Praying for Patience
And my favorite content this week
Switching to a Catholic therapist has been a game-changer for me. Not only does she go deeper than my previous therapist (who was wonderful for a while), but she is always bringing Jesus into our conversations.
“Have you prayed for patience?” she asked me today.
Er, not lately.
How am I going to develop patience if I don’t pray for it? I certainly am not going to just be patient on my own. God is blessing me with opportunities to be patient (I’m only being partially tongue-in-cheek here), and he certainly gives me graces I don’t ask for, for which I’m so grateful. But it’s still important for me to ask for the virtue I am in such need for.
So, here I am, returning to Adoration, returning to prayer, humbly remembering not only that I am not a patient person but also that I am not even the kind of person who remembers to ask God for help in becoming one.
What virtue have you forgotten to ask God for help in developing? What situations is he throwing you into that are a great sandbox for developing those virtues?
I’m going to spend some time in Adoration this month praying for patience. What about you?
Meanwhile, I wrote a new article for Radiant Magazine on not letting your vocation(s) become your identity. Read it here.
Content I Liked This Week:
This was an insightful essay by
on work and the two commandments Jesus gave us.Plough never disappoints; this essay by Clare Coffey was an excellent look at the pitfalls of MLMs—and how those of us who’ve escaped MLMs have probably not escaped their pitfalls.
I often enjoy Jemima Kelly’s writing at Financial Times, and this essay on why sometimes the best things in life are not the most convenient things was no exception.
I’d love to hear your opinion on this New York Times article (guest link) about using business tools in our personal life. My husband and I have a family Google Calendar and would probably never be on the same page about anything if we didn’t. But can it go too far?
Books I’m Enjoying:
I really enjoyed Pineapple Street* by Jenny Jackson and now want to hunt down every novel she’s edited (she’s an editor at Alfred A. Knopf). It was her first novel, and I wasn’t sure I would like it—so many contemporary novels are nihilistic, full of bad people not trying to be better, or full of disdain for the wealthy. Jackson managed to be empathetic yet clear-eyed about her wealthy characters—they had flaws, some of which at least partially stemmed from their privilege, but you still loved them and rooted for them the whole book. There were—*gasp*—happy marriages, and I had a hard time putting it down. 4 out of 5 stars. Definitely recommend and hopeful she’ll write more.
I won The Collected Regrets of Clover* by Mikki Brammer in a Goodreads Giveaway. While I would definitely be keeping Pineapple Street if I’d bought it or won it (I borrowed it from the library, alas), I will be donating The Collected Regrets of Clover to a nonprofit thrift store. I enjoyed it, just not enough to hold onto it. It did have some really lovely writing about death and dying—I’m not sure if there is another novel whose protagonist is a death doula, which was interesting. I also admired the way that Brammer portrayed Clover as a frightened loner without looking down on her. (As someone with social anxiety, I’m overly sensitive to those types of portrayals.) There was some weirdness with a side character who was in a threesome with a married couple (why are we normalizing this?!), but there was also a sweet little (normal) romance (though it was not the main point). Not a bad beach read, overall.
I’m reading (and thoroughly not enjoying) Momfluenced: Inside the Maddening, Picture-Perfect World of Mommy Influencer Culture by Sara Petersen. I’ve stopped a couple times and started back up again, because I want to write a review for my blog. I think it’s covering some important topics, very badly. So, stay tuned for that (unless I give up again).
*Affiliate link