Today I was thinking about my friends. It seems we are all so similar in our desire to make the right choices in life, base our choices on the right reasons, with the right motivation, etc. Yet, somehow, at varying stages in life, we all wonder "what if" about this or that choice. What if I had done things differently? What if I had taken another path? What if I studied that subject instead, or went into that field instead?
Everyone can ask these questions, and a good many of us do. Sometimes it helps to evaluate where we are now, and where we'd like to be as we continue on in life. Sometimes it serves no purpose but to heap more depression and guilt, and more of a sense of failure for not being or doing what one likes. Sometimes it leaves us grateful for the path we've chosen, regardless of the stumbling blocks we may face at times.
If only life came with a map for each person, handed to new moms to guide their children in youth toward the EXACT purpose intended for them, and then handed to the young adult to follow when leaving home to head out into life in the world. If only... A map could make the choices easier. Actually, it would leave no need for choices, or show us which paths get us to the goal target, even if not directly (little side trips that could add some fun and adventure while still heading in the generally right direction). If only it was all printed out for us, colors, a slide show, and all. Then free will, still an option, would be to use the map or toss it to the wind.
I've discovered a secret. It is not meant to be kept secret though, so I'm going to tell you it in case nobody else has. There is a map! There is a map, a buried treasure, and an adventure, all in one, and we each have one! This is exciting good news indeed!
"I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life" OMG!! There it is, buried in that bit of information told us by Jesus... The Map, The Goal, and The Adventure...all in One!
As kids we may or may not see our parents ask directions when lost. A lot depends upon the ego of the one lost, the pride. Can a parent admit s/he needs guidance? Does s/he stop and ask along the way, "How do I get to...from here?"
If we don't see our parents humble it's hard to learn humility. If we don't see them pray and ask guidance from the MapMaker, it's hard to learn that prayer helps us come to a spiritual discernment in our own lives. It's hard to ask another for direction, even when hopelessly lost, seeing no Light at the end of the road, no candle in any window, no friendly faces along the road. Instead we can end up cursing the day we began the journey of life, cursing the darkness and trusting nobody for assistance.
Parents really must show their kids the humility of seeking direction in life. Show them how to pray, show them how to seek trusted others to ask guidance. Friends need to help one another do this too, especially if parents did not or could not do so, or the cycle of being Lost continues, generation to generation.
Spiritual Discernment is a rich tradition in the Christian Church. There are those with a true gift who are trained and willing to share it, to walk the path of the Lord with others and encourage them along the Way.
We do have the Map. Thanks be to God!
Friday, August 17, 2007
If Life Came With A Road Map
Today I was thinking about my friends. It seems we are all so similar in our desire to make the right choices in life, base our choices on the right reasons, with the right motivation, etc. Yet, somehow, at varying stages in life, we all wonder "what if" about this or that choice. What if I had done things differently? What if I had taken another path? What if I studied that subject instead, or went into that field instead?
Everyone can ask these questions, and a good many of us do. Sometimes it helps to evaluate where we are now, and where we'd like to be as we continue on in life. Sometimes it serves no purpose but to heap more depression and guilt, and more of a sense of failure for not being or doing what one likes. Sometimes it leaves us grateful for the path we've chosen, regardless of the stumbling blocks we may face at times.
If only life came with a map for each person, handed to new moms to guide their children in youth toward the EXACT purpose intended for them, and then handed to the young adult to follow when leaving home to head out into life in the world. If only... A map could make the choices easier. Actually, it would leave no need for choices, or show us which paths get us to the goal target, even if not directly (little side trips that could add some fun and adventure while still heading in the generally right direction). If only it was all printed out for us, colors, a slide show, and all. Then free will, still an option, would be to use the map or toss it to the wind.
I've discovered a secret. It is not meant to be kept secret though, so I'm going to tell you it in case nobody else has. There is a map! There is a map, a buried treasure, and an adventure, all in one, and we each have one! This is exciting good news indeed!
