Can You Handle My Pearls?

LaKia Morrison is the author of Can You Handle My Pearls? ( avg rating, 2 ratings, 2 reviews, published ), The Deadly Sins of Sex ( Is this you?.
Table of contents

I found myself feeling especially grumpy this week with questions, especially if I have to go up and down the stairs extra times to take care of these issues. I took a deep breath and sat down and made a list of the recent situations. Then I wrote down what I thought the rules should be. I ran them by my husband who had some good input and we changed them slightly. Now the important part. I sat down the kids and I told them the rules and made them repeat it back to me.

I asked questions to make sure it was clear. Where is too far? When do you need to come ask me permission? Get better at recognizing when it needs to happen.

Safety Rules When Wearing Your Pearls

I was watching a Matthew Kelly video of one of his business talks at a conference and he said something so interesting. I realized that I was in transition of seasons and that it was uncomfortable. Ask yourself why you are feeling frustrated this week? Are you in a transition of some sort? Can you speed up the transition? If not, keep repeating to yourself that you are in a state of transition and that is naturally uncomfortable. Once the transition is over, you will enjoy the change.

Sometimes all we need to do is shift the way we perceive our current situation and that makes us feel so much more calm and at peace. But God knows what I need. He put a book in my lap and a deadline to jolt me out of my haze of wallowing. I can read this in a little over an hour. I will now take a moment to thank modern publishers for making self-help books shorter. They used to be three times a long. In the hour and a half it took me to read Good Enough is Good Enough by Colleen Duggan , I felt both lectured to and loved, surprisingly not by Colleen herself but by the Holy Spirit through her words.

This was just what I needed. I particularly liked the saint quotes she peppered throughout the book. She runs through the major aspects of motherhood, parenting itself, marriage, watching your kids suffer, and comparing yourself to other parents. She shares real, deep, raw, and very relatable problems. I appreciate her honesty which feels genuine without sounding like a list of complaints about how difficult modern day parenting is. I filled most of my days with silent commentary on my parenting performance and rarely, if ever, did I make the grade.

I needed to abandon the frantic, worried, compulsive sermons I was inclined to issue in prayer in favor of more gentle requests to God about what it was he wanted from and for me. The holier we are, the more we will suffer due to the evil and sin in the world. We wanted to allow our kids the freedom to tell us if they hated going to Church so we could actually engage them in conversation rather than have them sit docile and obedient in our pew for eighteen years and then discard their faith in college. We have a choice: Learning to submit is a slow, humbling process though. It takes time and practice and effort — a lifetime of tweaking.

As I began writing this review, my 4. The questions at the end of each chapter are interesting and thought-provoking. I can see a group of moms easily using this as a study. I feel confused that God has given me, not only a surprise Irish twins pregnancy but also one that has already crippled my body forcing me to take a back seat as my husband pretty much single parents our kids.

While his stress level increases as he juggles everything, our sex life is deteriorating even more than usual and so he is left without any outlet for that frustration either. We are nothing without Him. The kids are going to be okay. My marriage is going to be okay. And even if okay involves a whole lot of suffering, I take comfort in knowing that suffering is what saints are made of and after all, that is my deepest desire for my life.

Then once I knew about it, I kind of left it in the background. Faustina Prayer Book for the Conversion of Sinners. This was a perfect little book for me because most of my family is not religious and it gave me a tangible and focused way to pray for them! Then once I discovered Susan as an author, I looked at her other books. She had tons of books on the topic of purgatory. I loved this book. It really helped me understand more about purgatory but also the great joy that can come from praying for the holy souls there. You see, they cannot do anything to get themselves to Heaven.

They are trapped in a sense depending on the mercy of the Lord and depending on our prayers. When we pray for them, it can actually lessen their time in purgatory or even release them to Heaven. What joy we could give! And that is not a new concept to me. The most souls are released on Christmas Day and the second most souls are released on Easter Day. So please please please pray for these holy souls during Lent and pray especially for them on Easter Day.

