Daily Gospel Reflection for August 16, 2016

Today's Gospel: Matthew 19, 23-30

God recently asked me to give up my kids.

Well, not exactly, but that’s honestly how I felt! I loved being a homeschooling family, but about 9 months ago, I got a nudge to start a company that would serve other moms in my community. As exciting as this new venture was, I soon realized that I could not start a business this big AND homeschool 3 young children.

I denied what was tugging at my heart for weeks. “There is no way I can let go of homeschooling, God. I cannot abandon my children and trust someone else to take care of them!” I was too proud to give up on something I had worked so hard at proving to the world that I could do.

And then I did it – I enrolled them in “real” school so I could work full time. This was never in my plans for my vocation, but I am humbly trying to follow God’s plan for our lives right now. I can already see the many blessings of this new journey, but it was really hard to leave my kids at school, and even harder to leave behind what kind of mom I thought I was.

Each time I read the word “rich” in today’s Gospel, I heard an echo of the word PRIDE. It will be hard for anyone who is prideful to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Maybe Jesus isn’t asking us to sell our possessions and walk away from our families, but maybe he is just asking us to humbly entrust those gifts and our plans for our lives back to him so that we may more fully follow him. And many who are prideful will be last, and the humble will be first.

Ponder:

Is there something that you need to give up and entrust to the Lord in order to more fully live God’s will for your life?

Pray:

Dear Lord, please help me to move past my pride and humbly let go of this thing I am clinging to, so that I may follow Christ and experience the full wonder of your plan for my life. Amen

Copyright 2016 Kristy Simmons

I am a homeschooling mom turned entrepreneur. My husband Brian and I have 4 children, age 6 and under. I am a convert who loves learning about Catholicism and sharing it with our kids. Starting my own company has humbled me through working with others who hold different values, scrapping my own plans for His, and serving God in a business world.