"I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life" OMG!! There it is, buried in that bit of information told us by Jesus... The Map, The Goal, and The Adventure...all in One!
As kids we may or may not see our parents ask directions when lost. A lot depends upon the ego of the one lost, the pride. Can a parent admit s/he needs guidance? Does s/he stop and ask along the way, "How do I get to...from here?"
If we don't see our parents humble it's hard to learn humility. If we don't see them pray and ask guidance from the MapMaker, it's hard to learn that prayer helps us come to a spiritual discernment in our own lives. It's hard to ask another for direction, even when hopelessly lost, seeing no Light at the end of the road, no candle in any window, no friendly faces along the road. Instead we can end up cursing the day we began the journey of life, cursing the darkness and trusting nobody for assistance.
Parents really must show their kids the humility of seeking direction in life. Show them how to pray, show them how to seek trusted others to ask guidance. Friends need to help one another do this too, especially if parents did not or could not do so, or the cycle of being Lost continues, generation to generation.
Spiritual Discernment is a rich tradition in the Christian Church. There are those with a true gift who are trained and willing to share it, to walk the path of the Lord with others and encourage them along the Way.
We do have the Map. Thanks be to God!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Good Morning
Good Morning World! Not that it's so early, but now that I have my morning coffee I'm more able to function.
I don't really like coffee. That's the thing. It is a legal stimulant, and I belong to the Night Owl group (on one list of priests we call it Night Owls for Christ), and so I am NOT a morning person. The world doesn't favor those of use who are not morning people. The world just goes on without us, so we're forced to make difficult choices in life. Either burn it at both ends, or live "an alternate lifestyle" and not be able to keep up with the rest of the world on its schedule.
I fit into both groups. I burn it at both ends too often, and then there's the me who doesn't care about the world's schedule, and I keep pace with my night owl buddies (including my daughter Rose). It's a genetic thing! My mother was a night owl too. We spent many long nights together in her old age talking, playing games, watching movies, having tea. The three of us, Rose, Mom and I were like clones when it came to the night hours. We'd be prowling the house while my husband was in neverland sleeping peacefully, and then up early to function with normal people. How he dealt with 3 of us I don't know.
Now it's just me he deals with for the most part. So, I try to compromise. I have my laptop in our room now. I have a comfortable chair there too. I can stay up reading. I can watch a movie or chat with friends, or just write. I have earphones, so my music doesn't keep him awake. Strange thing this night life.
And, here's the funny part. I have 3 dogs, 5 cats, and 6 birds. They are ALL on my schedule. I think I have the only birds that are chattering among themselves at 3 AM. My cockatiel whistles The Nutcracker or 1812 Overture in the middle of the night! I tell them "Every other bird in the woods is asleep...but you guys!" And they just go on talking and singing. They doze off around dawn. My dogs are the same. The cats? They sleep all day and night.
But the world goes on, and I don't want to miss out on that either, so Good Morning! Have a cuppa jo!
I don't really like coffee. That's the thing. It is a legal stimulant, and I belong to the Night Owl group (on one list of priests we call it Night Owls for Christ), and so I am NOT a morning person. The world doesn't favor those of use who are not morning people. The world just goes on without us, so we're forced to make difficult choices in life. Either burn it at both ends, or live "an alternate lifestyle" and not be able to keep up with the rest of the world on its schedule.
I fit into both groups. I burn it at both ends too often, and then there's the me who doesn't care about the world's schedule, and I keep pace with my night owl buddies (including my daughter Rose). It's a genetic thing! My mother was a night owl too. We spent many long nights together in her old age talking, playing games, watching movies, having tea. The three of us, Rose, Mom and I were like clones when it came to the night hours. We'd be prowling the house while my husband was in neverland sleeping peacefully, and then up early to function with normal people. How he dealt with 3 of us I don't know.
