Perspective

isn't technically a virtue, but is very useful, especially when one is trying to live the Christian life. For instance, suppose your 1-year-old is busy working on giving up her morning naps (a bit too soon), and one day takes 30 minutes to go down for a 20-minute nap, and the following day goes right to sleep, sleeps 20 minutes, then gets up and is cranky for the next 3 hours, it's easy to get discouraged. It's easy to remind yourself of the white martyrdom that many Christians are called to face. It's easy to begin to fall into self-pity. Which is neither a virtue, nor useful. If, at this point in your life, you happen upon the story of someone whose child died tragically...well, you get a little perspective, and your white martyrdom looks a bit less like martyrdom and a bit more like you're one *very* lucky person with your two (so far) lovely kids. Even if one of them doesn't go to sleep too easily right now.