I also imagine there are a great deal of souls released on Divine Mercy Sunday when Jesus opens his heart in a special way to hear our appeals for his mercy!

I Can Handle It

One of the most powerful things we can do for the holy souls in purgatory is to have a Mass said for them. You can call your church office and find out what the suggested donation is to have a Mass said for someone. If you belong to a large church and the Mass intentions book fills up quickly, find a rural church and make a donation to them. The church prays for these holy souls and you can help a smaller church get some much needed funding. If you visit www.

I was going to type up some purgatory prayers but The Catholic Company already did a wonderful job so you can read about those options here: I encourage you to go and learn more about purgatory. We have now been praying for them every day and we say a prayer for them when we pass a cemetery. These stories helped me understand, not only the great need the holy souls have for our prayers, but also the great effectiveness of our prayers, which has been giving me comfort. You can read more about her at www. Let us feel that our small, unseen efforts are helping those who cannot help themselves!

How to Avoid Damaging Your Pearls

No doubt there are even more but I wanted to share a few with you in case you were experiencing one of these. Well this can be a lovely experience. I like controlling things so I enjoy when something has the precise outcome that I imagined. It can be deeply satisfying. Though I no doubt made the mistake of attributing it to my own wonderful planning and self-discipline, sometimes God does allow us to have this kind of Lent. Perhaps he knows that this is what you need to feel close to him or to feel strong in your faith at the moment.

Just enjoy it and feel close to Jesus! There is a much more humbling kind of Lent, the one where you blow it. Every year I see blogging stories of women who feel brave enough to share how much they have failed at Lent. As frustrating as it is to have a Lent like this, and oh how I have had a Lent like this, I do appreciate the times that God knocks me down a few pegs.

This is usually an extremely painful Lent. You should immediately have mercy on yourself and adjust your expectations. Give him thanks because he has given you a special view into his own suffering. Contemplate the pain he went through and feel wrapped in love that he will give you the grace to get through your own pain as well.

This Lent is a little bit like the last one but instead of a major event that comes crashing down on you, this is more like a slow burn that stays with you through the whole desert. You may feel guilt, shame, or frustration. Set down your fish fry expectations mama.

Upcoming Events

This is right where God wants you. Imagine how God waits anxiously for each soul to turn to Him? Throw your arms open and hug the Lord with your whole heart. He wants to feel close to you. What other kinds of Lent have you experienced? Share your story in solidarity with other Catholic moms! Our lives are largely without war or hard manual labor. We are so bored out of our mind, yes, even those of us who feel busy all the time, that we are coping with Netflix, shopping, Starbucks, and social media. Last week I posted an article about the jokes we often make about drinking to survive parenting.

My friend Ashley made a thoughtful comment that it was, in fact, just a joke and we should be able to joke about the struggles of parenting without feeling condemned to live out the brokenness that the joke suggests. The truth is that my friend Ashley is an incredibly grounded person. She reads more than anyone I know. She has a high sense of self-awareness.


  • Le problème de lidentité dans la nouvelle fantastique (ESSAI ET DOC) (French Edition).
  • Death on Beacon Hill (Nell Sweeney Mystery Series Book 3);
  • 4 Ways to Take Care of Pearls - wikiHow.
  • The Right is Wrong!
  • Why Literature Matters in the 21st Century;
  • .

My concern is that the more we scroll through our phones and see these jokes about wine, coffee, and shopping, the more we normalize this behavior. I suspect there are moms out there who have grabbed onto these isms and use it to feel good about their bad spending or drinking habits. We do the same thing about binge watching Netflix. Last year a friend of mine, after having four boys, had a girl. She saw this adorable tulle skirt in the store and posted a picture of it saying how tempted she was to buy it now that she finally had a sweet girl at home.

