The loveliest materpiece of the heart of God is the love of a Mother. -St. Therese of Lisieux

Tools of Direction:

• Dreamwork/Journaling
• Spiritual gift assessment
• Understanding Emotions
• Prayer/Guided Imagery Meditation
• Discernment: Decision making with a God Twist

Dream-Prayer journaling: Understanding patterns.  A dream-prayer journal involves writing down feelings, thoughts, dreams and written prayers that helps us see those God moments in our life, that helps express our deep yearnings, needs and wants, and seeing how we are living our Full calling. Consider using a dream-prayer journal as a way to track those God Moments and Sacred Conversation.

Spiritual gift assessment is used to help moms discover and exercise God-given spiritual gifts in their daily life as mother, wife, worker, friend.

Understanding Emotions helps develops wisdom of the heart and mind along Christ-centered understanding of self. The Emotions God Gave You.  Emotions are amoral, how we use them gives them moral weight and occasion of sins.  Catholic Catechism:  1774 Emotions and feelings can be taken up in the virtues or perverted by the vices. 

Exploring prayer: Contemplative Focusing and Prayer Guided Imagery. An Ignatian Christian meditation form of prayer which attempts to help a mom become aware of and reflect upon the revelations of God.  

Discernment is a three step process used to determine God‘s desire in any situation in life. In prayer we search for an answer of how God is calling us

• Detect: Being observant. Scripture: to be “on the alert” (I Peter 5:8).
• Define:  First, see, feel, understand what’s around you. Second: How it makes you feel will help you determine what the motive might be. Third: What are the characteristics of the thought, the situation, the event?  Write them down.  Fourth: Why do I want this thing, this goal? Fifth: How does this thought, situation, event affect me? Sixth:What is the lesson God is calling me to learn?
• Discriminate: First, you detect something. Then, you define it. Finally, you have to decide about it. “I’ve thought about this thing, this thought, this situation; this is the decision I have in mind. What is God’s Spirit telling me about this?

Think of discernment as the old Dragnet line spoken by Sergeant Friday: Just the facts ma’am