Apr. 8: When Climbing Out Your Minivan Window

With a broken driver’s-side door handle inside her minivan, mother of five Jennifer Fulwiler tried exiting her vehicle like the characters on the old TV show The Dukes of Hazzard: by climbing out the window.  As she writes in the book Style, Sex, and Substance, she soon realized this was not an easy task for “a 34-year-old mother with a penchant for…ice cream.”

To make matters worse, this was happening in the church parking lot in front of a proper-looking parishioner.  Fulwiler says, “My foot got stuck in the steering wheel, and I lost my balance, [tumbling] out the window.”

Feeling embarrassed, Fulwiler researched female saints she could look at as role models for living a more dignified, holy life.  She was surprised to discover the saints were a diverse group of women with varying temperaments and lifestyles.

Fulwiler writes, “My insecurity about how to be a Catholic woman the ‘right’ way had led me to focus almost exclusively on myself…It was only when I learned to accept myself that I could forget myself and…show others the love of Christ.”

I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  (Psalm 139:14)

May I extend to others the grace You give me, Jesus.