Our Daily Bread

During this day, Lord, stand beside us

Let us think of You often and Our Lady with you.

Let us think of others often with love and gratitude.

Let us take this day as coming from You to give it back to You with Your Will complete.

Dear Lord, let us be kind, let us never feel discouraged or feel sorry for ourselves

Because you stand beside us every day.

Every morning before my husband leaves for work, our little family gathers to say this prayer. The kids attempt to recite it, but often are distracted. Still we continue.

The prayer has history and was handed down by my husband's family through his father and through his father's mother. It is a special tradition that we are honored to continue.

Just as with the Lord's Prayer, taking the time to write it out is always so gratifying and allows me to extract more meaning and all the messages it provides and encourages as my family looks ahead to the day before us. They are simple lessons and promises, but ones I don't meditate on enough.

It reminds me that Christ walks with me throughout the day.

It asks that I acknowledge His Presence and the intercession of His Mother.

It encourages me to be mindful of the 2nd commandment to love my neighbor as myself.

It says that the day does not belong to me, but instead to the Lord. I need to be more aware of how I honor Him with all that I do in accordance with His plan.

The most important lesson for me, the mother, to hear (and it gets me every time) is that I CANNOT fall into the quagmire of self pity. There may be rough moments in my day, but I am not a victim and my family dysfunctions when I behave like one. When this happens, I have taken my eyes off of Christ and have directed them inward, where I cannot even hope to sustain all that is necessary to walk the straight and narrow.

I have to rely on him and He promises to stand with me as I do it.

A friend passed along this quote today. I needed to read it and perhaps you do too...

“I am overwhelmed, caught up in how challenging my vocation is. Then I realize that it is no more challenging than any other vocation. It is just more challenging for me, because this is God’s call on my life.”

Kimberly Hahn
Chosen And Cherished: Biblical Wisdom For Your Marriage, Servant Books