This morning I was awakened at 8 am by my wife Abby trying to get Emma out the door. Poor Emma was still half asleep and sore from flinging her flag around, marching, and whacking at golf balls all evening long. I think it would have been easier moving a two ton boulder than getting Emma to move. She wanted to stay home and sleep. She wanted to quit band. There was no moving her. But Abby was there, patiently talking to her. Telling her that she needed to get up. Telling Emma that she needed to fulfill her obligation. She just needed to put her other shoe on and put one foot in front of another and walk out the door. After all, it was going to be a beautiful day out and she could do it. If I would have taken the blanket off of my head and looked I probably would have seen a halo around Abby because she was behaving saintly.

And who is standing there with us encouraging us to get up when we become like that?? Our Mother. The Blessed Virgin Mary is always there with us to tell us to get our butts up and to go follow her son. Mary is there to hold our hand and to tell us we can do it because we are not doing it alone. She knows that it isn't always easy to follow Jesus. After all, she followed Him all the way to the foot of the cross. But, because she saw her son hanging there she knows how much He loves us and why we need to keep on the path to Him as opposed to the one we want to take.
There is a reason Jesus gave us His mother. (John 19: 26-27) Jesus knew there would be hard and difficult times when we would need a mother's love in order to make it. Just like we need our own mothers to push us, to motivate us and to encourage us, Jesus gave us His mother in order to point us to Him.
I remember band camp, I was exhausted every night from spending the whole day in the sun! Those are probably the best nights of sleep I ever got!
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