Friday, March 25, 2011

The Heart of a Mother


Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “… (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed.” Luke 3: 34-35

The heart of a mother! To have children is to have little pieces of your heart walking outside of your body! When they hurt, you hurt, and it can be one of the greatest pains imaginable, a piercing of the heart! How hard it can be to trust in God during these times when you see such pain in your child, and you feel such a piercing in your heart! There’s something else going on with this bond, though! Something beyond what can be seen, something Godly! Surely God created this special heart in women for a reason! When a mother looks into her child’s eyes, and feels the pain in their hearts, there is a heavenly bond there, a comfort amidst the pain. It is the reason that a young child cries for his mommy when he is in pain or scared. The love of the mother is so strong, that it reaches out beyond her body and envelopes her child. The child feels that love, and even if the child continues to suffer, it suffers while feeling loved, which is entirely different than suffering alone!

I can’t imagine the pain in Mary’s heart as she gazed at her little boy on the cross. Yes, to us He is Jesus! King of Kings and Lord of Lords! To Mary, it was her boy, in pain and suffering- while being ridiculed. Sure, God had a greater purpose in Christ’s suffering. To Mary, it was a piercing of her heart, and when we suffer with our children, we get a glimpse of what our Heavenly Mother felt as she watched Jesus hanging on that cross. It is excruciating! It can make your whole body sick, and send you to a place of agony that you did not know possible without having some physical ailment! But, here He was, the Creator of our universe, receiving comfort by the mere presence of His mother while she was feeling the pain of His suffering. And we must trust God in the same way that Mary trusted God because this suffering is for a reason, and we pray that God brings us through it, and we ask our Heavenly Mother to pray with us, because she too, shares in our sufferings and makes sure that the thoughts of our hearts may be revealed.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Stick Drawings!

Through the past few years, God has been teaching me many lessons. Many times He chooses to teach me these lessons through the faults of those around me! After all, it's SOO much easier for us to see the wrong that others do! We, of course, do things perfectly- right?? Well, not so much! But- it's harder for us to see our own errors, especially when they are done with a pure heart! I believe that God calls us to deeper communion with Him so that we cannot not only do good, but we can do God's good!!!

When God taught me this lesson, we were preparing our house for a visit from someone- can't remember who- but that detail doesn't really matter. What I do remember is that the house REALLY needed cleaning, and as usual, we had a deficit of time! Well, our main floor was the second floor of our house. The first floor consisted of the garage, the basement, and the laundry room. For some reason, I had to be away from the house. I know it had to be a good reason, because no one in their right mind would leave a messy house with guests on the way! I did ask my husband to get things started, though! I had dreams of bathrooms being scrubbed and kitchen floors being mopped! You know- the things people will see. The things that matter when you are cleaning a house! Well, when I arrived back home, I could not find my husband. On my search of the house, I finally located him cleaning the carpet in the basement laundry room! He had worked SO hard- and the carpet down in the basement laundry room--- away from where ANYONE but God and us would see- looked GREAT!!!!!! I swallowed what I wanted to say and praised my husband for doing such a GREAT job on cleaning that basement laundry room floor! Wow did it look great! As I walked away, God told me that sometimes his children do that as well! Sometimes we work REALLY hard on something that is good, and it DOES please Him the same way our children's stick drawings please us! We put them on the refrigerator and boast at what a beautiful little artist we have! But at some point we must move beyond the stick drawings! All of our good actions please our Lord, but it is MOST pleasing and MOST helpful is when we do the thing that HE wants us to do! It is then that our work can be used for the MOST benefit to the Kingdom of Heaven!

May you all do God's will, and may the world be blessed!