Now it's just me he deals with for the most part. So, I try to compromise. I have my laptop in our room now. I have a comfortable chair there too. I can stay up reading. I can watch a movie or chat with friends, or just write. I have earphones, so my music doesn't keep him awake. Strange thing this night life.
And, here's the funny part. I have 3 dogs, 5 cats, and 6 birds. They are ALL on my schedule. I think I have the only birds that are chattering among themselves at 3 AM. My cockatiel whistles The Nutcracker or 1812 Overture in the middle of the night! I tell them "Every other bird in the woods is asleep...but you guys!" And they just go on talking and singing. They doze off around dawn. My dogs are the same. The cats? They sleep all day and night.
But the world goes on, and I don't want to miss out on that either, so Good Morning! Have a cuppa jo!
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
I Find Myself Thinking How Very Amazing Grace Truly Is!
Today I was thinking about my daughter. She's coming home to visit soon, and I am very excited. We don't get to see her as often as we'd like. So visits are so special.
Sometimes I look back on her youth, and I think of all the things I could have done better. It makes me wonder how she turned out so good and spiritual and compassionate. Can you tell I'm a proud mom? Yeah, I admit it. Yet, I am aware I was a wounded person, raising a beautiful child.
Being a parent is not easy. When people say to me "You're lucky, your daughter is really good" I think to myself "LUCKY?? Luck has nothing to do with it! It is hard work, everyday, and when I fail it's God that saves her from my failings."
Raising children is no easy task. Sometimes the most intelligent thing a mother hears all day is her own voice! No wonder some rural moms start talking to themselves! I know I did!
When we moved to PA from NYC I thought I would lose my mind. Yes, I loved it here and still do. HOWEVER, adjusting to rural life was a challenge I truly had not considered. I was a city kid. Concrete, noise, delis, and lots of people. Here in PA we were in a rural development with few people around, and I was shy. When my husband left for work I was alone. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. I had God. I had the Communion of Saints. But, I couldn't see them!
I had good days, and a lot of bad days. Depression. Lonliness. Writing was a huge help for me back then. I had a wonderful husband who loved me, but there was something missing in my own inner life that I could not figure out. I've since realized it was the peace that comes from truly loving myself. Geez, loving oneself was the same as selfish, or so I believed. So, I sacrificed for everyone I loved, or tried to. I was there for my aging parents. I took in many children, and helped whomever I could in our ministry. But facing my own wounds and loving myself? Nope! Worst thing was that I was oblivious to my own needs.
I knew my husband loved me. No doubt. I had the most wonderful child in the universe. No doubt. And yet, there I was restless and going into a major depression. My poor family suffered from it. I tried therapy, but in hindsight I realize I was too hasty and did not take my time to find the right therapist for my particular problems. But how would I know? I didn't know my problems!! Since then I have come to recognize them honestly and found a wonderful therapist who helped me tremendously, and it made a huge difference for healing.
Grace alone, given through my husband's love, and my spiritual director's help kept me going until time and prayer opened me to look deep enough inside myself to face my own personal pain and woundedness--the things that caused me to feel unlovable, and therefore never SATISFIED with the wonderful love I was being given. How could it be real if I was not worthy? I was wrong but did not know it then. How sad, too, for those who loved me and watched me suffer...
Tremendous abuse makes a human feel unworthy of love. Women experience this all too often. I did. (I know it's hard too for men who've experienced abuse, because society tells men they have to be strong, adding yet another cross to the one they carry.) When God sent me someone who did NOT abuse but who truly reflected God's Own Love, it was hard to trust that I was loveable. It had nothing to do with him--it was my own lack of self-worth that caused me misery, and I spread the misery around freely too often!
Oh, yes, and add aging to that mix, and the feeling of not being able to create my "identity" and succeed at anything I wanted to do... Aging and women can make for trouble enough long before we recognize the symptoms.
