So too, you also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come. – Matthew 24:44
This is the last line from yesterday’s Gospel reading. Jesus is calling us to prepare ourselves for His coming. Jesus is coming again, and we are not privy to the date, time or location. We must always be in a state of readiness.
As a military family, this phrase “state of readiness” has a unique meaning. Though now Ben is going to be on the training side of the house, the past 4 years we lived in a constant state of readiness. We were ready for him to deploy, ready for him to be gone for an unknown number of days, ready to convert our household from two parents to one and back to two again. After going through that experience, it is my opinion that being in a state of readiness actually means being willing to not only accept but actively work with transition and change. Part of being prepared is the ability to be flexible.
If you are a scheduling type of person, see how scheduling 3 minutes of prayer goes today. You can schedule it for any time of the day, and you can say any prayer you want. You can say the Sign of the Cross and contemplate it’s meaning, you can slowly pray an Our Father or Hail Mary, or speak to God from your heart. You can even set a timer if you want.
If you are not a hard and fast scheduling person, consider setting 3 alarms on your phone to go off throughout the day. If an alarm goes off and you are unable to stop what you are doing for prayer, disregard it and wait for the next one. See what times of day lend themselves to more focused prayer than others. Shoot for 3 minutes of uninterrupted prayer as described in the previous paragraph. You must have 3 minutes somewhere, right?
Part of being prepared is laying the foundation for the change to come. Knowing the times that are best for your prayer time is one way to add a few more sturdy blocks to your foundation.
****How did your Sign of the Cross go yesterday? Was it easy or hard to remember to pause and do it? Please feel free to share your experience, thoughts and offer support to one another in the comments, on Twitter with the #DailyGraces or on the Facebook page.
Daily Graces 