A Mother's Rule of Life - Chapter 1

There is the story of the preacher in the flood. The water was up to the top of the church steps when a National Guard truck came by. "Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose and flooded the church. The preacher climbed up on the roof. Two boys came by in a John boat."Get in, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose higher, and the preacher climbed up on the steeple. A helicopter came by and dropped a sling."Grab the sling, Preacher! The water's rising."And the preacher said, "No. I trust in the Lord."The water rose even higher, and the preacher drowned. In heaven, he said, "Lord, I had such trust in you. Why did you let me drown."And the Lord said, "Dummy! I sent you a deuce-and-a-half, a john boat and a helicopter!!"

I Reached the Breaking Point

With the arrival of a new baby and after four years of homeschooling Holly Pierlot was trying to find a way to balance and order her life. First she looked to the "world" .... "Maybe if I just went back to work" she thought. She demanded to her husband that they send their children to public school. Thankfully her husband asked her to pray and think about it for one week. As she prayed and read scripture she came across Matt. 14: 14-21 "14When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick. 15When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, "This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves." 16But Jesus said to them, "They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!" 17They said to Him, "We have here only five loaves and two fish." 18And He said, "Bring them here to Me." 19Ordering the people to sit down on the grass, He took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up toward heaven, He blessed the food, and breaking the loaves He gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds, 20and they all ate and were satisfied. They picked up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve full baskets. 21There were about five thousand men who ate, besides women and children" She felt like a light bulb had gone off, she had found her answer, "Jesus was telling me to give him my five loaves and two fish, my insignificant efforts, and he would bless them, and the needs of my family would be met." but she still was struggling with her efforts.

After attending a home school conference where she was to speak, she learned about the Managers of Their Homes, MOTH, system of home management, (this is actually the same system, with Fly Lady stuff added in, that I try to follow but I wanted to make it more Catholic.) Holly felt that schedules were very limiting but she did like the idea of scheduling each person for individually. Again she resisted the idea.

Once again she was faced with chaos in her home and she reasoned that God is a God of order so she would try a schedule "schedules might be limiting.....but disorder is more limiting". She assessed what needed to be done for her home and children and implemented a beginning schedule. It was a success on the first day. At prayer that evening she came to realize that Jesus ".....had to have efforts to bless. I had to do all in my power to fulfill my obligations. I had to give a full five loaves and two fish- not three loaves, not two loaves. I had to apply all of me to the task and mission I was called to be and do, not haphazardly, but fully, methodically, completely. Jesus was asking for the dedication of my entire self to my vocation."

She felt that God was calling her to analyze her whole life, her vocation. Jesus was calling her to set up a Rule of Life, "...nothing short of a complete and proper ordering of every aspect of my life."

In the next chapters we will see where this ordering of her life lead her and how it can help us with our lives.

"Work as though everything depends on you, Pray as though everything depends on God."

St. Ignatius of Loyola