Her family had gone through a series of life-threatening medical issues and her husband was not able to work. But I could not believe how many people were cheering her on to buy it anyway despite knowing their precarious financial position. After a week, we start to experience a lot of bad side effects from giving up this thing that we have become so accustomed to having.

I am firmly in the camp that we ought to give up things for the entire season of Lent and not just Monday-Saturday. Sundays should not be a FREE day for you to eat the chocolate or watch television or check your Facebook account. I absolutely think this work is well worth your time! I am not addicted to drinking wine, coffee, or shopping.

I am, however, definitely addicted to refined sugar, regency romance novels, and I go in an out of phases of being addicted to Netflix.

LaKia Morrison (Author of Can You Handle My Pearls?)

I tend to kick it for a long time, then I get pregnant and sick and I find myself hooked once again. They are incredibly powerful. They have real power over us. They keep us from loving Jesus as we ought to. We are all in a great deal of pain and the idea of taking on more pain by giving some of things up makes me sick to my stomach. Giving in to these behaviors does not make you bad. Nothing could ever make you bad. God created you like He created the Earth and the sky.

He meant, perfect, just the way He wanted you to be. Nothing can change that because it is your soul inside of you. God loves you beyond measure and understanding and no addiction can ever change that. Take comfort in this truth. Find strength in it. Then use that strength to loosen your grip on an addiction you have. Lent is a wonderful time to do this. Cling to Jesus with all your might and ask Him to help you walk in the desert.

You will emerge stronger and more holy and it will be worth it. I feel like I normally prepare my heart for Lent on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday but in the last few years, much like the Christmas season, the season of Lent comes clattering in weeks before it beings. Read this, pray with with, buy this for your kids! It has suddenly stopped feeling private. Lent is meant to be a time of prayer and fasting.

See what I did? I do not create special content for Lent because I know there is plenty of it out there. If you want to find something to work on, you can do so easily. My challenge to you is that you choose something that is right for your soul, not for your social media account. Share it with joy and pride. But for everyone else, choose your Lenten journey and travel it offline. Lent should be a somber time, a quiet time.

Remember, we are walking in the desert. In my home, we stop watching all non-religious television. America has done what we so often do which is to take something good and to twist it into being commercial and fun.

How To Buy Pearls

Lent is not supposed to be fun. That is not to say that we have to get it perfect. Many of you will set out with lofty goals and then life will get in the way and you will fall short. Jesus sees you and he knows your heart. He knows when you have to set down your spiritual practices to take care of your kids. But he also sees when you set down your spiritual practices to watch television. These moments are private. They have nothing to do with me or your friends. And in the end, your salvation comes down to your own choices.

Guard yourself against the glitter of the internet. Hold your Lenten pain close to your heart and allow it to lead yourself to Jesus. It is important that we each walk through the desert for forty days each year. What a small price to pay to understand what the Son of God came to Earth to do for our salvation so that we might even have a shot at Heaven. Do not try to avoid the heat of the sun or the burn under your sandals.

Learn to sit with the pain of this walk and ask God to show you what else needs to be burned away so you can be more like Jesus. If you need a journal, a devotional, a DVD series, a series of adult coloring pages, etc. But embrace these tools as ways to sharpen your focus not to ease the pain of this trial. The pain is the purpose of it. Do not be scared of pain. Trials and tribulations offer us a chance to make reparation for our past faults and sins. On such occasions the Lord comes to us like a physician to heal the wounds left by our sins.

Here are the resources I said I’d link:

Tribulation is the divine medicine. Would that men might come at last to see that it is quite impossible to reach the thicket of the riches and wisdom of God except by first entering the thicket of much suffering, in such a way that the soul finds there its consolation and desire. The soul that longs for divine wisdom chooses first, and in truth, to enter the thicket of the cross.

