When the rubber hits the road

Recently, I have been watching Boy Meets World in the mornings while the wife is at work.  ABC Famliy - which is actually not very family friendly nowadays - airs five episodes each weekday.  I had been watching it occasionally and happened to catch the last two episodes of the series last week.  This week, they started over at the beginning, so I DVRed them.  This has been one of my better choices in the past month.  It is a great show!  I remember watching as a kid, wishing I could be like Cory and Shawn.  Now as an adult, I appreciate the dry humor of the adults so much more.  Also, being a father and a teacher, I better understand the struggles of Mr. & Mrs. Matthews and Mr. Feeny.

In the first season, Cory grows up a lot.  He learns the importance of friendship, even though it's not always easy being a best friend.  He learns that the adults in his life are not trying to ruin it, but protect it.  He learns that he should be a kid for as long as the world lets him.

There are times when I think about how great it would be to be a kid again.  I can remember a time when I woke up in the morning and worried about who I was going to play with on the playground or what game we could play.  I didn't have to think about how I would get from point A to point B.  In fact, most times I didn't even know there was a point B and if I did, I didn't know where it was.

Now, as a married man with a baby, I have to face the harsh realities of the real world.  There are bills to pay, a list of tasks to complete around the house, and friends to try and keep up with who all have jobs and busy schedules.  More importantly, I am responsible for getting the wife, baby boy, and myself into Heaven.  Oh yeah, I'm also supposed to be Christ to everyone I meet and preach His Gospel.  In today's world.  Which has kind of gone to Hell in a hand basket.

Seriously folks, what is going on around us?  As kids we were taught right from wrong.  Now, as an adult, I can admit that there are situations where there is definite gray area.  However, for the most part, there is a right answer and a wrong answer.  The world is so wrapped up in being progressive and politically correct, people have lost sight of the fact that for many issues, there is a clear right and wrong.  God forbid we offend someone by calling them onto greatness in their lifestyle choices.    

Certainly, there are countless situations our society is currently facing where people have lost sight of any moral code.  Above all the others, the one I cannot seem to let go of (nor should I) is the issue of abortion.

Pro-life legislators in Texas have introduced a bill which will ban abortions after 20 weeks, based on scientific evidence that unborn children can feel pain at 20 weeks.  It was passed on a second reading on Wednesday and a third reading vote was expected yesterday.  Sen. Marco Rubio is readying a similar bill to be introduced into the US Senate.  Representative Michael Burgess (who practiced as an OB/GYN for 25 years) believes that restricting abortions after 20 weeks is too late-he thinks they should be restricted at 15 or 16 weeks.  "Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful,” Burgess states. “They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to think that they could feel pain?"  What did the mainstream media have to say about that?  Yep, you guessed it.  Search Michael Burgess on Google and the first result is the Atlantic Wire's headline "GOP Congressman Wants to Ban Abortion to Save Masturbating Fetuses." Really?

Why is this even something we're arguing about anymore?  For at least the last thirty-odd years, scientists and doctors have agreed that life begins at conception.  This quote from 1975 is the earliest I found after a quick Google search: "The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which two highly specialized cells, the spermatozoon from the male and the oocyte from the female, unite to give rise to a new organism, the zygote."

[Langman, Jan. Medical Embryology. 3rd edition. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1975, p. 3]  You can find at least a dozen more here.  The idea that life begins at conception is not news.  How do pro-abortion people even have a leg to stand on?  It infuriates me and makes me sick to my stomach that there are people in our world who are so incredibly selfish that that they will ignore (whether consciously or naively) the fact that from the moment a child is conceived, he has dignity and worth.  There's no disputing that when a sperm and an egg become an embryo, a human life is formed.  That people take it even further and decide that they have the right to end an unborn baby's life for convenience makes absolutely zero sense to me.  While there may be gray area in the world, murder is always black and white.  

