Homegrown Faith and Family

A couple of weeks ago I was blessed with the birth of my third grandchild. As I stood there watching my daughter labor for 13 hours, I was once again awed with the miracle of birth and overwhelmed with emotion. A second generation of children for me to love. How lucky am I!

It will be interesting to watch my children raise their children. What kind of parents will they be? I am hoping that they will give their children a strong foundation to stand on—a foundation based on God’s love, the security of a loving home and the freedom to be independent.

It is the same foundation I tried to give to my children. Sure there were days when I stumbled—I would even say failed–at giving my children all that they needed. But always, God’s love was the foundation in our house and through His grace we raised a family. In my role as a grandmother, I intend to share with my growing family our established values and traditions.

For example, birthdays; if you are in our family, we celebrate! It’s not about the presents as much as gathering as a family to eat together and share a few laughs and celebrate the birthday of a loved one. Christmas is celebrated with much tradition and family unity. Christmastime is when I am most grateful for God’s blessings and my family.

I hope I will have more grandchildren. Once we were a family of five–two girls and one boy. Now we are a family of 12. Who knows how many more little miracles we will add to our family in five years!

But enough about me. If you want to read a good book about faith and family you might want to try this new book coming out in August—Homegrown Faith: Nurturing Your Catholic Family.  Author Heidi Bratton invites you into her home, where she’ll show you where to find God—right inside the busyness of modern family life. A series of insightful and often humorous weekly reflections on raising faithful Catholic families, Homegrown Faith draws on familiar situations.

About the Author

Tammy Monjaras

Tammy Monjaras serves as the director of the customer satisfaction division. As an avid reader, she loves speaking to customers about the latest books Franciscan Media offers. Tammy is a native Texan but has called Cincinnati home for the past 15 years with her husband, Richard, children and grandchildren.