Distractions
Happy Friday!!
This has been my brain lately. I have been feeling unfocused in almost all areas of my life: at work, at home, dealing with my children, my spiritual life, my prayer life…you get the drift. I have begun to recognize that when I start feeling distracted or unfocused, it is usually because I have tried relying on myself more and not on God. I know I have written about this before, but I get so frustrated with myself for continuing to allow things in life to distract me or deter me from what I know to be right.
As I was preparing for this week and kind of beating myself up, I started trying to find stories about Saints and other religious writers, who were distracted or at least wrote about being distracted. Jackpot!! Thank goodness these people came before us to talk about their humanity and flaws and desires to help guide us back to God, particularly in the times when we have lost our way or feel unworthy of God's grace.
A few ideas stuck out to me. One was that maybe those moments of distraction could be viewed as a positive if we return our focus to God. Part of human nature is to be curious and wonder. Sometimes our minds wander whether we are sitting in church thinking about what we have to do when we get home instead of worshiping. Or have you ever been praying a Rosary and next thing you know, minutes have gone by and you don't remember which decade you should be thinking about? Is it ideal to lose focus while praying? No, of course not. But because we are flawed, but always loved by our Lord, I choose to believe that in those moments when we refocus, he is pleased any time our attention is brought back to his love and his word.
A few years ago whenever I would get frustrated or unfocused and felt like I wanted to rely on myself, I would say to myself, "Thy will be done." It was a short reminder to me that I didn't have the answers, but I knew someone who did. I haven't been saying that as often lately. I noticed earlier this week when at the end of the day on Wednesday, I felt like the week had already been 10 days long, that maybe I needed an attitude adjustment. I had allowed my many distractions to throw me off course. So I have started repeating it to myself when I feel distracted to remind me of what I believe. I hope you find yourself focused and driven, but on those occasions that you get off course, turn to Our Father.
