These Boots Were Made For                       Holiness

  What Wearing One Pair of Shoes for 3 Weeks Taught Me. 


So, I'm on a glorious 38 day break from college classes and I have an enormous amount of time on my hand.  What better time to write a blog!  (Since it has been over a month since a new post appeared on this poor, neglected page!)

Three weeks ago, in Bible Study, my youth group decided to pick three things to work on to grow closer to God until we met again for the next study.  After much deliberation, and, let's be honest, a lot of goofing around, we finalized our three:

1) Eat only bread for lunch of Fridays

2) One random act of kindness during the three week time period.

3) Pray for 30 minutes a day.

After deliberation after Bible Study, the guys jokingly suggested that the girls should only wear one pair of shoes for the entire time.  This came up after they pointed out that some of us, (yours truly), had over 50 pairs of shoes. The guys said they would take cold showers for the 3 weeks if the girls wore one pair of shoes.  Who could say  no to that kind of offer!  So, I committed to one pair of shoes, my boots, for the 3 weeks.

I didn't know it would be this hard, to be honest.  There have been many days during this time that I have gotten mad that I couldn't wear what I wanted to for work since it didn't really look that great with boots.  Shallow, right?  After a week of trying to stifle thoughts of cussing in my head at the youth group boys who suggested this challenge,  I realized that the opportunity for grace and growing closer to God was passing me by.

So, every time I was frustrated with that pair of boots, instead of getting angry,  I got my prayer on.  During a parish mission, a priest had told us a story from St. Therese of Lisieux's life.  She once said that she would "prefer the monotony of obscure sacrifices to all ecstasies.  To pick up a pin for love can convert a soul."  If simply picking up a dropped pin can save souls, what could one pair of boots do? 

The lesson learned from these three weeks is perfect in it's simplicity: Even the littlest things can bring your closer to God.  You can offer up anything to the Lord and He can perfect it in His amazing way - transforming your small gift into graces for others.

May your Christmas season be full of the blessings of the Lord and your New Year bring with it opportunities to grow closer to Our Lord!

God bless,

Chloe M.