers the same fate.
When Jesus shared the Last Supper with his disciples, he told them “Do this in remembrance of me,” as he broke the bread and shared the wine. Weekly Mass, like family meals, offers a chance to relax, recharge and relate to one another. In the case of the Eucharist, Jesus goes beyond our physical hunger to feed us spiritually.
“At baptism, the Holy Spirit placed in each of us a kind of GPS - a God Positioning System - to help us find our way back to God, home to His church," says Peterson. "But many people have unplugged their GPS from it’s power source by abandoning the Mass and the sacraments.”
“The greatest crises facing our world is the absence of God. We all need God,” said Pope Benedict XVI.
The Advent season is a perfect time to recharge your GPS. Make time to attend weekly Mass as a family and make room for God’s plan in your life. Just think, if the wise men had been too distracted to watch the sky, they would have missed star that lead them to our Savior.