We welcome guest blogger Michael Glassmeyer, husband of St. Anthony Messenger Press marketing manager, Angela Glassmeyer.
From the mouths of babes comes the truth…How many times have we heard that saying? What’s your response? Shrug it off with a smile? Let it go in one ear and out the other? Chuckle a little bit while wishing it was just that easy? As the Jack Nicholson character said, “You can’t handle the truth!” Why?
Our lives are complicated and busy, especially compared to the innocent, simplistic lives of these “babes.” As we grow older, we are engaged in the ever-growing struggles between work and pleasure, high road and low road, left and right, right and wrong, faith and law, belief and action…in one word: PRIORITIES. As youths, we began with one simple, innocent struggle between being happy and avoiding sad.
As adults, how much time do we spend each day in this balancing act, trying to make it through the day? A couple hours, 8 hours, 12 hours, 24…? At what cost? The priorities change daily and the effects of our decisions follow those tides of change.
Two thousand years ago, Jesus walked along the Sea of Galilee, the shores of the Jordan, and the sandy roads in between. He was more than the Son of God in flesh, the fulfillment of the Old Testament; he was our role model planting the seeds of Christianity, which started with twelve and grew to over two billion today. He showed us how to plant and nurture the “seeds.” Just as Jesus is our role model, as he should be, we are called to be role models for others, as we should be, especially the young. Can you handle the truth?
The other night my son jumped up into bed with me. I didn’t get to see him that whole day because I was working on our family’s new house we just purchased. In fact, the majority of my time the last few weeks has been at the house getting it ready to move in. This has been my main priority; it’s our first house. I know it’s been tough on the kids not being able to see mommy and me as much as they usually do the last few weeks, but I keep reminding them that we are doing this so they can finally have their own bedrooms, a yard to play in, and plenty of kids in the neighborhood to play with. I kept telling them the faster we get the work on the house done, the faster we can move in.
Well, that other night in bed after another long day at the house without seeing my kids, my son jumped into bed, snuggled up next to me as simply said,
“You know the house is not more important than our family.”
(From the mouth of a babe, this time a four year old.) This time I couldn’t shrug it off with a smile, let it go in and out of my ears, or even chuckle… I couldn’t handle the truth. All I could think was, “what kind of a role model I am being for my kids?” ”What kind of a balancing act am I living?”
God Bless!
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Featured Photo Credit: © Natascha Farber\photoXpress
Michael Glassmeyer is a life-long Catholic who has spent the past several years examining his own faith and beliefs in an attempt to understand the beliefs and actions of others involving local, state, national, and world events. He looks to pursue a master’s degree in lay pastoral ministry and eventually go into the Permanent Deacon Formation program. Michael lives in his hometown of Cincinnati, Ohio and is married with two children. blog comments powered by 
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