It’s All in the Directions!

(Prayer offered on the Public Address system for the entire La Salle Academy educational community on Wednesday morning, 25 March 2015)

Let us remember that we are in the Holy Presence of a Loving God,

Do you ever get a test or quiz back from a teacher and you realize that you got something wrong because you didn’t take the time to read the directions? And you get mad at yourself because you know that if you had taken the time to read the directions then you would have known how to correctly answer the question. This can cause frustration, because the only person to blame is yourself. You wish you could turn back time so that at the start of the quiz or test you could make sure that you read the directions so that you know what your teacher is looking for.

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This doesn’t just happen in the classroom….. with almost every new purchase we make there is a set of directions to follow. Whether it be new clothes that have washing instructions or even food that comes with a recipe, we are almost always given a set of directions to follow. The worst is usually a new electronic device. It usually comes with a whole booklet of directions that would probably take a couple of hours to read completely.

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This past weekend I purchased a new vacuum and decided to try it out for the first time. When I opened the packaging and noticed how long the instruction booklet was, I decided to ignore it and assumed that, since I had used numerous other vacuums in my lifetime, that I would know how to successfully operate this one. I was doing fine until it came time to empty the vacuum at the end of using it. I pushed the wrong button and before I had time to hold it above my garbage can…. Everything that I had just vacuumed up was all over my kitchen floor. I quickly came to the realization that this process would have gone much smoother if I had spent some time reviewing the instruction manual prior to using it. Like most people, I had initially skipped this step because of the length of the directions. Since we live in a time when our attention spans seem to be getting shorter and shorter…… the twenty minutes that it would have taken for me to read about my new vacuum seemed like a waste of time.

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Thankfully for us, God must have taken this into consideration when He came up with His set of directions for us to follow. As Catholics, we have only 10 directions, also known as the Commandments, to be able to live a morally just life.  Even with our sometimes limited attention spans…. I believe that we can all spare the time it takes to read 10 sentences. Some of these commandments may need to be updated to make them more applicable to our lifestyles. For example…. Instead of just agreeing to not use the Lord’s name in vain…we can broaden that and agree to not use any words that are hurtful towards other people, especially when we are on social media and hiding behind a computer screen. And when we think of the 10th commandment…. you shall not covet your neighbor’s goods….. that we should not be jealous when our friends get the newest I-phone or a new car… but rather be thankful for all that we have.

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So although the directions may need some modernizing…. They are still directions that we should all be following. If we skip them, then we run the risk of making mistakes that could not only affect ourselves but also those around us. We don’t want to look back on life with regret and wish that we had taken the time to simply read and follow God’s directions.

Let us pray,

We thank you, God, for loving and supporting us on this journey of life. Please help us to live moral and righteous lives by following the commandments that you provided us with.

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Saint John Baptist de La Salle…pray for us.

Live Jesus in our hearts…forever.

Megan Maloney–Math Teacher