I certainly do not hate or look down on people who believe otherwise or even those women who have had an abortion.  While I cannot comprehend why, I am by no means a perfect person and I know that there are things I have done in my life that I will have to answer for when I meet God.  Who am I to judge another person?  This post is not meant to condemn them.  I only pray that those people will have a change of heart and for God's mercy to be poured out on them.  

I know that even as it feels like the world is spinning out of control, God is control and now more than ever, we faithful need to trust in His providence.  We need to have confidence as we are a light in the darkness, because He has already won the victory.

Heavenly Father,

help me to be a light in the darkness of this world.  Give me Your words and guide me so that I may proclaim your Truth with courage.  Protect all unborn children and bring an end to the culture of death.  Pour out your love and mercy on us all and guide us to Your most Sacred Heart.

Amen 

Happy Mother's Day!

We're having a whizz-bang Mother's Day here in the Toth household.  Baby boy decided a few nights ago that he no longer enjoys sleeping through the night.  And the wife might have the flu!  So I'm exhausted and she doesn't want to risk holding baby boy until her fever's gone.  We were supposed to go to 8:30 Mass, work in the nursery at the 10 am Mass, then head out to the beach with some friends.  We haven't done any of those things this morning.

Instead, I hung out with baby boy while the wife slept.  Then we gave her her Mother's Day gift and made her breakfast.

The frame Baby Boy made for Mommy

Eggo Waffles with applesauce.  I had planned on making Snoopy pancakes-which we haven't had in months.  So far, this Mother's Day is not going as planned.

As I sat in the living room drinking coffee and wishing I could be asleep, I caught sight of Mary, who has been gracing us with her presence in the living room for four or five days now.

This statue of Mary sat in the front yard of the house I lived in from the time I was eight until I was eighteen.  When the Wife and I bought our house, my mother decided to give Mary to us.  She was very faded and worn, so my mother decided to give her a fresh coat of paint.  She's almost done and ready to move into her place in our flower bed outside our front door.  

Seeing Mary in our living room this morning reminded me of all of the wonderful mothers I know.  Mothers who give all they have for their children.  Mothers who love their children more than they love themselves.  Mothers who sacrifice so much to keep their children happy and healthy.  

I am grateful to have a mother who has done this for me.  As I grew up, I never doubted my mother's love for me.

I am grateful that my Baby Boy has a wonderful mother.  She went from being single, to being married, to being a mom in less than a year!  She is a total rockstar.  Not only does she take care of me (and I can be kind of high maintenance), but she takes such good care of this little guy:

Look how happy he is!

So to all the mothers out there-Happy Mother's Day!  Take some time for you today-you deserve it!  Thank you for all that you do!  You are so important to your little ones and to society as a whole!  Where would we be without our mothers?

Lord,

thank you for all mothers.  Thank you for my mother and for my wife.  Thank you for all the women in my life who have shown me Your love. Please bless all mothers today and always.  In a special way, bless those mothers who have particularly difficult struggles in their lives and all expectant mothers.  Mother Mary, pray for us now and always as we strive to imitate your sacrificial love.

Amen 

A person's a person, no matter how small

Today I had the privilege to sit back and enjoy the fruits of several months of hard work. I am the middle school drama club sponsor for the school where I work. We teamed up with the elementary chorus and the music teacher this year for our school's first ever "real" musical.  By "real" musical, I mean there are musical numbers with dancing, costumes, makeup, lights, sets, and it was about an hour and a half long, twice as long as last year's "musical" that I helped with (which was more of a concert with costumes and a plot).  We gave two performances this morning for the children at school and we will give two more on Friday off campus for parents and the public.

This experience has been one of the most stressful I have had to face in my job so far, but today it was all worth it.

Since January, we have been telling them how wonderful and talented they are.  We have been teaching and encouraging them until we felt like we couldn't anymore, sometimes with little result (much to our frustration).  Today, we had to say a prayer and then put all of the work we've done over the past few months into their hands.  I knew that the shows would be great, but I didn't know that the kids were capable of what they achieved today.  They were phenomenal!  They told their stories and created a world for the audience to step into.  They spoke to my heart very deeply.  They spoke of love, of sacrifice, of sticking to your guns, of believing in yourself, and of knowing that you are worth it regardless of how you look.

