Hi, I'm Edward Sree, and welcome to all things Catholic Catholic where real faith meets real life.

Have you ever seen a baby take their first jump?

Now I know many parents get excited about a baby's first step,

but I'm just as fascinated by a baby's first jump.

And I had a chance to witness this in my own household recently with my little daughter

Eleanor. But I'll tell you the story way back in the fall, her older siblings were so excited to teach her how to jump.

They bring her in the living room and they make a big circle around her,

and they would say,

jump, jump, jump, and they'd all be jumping up and down

and Eleanor would be smiling and laughing,

but she didn't know how to do this jumping thing so they had to show her and they would squat down bend their knees and they would tell Eleanor bend your knees too and she would get down and Eleanor would bend her knees and get in launching position and then they'd count down three, two, one, jump, and they'd all jump in the air.

But for Eleanor, there was no lift off. She did not take take off and they'd laugh and she'd laugh and they they

try to get her to try again and they say okay Eleanor bend your knees get ready and

once again she's in launching position three two one two, one. Jump! They'd all jump and once again no lift off for

Eleanor and she'd laugh again and she kept trying but I gotta tell you after about the fifth or sixth try and still no takeoff, little Eleanor wasn't landing. you're No, no, and she just wanted to give up.

I think that's how we might feel sometimes when we feel like

our spiritual life is not taking off at the pace we like,

or we're not making progress in our moral life or rooting out a certain sin and we can just get

frustrated and wonder why why is this not happening how come I'm not just taking off leaps and

bounds here I really want to change. I want to

follow Jesus. I'm really trying and I'm even praying for his help. How come I'm not

changing? What do I do in those moments?

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