On The Road To Perfection

On The Road To Perfection Episode 182: Being Who We Are Supposed To Be Being Who We Are Supposed To Be is something you hear in our episodes all the time. Make no mistake about it, we are not experts at it in practice – but we are a lot better than we used to be because we are purposeful in our pursuit of being perfect in it – hence being on the road to perfection! Because of our ups a...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 181: Couple Discernment We are not perfect. We strive for perfection, on the road to Perfection. As a couple, Beth and Kristofer work hard to be who we are supposed to be every day. Sometimes we fail, and sometimes we fail spectacularly! There is less likelihood if the couple discerns together, as one, and there is greater opportunity and possibility of forgivenes...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 180: Discernment – Peace and Freedom When you are in the Will of God, you will feel a profound sense of discernment’s peace and freedom. And that is the key to knowing if you have discerned rightly. In this episode, we wrap up individual discernment by discussing the key indicators that tell you that you are on the right track – that you are bein...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 179: Discernment – Being Open To God’s Messengers Who and what speaks for God? In this episode about Discernment – Being Open to God’s Messengers – we share an in-depth example of one of many episodes in our family’s life that speaks clearly to the idea that God speaks to us through many messengers. The idea of being who we are...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 178: Discernment – Listening To God Discernment – listening to God – is different than listening for Him that we discussed in the last episode. As we continue this discussion on discernment, listening to God seems to be an obvious step. But is it? And how should we actually do that? That’s what we talk about, and it is vital to understand t...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 177: Discernment – Listening For God Discernment – listening for God being a necessary part of it, is not hard or difficult, and we hope this episode helps you hear that. In our second episode of the series based on our Parish Mission on Family and Discerning, we talk about this significant step in the discernment process. We must say, “Speak Lor...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 176: Discernment – What It Is and Isn’t This entire series is an abridged version of the parish mission we give on discernment. Discernment – What It Is and Isn’t – is a discussion we all need to have with ourselves, and each other. We aren’t talking about what to make for dinner or wear to work. This is about our being and our...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 175: The No Always Wins In Holy Matrimony – Marriage – there has to be a couple of rules. “The No Always Wins” is a major foundation of our marriage, and we think it is helpful for everyone else, too. Decision-making in a marriage, no matter how simple or significant the decision is that needs to be made, is ALWAYS a two-person proposition....

On The Road To Perfection Episode 174: Balance Answering another listener’s question, we tackle having and creating balance in our busy lives. Balance in pursuing perfection is a difficult prospect. As the year begins, we explore “How do I have balance in my life between family and providing for my family?”: Work/Life balance, as it has been called. How do we do that? Well, we talk abo...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 173: Sibling Rivalry Acting on a question from a listener, sibling rivalry is our focus, particularly rivalry for parents’ attention and rivalry with each other. Taking a guess at Scripture, with a caveat from Kristofer, Beth starts us off with an understanding of gifts and talents and skills and understanding there is no “better” when comparing...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 172: Life Is Advent We dive into this sometimes confusing and dismissed time of the liturgical calendar by exploring how life is Advent. Life is a series of endings, and to have endings, we must have beginnings. Our traditions pepper this discussion, along with the big things in our life and your life, and we offer some sanity to the confusing schedule of Masses y...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 171: (Re)Building Trust With Our Children Controversial out of the gate – but honest as always! – we jump right into trust between parents and their children by talking about a BIG reason parents need to rebuild trust with their children. This is not a marriage counseling session, but we talk straight-up about divorce from personal experience before we...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 170: (Re)Building Trust With Our Spouse Answering a question from a listener, we chat about building trust with our spouse, and rebuilding trust with our spouse, no matter the circumstance. Seriously – no broken trust is too broken, and we discuss that. We acknowledge difficulty in various situations, but get to the core pretty quickly. We share our deepest...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 169: We Are Consuming Flesh And Blood We cover the facts in the first thirty seconds, making this the easiest and fastest podcast listen one might every have. We are consuming flesh and blood, soul and divinity when we receive the Eucharist; and we thought it important to discuss that and proclaim it. After reading an article in a Catholic magazine, this topic see...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 168: Asking The Dead To Pray For Us Asking the dead to pray for us can be a bit discomforting. It can seem blasphemous, useless, or silly superstition. But asking the dead to pray for us makes absolute perfect sense when we consider the belief that “we are all one body” and that body does not have separate, disparate parts that exist away from each oth...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 167: Walking In The Catholic Faith Walking in the Catholic Faith is an important part of Being Perfect and Being On The Road To perfection. In this episode, we focus on that walk, and what it means. How do we start walking in the Catholic Faith? How do we keep doing it, and encourage others to do it? Are we all walking the same path? The answer to that last questi...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 166: Being On The Road To Perfection We are called to be perfect, as we discussed last week. So, what does being on the road to perfection look like? If Jesus was “finished” and his ministry was “completed,” as it means when He said, “It is done,” by saying, “It is perfected” just before He died on the Cross, He must...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 165: Being Perfect Being Perfect as our heavenly Father is perfect is a daunting idea! Starting from the beginning, when we first launched the podcast, we talk about Jesus’ use of the word “perfect” in Matthew 5:48, its Greek etymology, and His use of the same word only one other place in His ministry – when He is dying on the Cross. Being...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 164: God’s Time Is Not Our Time God’s time is not our time. Well, duh! In this episode that is short on time – possibly our shortest episode ever – we discuss the intricacies of life complicated by our concept of timing and how our own blindness to the Plan of The Lord makes us impatient as He works for our good with His Goodness, Beauty, a...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 163: The Love Of Money 1 Timothy 6:10 is our source for this topic (not Proverbs, as we erroneously say!). We discuss the love of money in the context of the Mass reading recently about the rich young man asking Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life. We look at the idea of a camel fitting through the eye of a needle more easily than a rich person might ent...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 162: Relics Instigated by a question from our oldest son, we dive into the macabre! Not really, but Kristofer has some issues with the idea of venerating body parts. Fortunately, Beth has the more reasoned approach that the Church has, and Kristofer winds up understanding, but not on-board. Relics are hard to understand, and the venerating of them is not a require...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 161: Because I Said So “Because I said so” is never the answer. We do not typically get into exact parenting practices, but this was an occasion that happened after Mass that Kristofer thought needed addressing. Raised in an environment where asking “Why” was not allowed when parental direction, guidance, or discipline was being meted out,...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 160: God’s Beauty As it was last week, the Big Ball of Twine Tour 2023 is the backdrop for this episode. This recent vacation of ours brought us the opportunity to experience God’s Beauty in many forms, and we talk about the profound experience and permanent impression it made upon us. We dig into the incomparable depth of God’s Beauty, juxtapose...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 159: Man’s Beauty The Big Ball of Twine Tour 2023 is the context for this episode. This recent vacation of ours brought us the opportunity to experience Man’s Beauty in many forms, and we explore this phenomenon that we experienced intimately. After an unintended humorous opening prayer, and refusing to melt into a puddle of goo in the heat, we discuss...

On The Road To Perfection Episode 158: Ordinary Time Is Not Ordinary This week, Beth drops a surprise topic on Kristofer after his opening prayer. Beth says that Ordinary Time is not ordinary, and Kristofer does his best to grasp the mathematical meaning behind the words, thanks to his patito , Kora, educating him a few weeks earlier. With the ice cream van trolling the neighborhood and tempting u...