Dear God, how do women who carry such crosses make it through life? How did I? How did I come to such deep peace? GRACE! It is not called "amazing" without reason! It comes in many ways and sometimes we don't even recognize it until we look back in 20/20 hindsight. Maybe that's what's called the wisdom of years--recognizing the Grace that saved us, and now the Grace that can save others. I don't know. I do know it has been hard work working on myself. And I am far from done! Always a work in progress, we are as humans. Yet the key, as I look back, was brute honesty about my life, my wounds, my intense need for God to heal them, to heal me.
I remain a wounded healer as a priest. But that's good! I praise God for making all things work together for the good, as promised. The very worst things I have suffered in life, abuse, betrayal, unexpected loss of my family, prolonged grief are being transformed each day by Grace into compassion and empathy for others who suffer such crosses in life, or different crosses. God takes the blackest of coal in our broken hearts and makes diamonds! Without the coal there would be no diamonds.
Funny how one thought leads to another. Thinking about my beautiful daughter coming home...remembering her as a child, now grown into a lovely woman...how God has kept us close despite my many failings, and then reflecting on the journey... Writing is good. In the old days I said I like to "think in ink," now with computers it's still good. Reflection encourages gratitude, and I am so very grateful.
Thank you, God. Thank You. Thank You for Your love for me. I love You, God. Goodnight.
Sometimes I look back on her youth, and I think of all the things I could have done better. It makes me wonder how she turned out so good and spiritual and compassionate. Can you tell I'm a proud mom? Yeah, I admit it. Yet, I am aware I was a wounded person, raising a beautiful child.
Being a parent is not easy. When people say to me "You're lucky, your daughter is really good" I think to myself "LUCKY?? Luck has nothing to do with it! It is hard work, everyday, and when I fail it's God that saves her from my failings."
Raising children is no easy task. Sometimes the most intelligent thing a mother hears all day is her own voice! No wonder some rural moms start talking to themselves! I know I did!
When we moved to PA from NYC I thought I would lose my mind. Yes, I loved it here and still do. HOWEVER, adjusting to rural life was a challenge I truly had not considered. I was a city kid. Concrete, noise, delis, and lots of people. Here in PA we were in a rural development with few people around, and I was shy. When my husband left for work I was alone. Well, not really, but you know what I mean. I had God. I had the Communion of Saints. But, I couldn't see them!
I had good days, and a lot of bad days. Depression. Lonliness. Writing was a huge help for me back then. I had a wonderful husband who loved me, but there was something missing in my own inner life that I could not figure out. I've since realized it was the peace that comes from truly loving myself. Geez, loving oneself was the same as selfish, or so I believed. So, I sacrificed for everyone I loved, or tried to. I was there for my aging parents. I took in many children, and helped whomever I could in our ministry. But facing my own wounds and loving myself? Nope! Worst thing was that I was oblivious to my own needs.
I knew my husband loved me. No doubt. I had the most wonderful child in the universe. No doubt. And yet, there I was restless and going into a major depression. My poor family suffered from it. I tried therapy, but in hindsight I realize I was too hasty and did not take my time to find the right therapist for my particular problems. But how would I know? I didn't know my problems!! Since then I have come to recognize them honestly and found a wonderful therapist who helped me tremendously, and it made a huge difference for healing.
Grace alone, given through my husband's love, and my spiritual director's help kept me going until time and prayer opened me to look deep enough inside myself to face my own personal pain and woundedness--the things that caused me to feel unlovable, and therefore never SATISFIED with the wonderful love I was being given. How could it be real if I was not worthy? I was wrong but did not know it then. How sad, too, for those who loved me and watched me suffer...
Tremendous abuse makes a human feel unworthy of love. Women experience this all too often. I did. (I know it's hard too for men who've experienced abuse, because society tells men they have to be strong, adding yet another cross to the one they carry.) When God sent me someone who did NOT abuse but who truly reflected God's Own Love, it was hard to trust that I was loveable. It had nothing to do with him--it was my own lack of self-worth that caused me misery, and I spread the misery around freely too often!
