NAS: Settling

I am sitting at home during my All Saint's Break (we take passionately Catholic seriously :) ) in my parent's Ikea Poang chair and am really excited to spend some time blogging and catching up on reading the last few weeks of the Not Alone Series so if you get comments on old posts you know why.

Ugh settling.  I don't think that word should be included in any conversation also concerning the words "holiness", "heaven", or "deeper conversion".  If we want heaven, if we want holiness, we can never settle. (See Blessed Pier Giorgio) Instead we must always be striving for deeper conversion, for more growth in our relationship with Jesus.  If our vocation and our husband are part of our path to heaven than settling here too is not an option.

I recently went on a vocations retreat with the TOR Sisters (check them out on Facebook) and at the end of the retreat I was talking with one of the sisters (who I had known from my time in Austria) all about how the retreat defiantly brought me so much peace and certainty that I am called to the vocation of marriage.  As the conversation continued, sister just said "but Natalie how are you going to make sure you get a "good" guy."  I smiled.  I have a heart that is ready to lay down my life for my marriage and family and I want to love, honor, and serve my husband.  It is scary to think of laying down my life for someone else and it not being reciprocal (talk about how Jesus feels but I digress). But all I can do is pray and trust.   The Lord will not let me settle.  He will put into my path a guy who will lay down his life for me, who will live in imitation of Jesus, who will treat me as a prized jewel, and who will live marriage on the path to heaven with me (will he fall short?-of course!).  I am not going to settle for anything less because I know the Lord wants heaven for me.  I need to trust that the Lord is bigger than any game of chance.  Each day I ask Our Lady to intercede for me and bring me a man who will walk with me to heaven.  

I challenge you. You too pray to Our Lady asking her to rid your mind of thoughts of settling, to show you your worth, and to lead you to the man who will lay down his life for you, because you are worth nothing less.