"You Are What You Love, Chapter 5, “Liturgies of the Home” "

I am very blessed to have been raised in a Christian family. Before dinner my family would pray together; my parents would have my brothers and I pray as well - more liturgical prayers we knew and more improvised ones - which helped us become better in our personal practices of prayer as well as for praying for others.

My family has had many difficult health issues so we had a lot of open conversation about our relationship with God during those trials. My dad was especially good at telling us when he was wrestling with God and when He was frustrated in what God was doing, but that he knew that what God was doing was ultimately good and that we should rely on Him in every moment, not just the easy ones. This was very transformative in my faith when I had a cancer scare earlier this year and was wresting with God but was confident in what God was doing even if I didn't understand it. The cultural view of marriage is often filled with consumerism and contains a lot of "follow your heart" ideologies rather than a man and a woman joining together in a covenant. We work to re-form our practice of family by being hospitable, compassionate, and loving to all of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This can look like literally hosting them in your home or just smiling and building connection with them. We are called to love our neighbors as ourselves and I really want my future family to implement this into everything we do because God loved us first and because we love God and our love overflows to those around us.