Oh, yes, and add aging to that mix, and the feeling of not being able to create my "identity" and succeed at anything I wanted to do... Aging and women can make for trouble enough long before we recognize the symptoms.
Dear God, how do women who carry such crosses make it through life? How did I? How did I come to such deep peace? GRACE! It is not called "amazing" without reason! It comes in many ways and sometimes we don't even recognize it until we look back in 20/20 hindsight. Maybe that's what's called the wisdom of years--recognizing the Grace that saved us, and now the Grace that can save others. I don't know. I do know it has been hard work working on myself. And I am far from done! Always a work in progress, we are as humans. Yet the key, as I look back, was brute honesty about my life, my wounds, my intense need for God to heal them, to heal me.
I remain a wounded healer as a priest. But that's good! I praise God for making all things work together for the good, as promised. The very worst things I have suffered in life, abuse, betrayal, unexpected loss of my family, prolonged grief are being transformed each day by Grace into compassion and empathy for others who suffer such crosses in life, or different crosses. God takes the blackest of coal in our broken hearts and makes diamonds! Without the coal there would be no diamonds.
Funny how one thought leads to another. Thinking about my beautiful daughter coming home...remembering her as a child, now grown into a lovely woman...how God has kept us close despite my many failings, and then reflecting on the journey... Writing is good. In the old days I said I like to "think in ink," now with computers it's still good. Reflection encourages gratitude, and I am so very grateful.
Thank you, God. Thank You. Thank You for Your love for me. I love You, God. Goodnight.
Monday, August 13, 2007
God Willing, We Will Awake in the Morning
I remember as a child being taught to live each day as though it were my last here on Earth. To then live each moment as though it were my last. It was not taught to encourage hedonism, but profound Charity. If I am called home tonight, or in the next moment, would I be at peace with how I've lived?There are some wonderful things my family and the Sisters of Mercy taught me as a youth. I was lucky not to have a fanatically fearful religious family, but an intensely devoted spiritual family, who expressed their faith and spirituality through their religious lives. That's a big difference. Fanatics are fearful. Devoted people are complelled by LOVE, and God is LOVE.
My father should have been a married priest. God knows, he gave as much time to the Church as any priest ever has. He was a knock-around guy. After Church he'd hit the local pub for a few. Pubs then, like the pubs in Ireland, were not dives, but neighborhood hangouts, where much more than drinks went down. But, Da, he was a priest at heart...a man of God. The Church loses so much when men like that are not used to serve as married priests.
At 80 yrs of age herself, my mother presented me for ordination. She said that is what God was trying to get through to me all those years... In the East, where married priests are the norm in the Church, one generation after another has priests in the family. Father to son... With us, it would have been father to daughter. Alas, neither father nor daughter are welcomed as priests in the Latin Rite of the Church. But, then would I have had the wonderful journey in my life if they were? Would I have discovered the Celtic Rite?
Da taught me about Charity. He said it was the MOST important thing we must have. We would be judged by God on how we loved. So, living each day as if it were the last translated into living each day with as much Charity toward others as I could offer.My brothers each died suddenly. No warning. They were about my age. So I have become even more sober regarding this living each day as if it were my last. Those I love KNOW I love them. There is no time in life to let those things go unsaid.
This week a local woman near my age was killed in a car accident. She swerved so as not to hit a deer. The deer is alive, the woman, sadly, died. I felt so bad all week and have been praying for her son and elderly mom. What a shock it is to lose someone we love suddenly. I remember the shock of my brothers...Then there was that little boy I read about yesterday, killed by his dad who is a priest... We do not know the day or the hour. Today's readings...how true.
So, do we live in fear or worry about the day or hour, or in joy and peace? It depends upon our readiness, I suppose. Life is a gift from God, and it'd be awful to live it without joy, or in dread. I know, because I have done that as well, but that is for another day's writing.Tonight, I give my life again to God, or better put, I acknowledge my life is in God's hands, and I'm glad of it! If I live to wake up in the morning, I will give thanks, as I do each morning.
