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The Two Great Temptations: Feeling Overwhelmed and Being Distracted
"We should not want to practice many exercises [or changes] at the same time and all of a sudden .. The enemy often tries to make us attempt and start many projects so that we will be overwhelmed with too many tasks and therefore achieve nothing and leave everything unfinished...
Sometimes he even suggests the wish to undertake some excellent work that he foresees we will never accomplish. He does not care how many plans and beginnings we make, provided nothing is finished. Very often, the evil one deludes us, and to distract us from achieving some good, he proposes another that seems better. After we have started the second one, to divert us from completing it, he presents us with a third.
Among Christians, it is not so much the beginning as the ends that counts. As soon as we have deliberated and resolved [upon something]- in this and every other matter which concerns God's service - we must be firm and unchanging - we must never let ourselves be shaken by any show whatsoever of a greater good.
St Francis de Sales in Finding God's Will For You, SOphia Institute Press, Manchester, NH, 1998, selections pp52-54
posted by Holly at 12:03 AM
2 Comments:
A woman wrote to me today - noting how many of her friends had read "A Mother's Rule of Life' but then, in the end, felt too overwhelmed. Part of her comment was that these women lacked the organizational skills to implement a rule. This is in part true.
But there is something else happening as well. Firstly, all throughout MROL I mentioned that one ought to decide 'now' and 'begin' immediately, and there was a reason for this - in our haste to finish a 'good book' , we don't stop to 'do it' and by the time we get to the end, it is like there is now too much to think about.
It is similar to St Francis' lesson for us here today - readers of MROL don't have to take on the whole book at once - but instead, as MROL counsels, to begin with the 1st P, move to the second and clean your house up as you work these through.
In addition, all the necessary questions for each woman to make her own decisions are in MROL - step by step. If someone really wants to get a handle on their lives, they can answer the very first question:
When am I going to get up in the morning? and then count back by 7,8,or 9 hours, and set a bedtime. And tonight, then, go to bed on time, and tomorrow get out of bed on time.
And this is where it comes down to a personal-ownership issue. We can be quite wimpy when we want to be - quite a victim - quite 'rational' about why we can't live our vocations since they are so difficult - but in the end, it's the difference between the hired hands and the daughters of the King. We need to 'own' our vocations and take them by the horns, tame them and make them work for us.
On the other hand, another temptation often rears its head - and that is the tempting of something 'better' than our 5Ps - a new job opportunity - ot for me, new conferences or articles or new books - when in reality - these things must remain limited while my other family responsibilities are progressing.
So - we can find ourselves TOO busy - starting too many pojects -never finishing anything - and all the while, our 5 Ps never really do get into place... This too is a temptation...
Simplicity - of things and activities and possessions - a decluttering of our lives - these are necessary to live our vocation recollected and in the presence of God - successfully devoting ourselves to HIs WIll in our lives and circumstances.
So let us be firm and unchanging in our desire to bring about the order in our homes and lives which God wishes us to have - and say NO to the discouragement or subtle' goods' which tend to stear our hearts and minds away from our God and families.
I read MROL as part of my parish mothers group book discussion. We actually only read one book per year and discuss sections at meetings over the course of the year. I found this to be a great format for me because it provided the opportunity to address only one P at a time. In fact, now that we've finished, I've decided to go back to the beginning and try to refine and implement more of my rule.
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