As I watched them, I realized just how blessed I am.  I don't always feel it, but I am blessed to know each one of them.  I am blessed to work where I work and with the people I work with.  I am grateful for the opportunity to teach each of these children.

There's more I want to say about all this, but the words escape me.  It's past my bedtime and today has been a long day,  Not to mention, we still have two more performances later this week!  But hey, I had to post before midnight so I could meet my quota.  =]

Lord, 

Thank You for all of the blessings You give me.  Thank You for the people You put into my life.  Help me to always see each person in my life as a blessing-especially when it is difficult to love them.  Bless all those who worked to make Seussical happen and please bless our dress rehearsal and performances later this week.  Help the kids to use their talents to give You glory.  Let them always know Your love.  

Amen

The wife started a blog. So, naturally, we are now in a competition to see whose blog is better.  Needless to say, I was quite disappointed that more people have looked at her blog, even though mine has been around longer.  Come on people!

In all seriousness, I am proud of her for starting a blog!  You can check it out at not shore anymore.  I think it's pretty fantastic, but I'm biased.  Back to me though (of course) - how can people like or even look at my blog if I never post anything?  There's currently at least one person in New Jersey feeling very smug because of my realization of this simple fact.  So, here I am.

So, what is this guy gonna write about in this post?

Good question.  What am I going to write about?

Well, it's been a year since the wife and I have been married!  Woohoo!!!  Technically, it's been 374 days, but who's counting?  That's crazy.  It's hard to believe twelve months have passed.  Until I'm home alone after work.  Except I'm not alone.  I'm with my three and a half month old baby boy!!  That definitely puts things into perspective.  I just love having him around.  Nowadays he smiles, giggles, coos, and he looks at me!  Notice how I said he looks at me, not that his eyes happen to be involuntarily pointing at me.  I can talk to my tiny human child - that I helped create - and he looks at me and smiles. I often find myself sopping up my melted heart off of the floor.  What a blessing to be a co-creator of a human person with a soul!  There ain't nothin' better.

Did he just go there?

Yep, I went there.  Whatever, sometimes I want to talk the way I want to talk.

Over the past several weeks, the wife and I have been reflecting on our first year of wedded bliss.  Not only did we get married (it's AWESOME), but we also bought a house and had a baby!!!  It has been a great year.  It has been full of blessings and graces and we have both learned a lot about what it means to be married.  One thing I know for sure is that I love being married.  More specifically, I love being married to my wife - she is pretty much the greatest.  Everyday, I get to wake up next to my best friend who puts my needs before hers while I try to put hers before mine.  It's a pretty sweet deal if you ask me.

In reflecting on the past year, I have also realized a lot of ways I can live a better life.  I certainly need to be more Christlike.  That's at least the top ten items on my list of improvements to make.  I also need to take more initiative and be more disciplined.  Obviously, the list is a lot longer than that (duh!), but for now, that's all I'm giving you.

So, in an attempt to become more disciplined, I am committing to post here once a week.  I'm not saying it's going to be Shakespeare (HAPPY BIRTHDAY!) or even that I expect you (yeah, you!) to check each week.  And I certainly don't have any plans in the works as far as what those posts will be about.  However, I will be here each week, faithfully droning on about whatever crosses my brain that day.  So, if you happen to be bored and it's been about a week, check back to see what I'm up to.  Or don't.  It's up to you, really.

Lord, thank you for all of your abundant blessings in our first year of marriage.  Thank you for the gifts of our beautiful baby boy and of our marital love.  Please continue to bless us in our marriage and help us to be a light to others.  Help me to conform my life to Yours.  Give me the strength and perseverance to be more disciplined in everything I do.  Bless all those whose lives are affected by tragedy in this world and hold them close to Your Sacred Heart.

Amen.