Tonight I pray for those who have died suddenly leaving the sorrowful behind in tears.
Tonight I pray in thanksgiving for my Da and Mom who gave me my Faith, for my family where the seed was watered.
Tonight I give thanks for the love in my life, for my husband and daughter and our extended family and friends. I give thanks for our Church and the wonderful people in it. I give thanks for my religious order, and their love of God.
Tonight, I give thanks for my service dog, without whom I would be much less than I am able to be. Even now, she lies at my feet with her head on my foot...
Tonight, oh my God, I give You thanks in all things. If it be Your Will, I will awake in the morning to give You thanks again.
Goodnight God. I love You.
"In the Name of the Father"
This is from my Good Tidings Blog: Our Day Will Come www.blog.myspace.com/good_tidings
Catholic News Service ran a very short piece about Father Dagoberto Valle Arriaga, a Mexican priest convicted of killing his 8 year old son. It was a run-of-the-mill news article, nothing more. Much as one might read the cost of gas has gone up again, and maybe have the idea that both the writer and reader are getting used to such rotten news.
My dear God, in heaven! I can't help but feel really disgusted, revolted over the lack of outrage in the news article! I can't help but feel such anger myself, not only at the priest who would do such an unthinkable thing to his own child, but anger at the Church that would create a culture of fear in so many ethnic Catholic people, and outrage at the media for not being more outraged than I because I hear about priest-fathers hurting their children all the time. Not killing them physically, but doing their best to destroy any hope for a loving father in this life.
What in the Name of our Good God has happened to this Church? What has happened to the people of this world that a priest killing his son to protect his own worthless arse doesn't strike horror in the mind and heart of everyone?
Are there so few good priests left that this is just another news article about another priest doing evil to a child--the ultimate evil? Where are the good priests? Why, if they are out there are they not screaming about all this? Why don't they care? Do they all have something to hide, to protect? Where is their treasure? In the security of the priestly life, so that they will not speak up loudly in defense of the children of priests...the women of priests, the faithful who pay their salaries, expecting holy priests? I can't hear anyone? The silence is deafening.
Oh...look gas prices went down a few cents in our area...
Catholic News Service ran a very short piece about Father Dagoberto Valle Arriaga, a Mexican priest convicted of killing his 8 year old son. It was a run-of-the-mill news article, nothing more. Much as one might read the cost of gas has gone up again, and maybe have the idea that both the writer and reader are getting used to such rotten news.
My dear God, in heaven! I can't help but feel really disgusted, revolted over the lack of outrage in the news article! I can't help but feel such anger myself, not only at the priest who would do such an unthinkable thing to his own child, but anger at the Church that would create a culture of fear in so many ethnic Catholic people, and outrage at the media for not being more outraged than I because I hear about priest-fathers hurting their children all the time. Not killing them physically, but doing their best to destroy any hope for a loving father in this life.
What in the Name of our Good God has happened to this Church? What has happened to the people of this world that a priest killing his son to protect his own worthless arse doesn't strike horror in the mind and heart of everyone?
Are there so few good priests left that this is just another news article about another priest doing evil to a child--the ultimate evil? Where are the good priests? Why, if they are out there are they not screaming about all this? Why don't they care? Do they all have something to hide, to protect? Where is their treasure? In the security of the priestly life, so that they will not speak up loudly in defense of the children of priests...the women of priests, the faithful who pay their salaries, expecting holy priests? I can't hear anyone? The silence is deafening.
Oh...look gas prices went down a few cents in our area...
SOME END THE DAY DEAD
This is from my Good Tidings Blog: Our Day Will Come (www.
