Trying to live a prayerful life, I have learned a lot about how to prepare myself for prayer. Before, I would casually jump into it and let worldly thoughts play around in my head, thinking that simply placing myself into prayer should be enough. That was so wrong, at least for me. There should be preparation, such as a brief moment of silence and emptying my mind of worldly thoughts for the Holy Spirit to fill. However, this practice must have been overly imposed when it comes to praying with my nephews.

We are currently on vacation here in Sitio Tagbobo. Yesterday, we were about to pray the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and my nephews, who are both kids, didn't behave as I expected after we made the sign of the cross. I stopped and told them how important it is to commit to praying the Holy Rosary and that I couldn't continue it anymore. I asked them if they still wanted to continue praying guided by a recording without me, but they were speechless. So, I left and went to our Chapel, thinking I should pray the Rosary there instead. But when I got there, my emotions were so disturbed that I couldn't seem to think straight, let alone pray the Holy Rosary for 30 minutes.

After spending 10 minutes inside the Chapel, I went back home and, to my surprise, they were praying the Holy Rosary on their own. I stayed in the room where they were, and my disturbed emotions were replaced with little giggles when they argued about the order of prayers and made some mistakes that I found cute. At the concluding prayer, the eldest one asked me what it was, and I guided them to the end. After praying the Holy Rosary, they apologized to me, which broke my heart because they are too young and innocent for my impulsive and irrational actions.

After the tension finally subsided, I proceeded to pray the Holy Rosary myself while I let them have dinner. By the time they came back waiting for me to finish because I promised them we would watch a movie, they fell asleep waiting.

There are things that I respect the most, honor the most, and observe with high reverence, which others might not know. It was a reminder I unexpectedly got from my nephews that while my feelings are valid, my actions should also be fairly acceptable to those who don't know. I admit, that was selfish, unfair, and irresponsible of me, and I hope to work on refining it moving forward. Thank You, my Lord and my God, for blessing me with such wonderful nephews! May the Holy Spirit continue to guide us in sanctifying ourselves.