The Strong Silent Type

Welcome (back) to my blog dear reader! I am so glad you are here. I hope you enjoy your time here.

This week I’m jumping into a topic that I’ve had on my mind since I started this blog a whole month(!) ago. And that is the Foster Father of Jesus: St. Joseph. Last year I chose him to be the saint I would make my friend and began a prayer routine that included a personal chat with St. Joseph. Now, for those of my readers who aren’t Catholic, I/we believe in the Communion of Saints. (This will probably be a blog post all on its own at some point.) Basically what this means though is that we believe saints are special people who have made it to Heaven and can pray for us, like we can ask our friends on earth to pray for us, while they are in full view of the glory of God. Pretty cool huh? So, with this new knowledge, I picked St. Joseph to be my newest saint friend in 2018. I chose him for a number of reasons. One of them being there was an online generator, made by Jen Fulwiler, the same woman who did the word generator that I’ve mentioned before on this blog.

First, St. Joseph is the patron saint of several groups of people. One of those groups is working people. At the beginning of 2018, I was unemployed and completing my final semester of student teaching. It was time consuming enough to do the work that student teaching required. But the idea that I was going to graduate in 4 months without a job to start paying back my college bills was daunting to say the least. So, each time I would log on to my computer to look for a job, I would say a prayer to St. Joseph to help me. He can talk to Jesus directly, even better than I can because he knows Jesus better, is in Heaven and is a saint. It’s kind of like getting your siblings on board with an idea before asking your parents if it’s okay. But way cooler and way more effective. I was able to find a job and now when I am having trouble with stress or overwhelming workloads I can still ask St. Joseph for help in clearing my mind and finding solutions to my work related problems.

Another reason why I wanted to get to know St. Joseph better was because of my relationship with my dad. As the foster father of Jesus, St. Joseph was given one of the hardest jobs in history. He was the first masculine example Jesus was exposed to as he was maturing during His earthly life. He was tasked with protecting, teaching, and guiding the fully God and fully man, Savior of the World. He’s like an olympic contestant for Dad of the Year. This made him a perfect choice for me to talk with about my relationship with my own dad. Now, my dad is awesome. He’s provided for me for my whole life. And not just me, my 5 brothers and sisters and my mom as well. He’s a real life superhero. But I am definitely closer with my mom and more like her. So I wanted to understand my dad better. My dad and I have a lot of similarities, one being that we are both very stubborn. While I was praying for guidance, I also asked for help in being less stubborn and letting my dad say what he needed to say and really listening to him instead of just waiting to jump in with what I wanted to say. And it worked. Our relationship isn’t perfect but I am much more likely now to have a true conversation with him instead of arguing.

Something that I never expected to learn during this devotion was new things about true masculinity. Now, as a theology and education major I took a lot of classes about how God created us and how the human brain and body work. It’s crazy fascinating stuff. So I knew a lot of the things already that really sunk in during the last year. The first time I really thought about it was on his feast day, the day that the Church celebrates his life and who he is, March 19th. There are no written accounts of anything he said in the Bible. The closest it ever gets is when he receives a message from the Angel Gabriel in a dream, telling him it is okay to take Mary into his home as his wife. St. Joseph is a strong silent type of guy it seems. His actions for protection and guidance spoke so much more loudly than his words. Actions do speak louder than words, but consistent action, like the life of St. Joseph speaks even louder. His virtuous obedience to God the Father to care for Mary and Jesus as a true man is one of the most perfect examples that many men have chosen to follow for themselves as children of God and as husbands and fathers, which is a great thing. I see it in my own dad. He’s not perfect but he tries his hardest to do what is best for his family. The children of God that he was given to care for in this life.

The biggest thing that I learned through this experience is the importance of community and having people who are looking out for your best interests and want to help you. We are created for community and family. As we go through this life, the people around us are one of the best ways to find true beauty in the crazy.

☀️💙