Dancing in the Kitchen and Divine Love

I moved into the apartment on University in '02 ( I think). I fought the Lord right there on the floor because that apartment was not up to my standards!! It was too small and I was NOT going to go backwards. I was movin' up in the world as a professional! I was a single mother who had a 'rep to protect'! But Jesus won, I bent my will and my pride and moved into this basement two bedroom apt. with approx. 350 square feet! And very quickly in that place the blessings began. This place was definitely a place where Laurel and I grew together. We had always had roommates of some sort, I could never afford to live in a place by myself. But I had a solid job now, and money coming in on a regular basis. Our relationship started to change, in good ways. I began to discipline her better and more consistently. Anyone who knows anything about children and how they grow, they will tell you that the better the boundaries we put around our kids, the more secure they feel. I wasn't the greatest at it, but quickly saw that all I had to do was follow through and enforce consequences. She quickly began to trust me more, it was amazing the transformation I saw in her. Her heart started to lean more towards me and mine towards hers. Spiritually, I was growing leaps and bounds, I had attended a 'Life in the Spirit' seminar, learning how to live life calling on God and allowing the Holy Spirit to guide me better, listening to God through others. She was about 7 or 8 at the time and one day, I was cleaning in the kitchen and I heard the song "Beautiful One" by By The Tree. We knew it from the radio and I had said it reminded me of her. She was in the bathroom (which was less than 3ft way in our tiny apartment), and I asked her if she would dance with me. She said yes by putting her arms around my waist and we danced to "Beautiful One" in the kitchen. I looked down at her and she looked up at me and for the first time not only was I feeling the love, the new Christ-like love, pouring over her, I could see it in her face that she was feeling it. I thought about how in my arms with God's love pouring over my child, while we danced in the kitchen, I was giving her something that unfortunately her father could not, was not, giving her. She was feeling what unconditional Christ-like love felt like. It was food to her soul, I could see it in her face and feel it in her grasp. "Beautiful one I love, Beautiful one I adore, Beautiful one my soul must sing. You've opened my eyes to your wonders anew, you've captured my heart with this love, and nothing on earth is as beautiful as you." I was singing that song to God and to Laurel. We spent MANY moments over the next 6 years dancing to that same song in the kitchen of our box of an apartment. I believe in those moments were some of the greatest times I was able to teach her, through Christ, what divine love was all about. She learned it was joyful, protective, safe, and unconditional. And though I would've given my life for her to get that same love from her father, I knew that God had given me the grace and understanding and love to be able to give that to my daughter so that she could know what true love is about, rooted in divinity. We have the power to change our children's hearts and lives simply through our love for them. We must anchor that love in God for it to make an impact on them that will sustain them through the years. Divine love is the one thing that will save us and in turn save our children. So find your God, find your song, find your place, find your children, and dance!

POSTING POSTS FOR OUR BLOG

One of the members of our group, wonderful Jamie A., created this blog spot for us! How exciting! Hopefully, we can get followers so that you guys can get the information for our meetings. I would also like to use this as a place for us to post links, messages, resources, etc. Anything to help you along your journey as mothers raising Catholic children in a single parent home. So, for those of you who don't know me, I'm Diana. I was a single mother for 14 years. Never married. (I am now married. God has blessed me, mercifully blessed me, with a wonderful spousal love.) I want to use this blog to reach back and out to our members to share stories and insight that may be able to guide others as they are raising their children alone. I believe I have some God-given wisdom about raising Catholic children in a single parent home. And if I have ANY wisdom about being divorced, it is only because of the wonderful women of Talitha Koum, who I am blessed to call friends. They have taught me more about grace, strength, and wisdom in the midst of divorce that no book could ever teach me!  So in these posts I will attempt to cover all the bases about the issues you confront with the help and input of my friends as we go along. My new favorite quote is "It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men" (Frederick Douglas). It is NOT easy to build strong children, but oh what a tragedy and time it is to repair them when they are older and broken. So let's work together to 'build strong children' so that we don't have to watch them be repaired later.