-- "In the Name of the Father"
Catholic News Service ran a very short piece about Father Dagoberto Valle Arriaga, a Mexican priest convicted of killing his 8 year old son. It was a run-of-the-mill news article, nothing more. Much as one might read the cost of gas has gone up again, and maybe have the idea that both the writer and reader are getting used to such rotten news.
My dear God, in heaven! I can't help but feel really disgusted, revolted over the lack of outrage in the news article! I can't help but feel such anger myself, not only at the priest who would do such an unthinkable thing to his own child, but anger at the Church that would create a culture of fear in so many ethnic Catholic people, and outrage at the media for not being more outraged than I because I hear about priest-fathers hurting their children all the time. Not killing them physically, but doing their best to destroy any hope for a loving father in this life.
What in the Name of our Good God has happened to this Church? What has happened to the people of this world that a priest killing his son to protect his own worthless arse doesn't strike horror in the mind and heart of everyone?
Are there so few good priests left that this is just another news article about another priest doing evil to a child--the ultimate evil? Where are the good priests? Why, if they are out there are they not screaming about all this? Why don't they care? Do they all have something to hide, to protect? Where is their treasure? In the security of the priestly life, so that they will not speak up loudly in defense of the children of priests...the women of priests, the faithful who pay their salaries, expecting holy priests? I can't hear anyone? The silence is deafening.
Oh...look gas prices went down a few cents in our area...
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Yeah, On What's REALLY Important
Tonight as I was playing with one of my websites I was looking for clip art to use next to the titles of my blogs. Little animals for the spirituality of animal care, teacups for the teapot spirituality blog, etc. Then I was look for one that could represent this blog. A piece of clip art about what is really important. That's right. Clip art expressing the important things in life.
I put in all kinds of keywords about things I thought were important to me, and so I figured to others too. Family, belonging, love, peace, goodness (only one clipart on Microsoft for "goodness" isn't that scary?), friendship, joy...I tried a lot of important concepts. All those things we crave and need in life. Somehow as appropriate as many seemed, I didn't click with any until I found a small icon of a person simply praying.
Why would that strike me as the best representation for what is really important at the end of the day? I think it's because it was a perfect example of what we truly need, what will keep us focussed on the most import parts of life, the very reason for life. When we truly pray, we must be humble. To truly pray we need to admit we need. We need to admit we are not complete in ourselves. We find peace we recognize we have everything we crave and need in our Creator! At the end of the day, we are who we are, what we are--creatures. Yet we are such blessed creatures, loved infinitely by our Infinite God! At the end of the day, we can rest...in peace. At the end of the day, it is our relationship with this loving God that is most important.
What a joy, and a comfort to know where we stand...loved eternally. Yeah, that's what's really important, and when that really sinks in, how can we but respond in love?
Thank you God, for this reminder of what is most important. And thank You for wanting my love in return. What a great end to the day.
Goodnight God.
I put in all kinds of keywords about things I thought were important to me, and so I figured to others too. Family, belonging, love, peace, goodness (only one clipart on Microsoft for "goodness" isn't that scary?), friendship, joy...I tried a lot of important concepts. All those things we crave and need in life. Somehow as appropriate as many seemed, I didn't click with any until I found a small icon of a person simply praying.
Why would that strike me as the best representation for what is really important at the end of the day? I think it's because it was a perfect example of what we truly need, what will keep us focussed on the most import parts of life, the very reason for life. When we truly pray, we must be humble. To truly pray we need to admit we need. We need to admit we are not complete in ourselves. We find peace we recognize we have everything we crave and need in our Creator! At the end of the day, we are who we are, what we are--creatures. Yet we are such blessed creatures, loved infinitely by our Infinite God! At the end of the day, we can rest...in peace. At the end of the day, it is our relationship with this loving God that is most important.
What a joy, and a comfort to know where we stand...loved eternally. Yeah, that's what's really important, and when that really sinks in, how can we but respond in love?
Thank you God, for this reminder of what is most important. And thank You for wanting my love in return. What a great end to the day.
Goodnight God.
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