As 'Mom', I look at the faith life of my children and wonder, could I have done more?

I want the chance to re-try teaching and living habits of prayer with my family, my children, and now my grandchildren.

I recently went on a trip with a girlfriend and several days in, as we always do, found ourselves talking about our children, wondering if we had failed in teaching them in more tangible ways about our faith. We wished that we had prayed as a family from the time they were born so it were a more natural and normal part of their life. We had always prayed for our children, but not necessarily with them (except for at the dinner table). We tried to blame it on the generations before us by saying, “Well, no one taught us or did this with us…” After a long conversation, and sharing many fond memories as well as regrets, she and I made a resolution that we would not beat ourselves up for the past. We truly did do the best we could as parents and our children knew they were greatly loved. But we also made a resolution to be courageous, and to bring prayer into our now maturing and growing families, even if doing so would be uncomfortable at times or met with those “eye-rolls” or “protests” which often make us want to give up. As I age, it seems living out my faith-filled convictions grow stronger, especially with those I truly love, but it doesn’t mean those comments still don’t occasionally sting. The ray of true hope came to us while sitting there when our thoughts and conversation turned toward our grandchildren – we both are proudly entering this new period of our lives. As Grandmothers, we realized we had been given a new chance to make up for the ways in which we may have lacked in praying with our children. This would also be a chance to pray with our grown children simultaneously as we prayed with our grandchildren. We searched for meaningful gifts to give our new grand babies that would help us to nurture them in their faith. We wanted them to grow up surrounded by reminders of heaven so that they never forget that God is Real! Then we heard about House of Royals. The intentionality of every gift is far beyond anything we could have dreamed. My friend gave the beautiful petite holy water vial to her two-year-old granddaughter on her birthday one day and then gave the same gift to her 54-year-old best friend the very next day. Both of them fell in love with the gift and have been blessing themselves and every member of their family. Looking back on that trip that we took 6 years ago we realized something: We had prayed for our families, God heard our prayer and answered in a way we could never have imagined! As moms AND as Grandma's, we have all been given a chance to continue the truly maternal desire placed in our hearts from the beginning of our family life, to pray with and for our children and grandchildren, to show through example and walking with them, how to live our lives surrounded by God's grace