The missing apple

Back when our son was in kindergarten, the teacher asked the students to bring in an apple the next day. I carefully tucked a red apple inside a pocket of our little boy’s backpack.

When the time came for everyone to pull their apples out, my son couldn’t find his apple. He had to sit next to another boy in the class – a child whose mother had apparently packed his apple properly – while they measured their apples and counted the seeds.

At the end of the school day, I pulled up in my car to pick up our kindergartener. I watched him walking down the school steps, and – even before he reached the car – I could see he was upset. It didn’t take long to figure out why.

He told me about the missing apple. He had never forgotten to bring something to school before, and this was early in the year. To make the situation even worse, he had eventually found the apple, but only as he was packing up to go home. He was so sad. And I felt terrible that I hadn’t thought to show him where the apple was.

Every single day, I learn something new as a mother, and that day I learned about making sure my child knows what is packed where in his backpack. In an ideal world, he might even pack it himself – or the teacher would happen to have an extra.

I think of that story from time to time. As a parent, I don’t just need to make sure my children have what they need. I also have to remind them that they are prepared – for their science test, for their baseball game, for their performance. We all need a little reminder and a little encouragement, to know that we are ready to take on the next challenge.

As we head into a new year, we don’t know what we will take on or encounter. But we can trust that God will give us what we need to meet any challenge.

We might have to dig a little deeper to find what he’s given us. We might have to strengthen a talent we never knew we had. We might need to reach out to a friend or family member we don’t know well to learn from them. We might need to step out in faith a bit, hoping we are ready, trusting that God sees the full picture in a way we do not.

Still, each day God will give us our daily bread. He will ensure that we are not alone, and that we are equipped with the faith and the strength for whatever we might face.

“Lord, I lean on you alone for strength,” St. Rose Philippine Duchesne said. “Give me your arm to support me, your shoulders to carry me, your breast on which to lay my head, your cross to uphold me, your Eucharist to nourish me.”

As we begin a new year with great hope and wonderful anticipation, may we feel peace knowing that God is walking with us and giving us all we need – as he always does.

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