Boundaries

As I walk this walk, I learn every day how much God really is The Father, and what a great Father! He's so patient, and so loving. He teaches us, and gives us baby steps to follow on the path to holiness. He blesses others so they can teach us His ways and help us to grow in understanding. Right now, our Lord is helping me through a wonderful book called Boundaries by Dr. Henry Cloud and Dr. John Townsend. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The authors use Biblical principals to show us how important it is to have proper boundaries with all those people in our lives- as well as ourselves and how those boundaries define who we are and affect every aspect of our lives.

TRAIN UP A CHILD

Train up a child in the way he should go, Even when he is old he will not depart from it.
Proverbs 22:6

To garden is to learn more about the Father and His wishes for us! He tells us to train up a child. What does this mean? We have to give the children a firm knowledge of the faith that Christ gave us- a path to follow- through teaching and example and practice! We are to know, love, and serve our Lord. We are to follow the 10 Commandments! We are to do it God's way, not our way!

Can you imagine the fate of this beautiful vine if it had nothing to climb? It would fall to the ground. When the rains came, it would get trampled in the mud. The beauty would be gone! Parts of it might continue to grow- but it would be on the ground- searching desperately for something to climb, attaching itself to any weeds that are in its path. It would attach itself to anything that appeared to be going upward, because that is the direction that God created it to go. If it is unable to find anything, it will start to twist around itself, until it chokes the very life out of itself.

Therefore, train up a child that they may bloom as God intends!

Walking on Water

One day in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, the Lord spoke to my heart:

Keep your eyes on Me, and you can walk on water.

Since that day, I dwell on this message, and try to keep it close to my heart. What do I think that our Lord was telling me? Well, it’s really nothing new! It’s the same thing that He says in the Gospel. We are to keep our eyes on things above. We are to follow Christ’s example. Why is that so important? Well, right now the world is seething in darkness. Evil is tempting us at every turn. We don’t even step our feet out of bed before evil begins planting those negative thoughts in our minds!

“I can’t even believe that Marcy said that about me yesterday.”

We have a choice. We can entertain evil, and sit in Satan’s lair all day, or we can start looking above, and praise God for another day! When we choose to stare into the darkness too long, it’s tentacles grab us and bring us deeper into the darkness.

“She’s such a gossip. I hope she gets hers some day!”

"I don't deserve this. I am so tired of having to deal with this."

More negative thoughts come our way, and pretty soon we find ourselves sitting on the seat of despair. This is what Satan wants! He starts out by tempting us to look ever so closely at the faults of those around us, and then he leads us into misery itself! It’s so slow and methodical that we do not even see it happening! Lack of forgiveness is like a cancer that grows in our body! It is a cancer that kills the soul! We have to fight this temptation of the evil one! He wants nothing more than our complete destruction. And the secret is that it has NOTHING to do with Marcy! Isn’t it ironic that he is so successful at destroying us when we don’t let go of the pain that others have caused us!

Keep your eyes on Me

What do we see when we keep our eyes on Jesus? We see Him keeping his mouth closed when others accuse Him. We see Him forgiving those people who crucify Him when they ABSOLUTELY do NOT deserve it! This is what we are to do! Yes, I said that this is what we are to do! And not just with those people who really aren’t that bad! We are to do this with those that are the worst…those that crucify us…those that spread lies and hurt! When it’s easy- it’s not considered a cross! A cross is heavy and burdensome!

We are to pick up our cross and follow Him!

Matthew 10:38
"And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me."

Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me."

We are to bless the Marcy’s in our lives! We are to look past their negative qualities and see Christ in their faces. We are to ask God to help them. Now, this does not mean that we have to have lunch with Marcy, or hang out with Marcy, but we do have to forgive Marcy!

THIS my dear friends, is walking on water, but when we are so busy looking at the personal storms in our lives, it is impossible! We must keep our eyes on Jesus, or else we drown! So, together, let's keep our eyes on Jesus, and walk on water!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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.

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!