In the waiting…God is working!!! Has anyone else ever had to wait for something they really wanted, and it seemed to take forever? Maybe it was in the supermarket line when you just wanted to get home! How about after school when your child seems to take forever to get out of the building? What about when you just want a prayer answered? Waiting is not something I am good at, how about you?
Not the Destination...
Marriage is a journey, not a destination...
As you know, I promised going on a little journey with Mary and some of my favorite mysteries of the Rosary. This week I want to take us into my favorite mystery of the sorrowful mysteries. I certainly do not want to overlook the importance of any of the mysteries, but there is certainly one that speaks most clearly to me and allows me to enter in more deeply.
“In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen as no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.” ~St. Teresa of Avila.
Whenever I hear or read this quote, I am reminded of one of the most “inconvenient” nights of suffering I had in a hotel many years ago. My husband and I were living in Italy at the time, and we were driving home from a vacation to the north of Italy. We decided to stop for the night at a place that sounded nice: “The Romantic Hotel.” The night was anything but romantic. The Italians didn’t put screens on their windows, there was no air conditioning, it was summertime, and the mosquitoes were hungry. It was a night from hell. But we were tired, so we took refuge under the sheets and tried to sleep.
“Are we there yet?” Anyone who’s ever traveled anywhere with children knows firsthand how impatient they become on the journey, and the farther the journey the harder the wait for the little ones. This is especially true when they have an idea of where they’re headed. Tell the kids they're going to the dentist and they never ask when they’ll get there, but tell them you’re going to Disney World and you start getting “Are we there yet?” before you get to the end of the block.
Last year, I won from a raffle a book called “Bless Me Father For I Have Kids.” It’s a funny book about raising a Catholic family, and the book’s dedication read: “To the children, who are frequently called expensive. To us you are priceless.”
“Dad! Isaac peed on the dog’s bed!”
“Dad! Lily punched me!”
“Dad! Tell Sarah to stop bothering me!”
“Dad, can you co-sign on my student loans (again)?”
I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about each of these real life situations.
Now that you have a place set aside for prayer, a time for your appointment, and you know whom you are meeting, let’s talk about what to do next. Remember, Jesus is our model for prayer, and he taught us to pray saying, “Our Father, who art in heaven…” So let’s take the Our Father step by step to walk us through our prayer time.
