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Temptation

I use many avenues when teaching music. Sometimes you need to put your whole body into it to feel that beat or get the musical concept across. As I was teaching the concept of meter in 3, feeling a 3 beat, getting the body involved was a necessary component.
We played 3 Meter tag the other day in 1st Grade. As we marched around the room to a 3 beat, however, my 1st graders struck me with their many tactics in conquering this game. The goal is ultimately to be the last person left. Oh, there are those who are very good at outmaneuvering the taggers. Those are not the ones that caught my eye. It’s the ones that head straight for the taggers, as if they can’t resist the temptation of getting close and maybe getting tagged. I watched it happen over and over. They were inevitably out first or second every time.
I wanted to shout, “Go the other way! Don’t go towards them!” They probably would have listened, but I’m sure that’s how our Guardian Angels feel with us. There’s something alluring about temptation. We just can’t help ourselves.  We are drawn to it like a moth to a flame, and the next morning you find them dead in the candle wax.
If there is anything that Lent reminds me of, it is a particular time to guard myself from being lured in by temptation. As I strive to keep my resolutions, maybe I’ll fail and be lured in, down and out. However, I’m going to start again round two, and begin again because I want to give God my all this Lent, even if I failed once already.

"Brothers let us begin again, for up until now, we have done nothing." St. Francis of Assisi

- Sister Mary George, FSGM

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