Shifting My Perspective, By Claire McGarry

Welcome to an occasional series focusing on the blogs and writing works of our Living Faith writers…

I’m relatively new to Living Faith — this is year four of my time in the chair — but Claire McGarry’s voice has consistently stood out. Shining through her work, which is prodigious with the dizzying number of titles, books, interviews, book clubs, speaking events, and community groups she contributes to and organizes, is her identity as an unabashed, dutiful, loving Catholic mother of three. Throughout her writing, Claire always remains grounded and in good humor simply as a mom who is just trying to grow in her faith one action-packed, teenager-filled day at a time.

Her blog, Shifting My Perspective, is an excellent place to do a deep dive into her faith-enriching, Scripture-based observations and insights. A characteristic post about remaining vigilant for the sake of her children comes to mind:

It seems there are so many situations where I need to remain vigilant to protect my kids too. That new PG-13 movie that I assumed was okay for my 14-year-old daughter to watch? Lo and behold, there were inappropriate themes and messages throughout. That YouTuber who claims to be wholesome and pure? She sure has a different definition of those terms than I do. The songs that they’re playing now on mainstream radio? I’m continually flabbergasted when I stop and really listen to the lyrics.

I’m not a doom-and-gloom kind of person who believes this world is a terrible place without redemption. When I look back in history, even just 75 years or so, I see that we’ve been in worse places, and have successfully made our way back.

Nonetheless, is my job of being vigilant over just because my kids are teens? Absolutely not. In fact, I need to step it up now more than ever because they’re exposed to so much more than when they were little.