When it is all over you will not regret having suffered; rather you will regret having suffered so little, and suffered that little so badly. Your first task is to be dissatisfied with yourself, fight sin, and transform yourself into something better. Your second task is to put up with the trials and temptations of this world that will be brought on by the change in your life and to persevere to the very end in the midst of these things.

All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. And so the lies begin. Do not stretch the thread as you clean. The pearls may get loose and drop out. Only use mineral water or distilled water to rinse your pearls. Standard tap water contains chlorine and other chemicals that can damage the surface of your pearls. Gently dab the water and soap of your pearls with a dry, soft cloth. Do not let chemicals or water sit on your pearls too long. Polish your pearls with a dry, soft cloth to maintain their luster.

Avoid jewelry cleaners or ultrasonic cleaners. These are too rough and will damage your pearls. Fasten any clasps or pins before storing your pearls. These sharp metal objects could rub up against the pearl and cause scratches. Unclasped strands may also become tangled and cause your pearls getting horribly scratched. Keep your pearls in a separate compartment, away from other jewelry.

Other gems may scratch the surface of the pearls if they come into contact with them. Even other pearl pieces may have metal elements that could scratch the pearls on a separate piece, so store each pearl piece in its own compartment. If possible, use a small velvet drawstring bag and insert the pearl in there.

Consider storing your pearls in a silk bag, velvet-lined box, or satin-lined pearl folder. Taking this extra precaution will ensure that nothing else scratches your pearls. Never store pearls in a plastic bag. Some plastics can emit a chemical that, over time, will cause your pearls to deteriorate. Airtight plastic bags can also cause vapor or sweat inside.

Store pearl strands flat to avoid stretching out the string. Avoid hanging them high or hanging them at all. Do not keep pearl stored in a safe or safety deposit box for an extended period of time. These dry conditions will dehydrate you pearls, causing them to develop small surface fractures. Air them at least every week or a month. Keep a glass of water inside a vault or safe if you must store your pearls there.

This will help humidify the air, slowing down the dehydration process. Keep your pearls stored in a jewelry box or other case. Avoid jewelry boxes with windows that expose your jewelry to light. Long-term exposure to sunlight can cause your pearls to turn yellow. These elements can dry out your pearls, causing them to crack. Examine strands of pearls for loosening strings. If the threads begin to fray, you should have your pearls restrung.

Have your pearls restrung every one or two years, especially if you wear them consistently. Even if you do not notice visible signs of wear on the strand, the string will likely start to fray by then. Ask your jeweler to knot the strand in between beads to provide the strand with added protection.


  • .
  • Wander Indiana.
  • Extreme Confidence - Nineteen Powerful Methods To Transform Your Life?
  • The Road to the Crown?
  • Pearls Are Soft: Handle with Care!
  • Research and the Teacher: A Qualitative Introduction to School-based Research?

This way, if a string breaks, you only lose a single pearl. Moreover, a knotted string keeps your pearls from rubbing against one another, which helps reduce surface scratching. How can I repair a pearl that got a large crack in the widest part of the pearl? You will have to go to a jeweler and buy a new one, or they may be able to rework that one into 2 smaller pearls.

Not Helpful 1 Helpful 4. No, I wouldn't do this. The rapid temperature drop may cause the pearls to split. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 2. Have them restrung by a jeweler. I used to work in a jewelry store, and I can't tell you how many times people came in with bags full of pearls because the string had broken. Twisting can cause breakage. Not Helpful 2 Helpful 5. No, as long as the water isn't too alkaline. Even then you would need to leave it in the water for quite a long time to cause any damage.

Not Helpful 3 Helpful 6. To improve luster you can put a small drop of olive oil on the soft cloth whilst polishing. Not Helpful 1 Helpful 2. Wash in cold water 2 times, put the pearl in a handkerchief and squeeze. The dry with a cotton ball. Not Helpful 7 Helpful 2. All you need to do is keep the shell in the proper kind of water salt or fresh until you are ready to harvest the pearl. Not Helpful 0 Helpful 0.