At my home parish Ash Wednesday Mass, the parish priest centered his homily around the idea of the resolutions that people tend to make for the Lenten season, comparing the practice to a Catholic New Years. He said that while, in theory, there is nothing wrong with giving up chocolate or TV, what is that really doing to make us better Christians? Lent is a time set aside for us to prepare our hearts for the coming of Christ. The priest ended his homily with a challenge: for each one of us to make a Lenten resolution to live a Christian life. It’s harder than it sounds. What would it be like if each of us actually strove to live as Christ called us to in a real way – if we all loved the Lord our God with all our hearts and loved our neighbor as ourselves? Jesus’s instructions for living an authentic Christian life are simple, but how many of us follow them in a real way? As mothers, we are fortunate in that we do not have to go outside of the home to live this commandment. It is a struggle for me every day to live this call with my own little children. They are not always the most pleasant people to live with; they are selfish and not very considerate of my needs. For example, when one of them wants another book read to them, it does not matter that I have not eaten any breakfast yet; they are going to keep asking. What would my home be like if I truly lived out Christ’s simple teaching of what it means to inherit eternal life? This Lent, that is what I am trying to live out in my home, for as St. Mother Teresa said, “if you want to change the world, go home and love your family.”