The Lord upholds my life

My daughter Kate phoned on Friday night with car problems.  She felt it was not safe to drive it because the power steering was not working.  She was able to find a friend to come pick her up and she was safely home. 
It does not matter that Kate is 25.  Once a child always a child and reason for this mom to be concerned.  I had concerns that someone would hurt the car overnight (even though it was in a well lit parking lot), concerns that her car would not be able to be fixed, concerns that it would be very expensive, concerns that she would not have a way to work and everywhere else she needed to go, concerns that someon would take advantage of her not knowing all the ins and outs of cars.  Need I say more?
Saturday morning she was able to have out insurance roadside assist tow the car to a nearby repair shop.  Indeed the car should not have been driven as the serpentine belt was off.  The repair shop let her know that they could get it looked at and found a belt tensioner was bad; belt was good but off.  They were honest and told her that they could put the belt back on.  It may be 1 day or 1 year before it would go off again without replacing the tensioner.  She made the decision to be safe and replace it.  They were very reasonable and could guarantee it would be done by 2 pm.  While there, they shared their lunch of pizza with her and a few other customers.  She was fortunate to be able to have a great conversation with a fellow Christian woman.  The repair shop gave her dessert.  As she was paying, the repair shop printed out coupons for her.  One she is using soon since she needs her oil changed. 
Now this was a lot of information some of you may be thinking but the message of this hit me that day of how we are taken care of so frequently by random acts of kindness, integrity and business responsibility.  The responsorial Psalm from Sunday, "The Lord upholds my life" could never have been more true that for Kate's experience.  We are fortunate that He uses those placed in our every day as his instruments to uphold our lives!  How has God upheld your life today?

Blessings to you-
Norma

I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living

Today while in church, I was waiting nervously to speak about joining our Women's Bible study group when we rehearsed the responsorial Psalm, "I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living".   I put away my notice that I was supposed to read and really thought about that line from Psalm 114 verse 9.  So many times I feel like I am just a survivor trying to get by day to day.  From "living" like that I feel like some days I am not really in the land of the living.  I feel like I am treading water trying to catch my breath.  I am sometimes even afraid to speak because someone may not like what I have to say or better yet they will not understand what I am trying to say.
This is not the way our God wants us to live.  He wants us to experience the ups and downs, highs and lows and the ins and outs with tears and grins.  The roller coaster called life that we are on is meant to be just that lived, walking before the Lord.   That is what the land of the living is for me today.  I pray to embrace the roller coaster ride and stop shying back from my faith, beliefs, feelings and just enjoying the sunshine or the rain.
I pray that you all have a wonderful week.  I pray that if you are reading this that you comment back to me about your ride this day!
Blessing to you!
Norma  

Always a lesson

Not a really impressive photo, but it was a wonderful evening on Wednesday as my hometown of Wapakoneta held a memorial tribute to Neil Armstrong.  The tribute offered stories of the boy, the man and the hero.  My hometown is quite small and so Neil has been an icon to our community.  If you ever drive on interstate 75 and see the "moon" on the East side of the interstate near 110 mile marker (in Ohio!) you can tell how important he has been to our community. 
The lesson learned though is that he was indeed a humble man.  While all of us marveled at his accomplishments, he never wanted any hoopla that he could have easily reveled in.   He lead a quiet life continuing only to help educate anyone wanting to learn more!  RIP Neil!

I was able to attend mass this week on Saturday evening this week.  I was scheduled to work Sunday morning so I planned to attend mass Saturday after taking my friend's grandson to an afternoon high school football game.  T, the grandson, is a 12 yr old who began his school year at his local Catholic school versus his previous public school.  He was Baptized in the church but has not had any other formal religious, let alone Catholic education.  (He will be going through a RCIA program for children soon.)  T is a little precocious.  At 12, he speaks and acts as if he has all the answers.  This makes it difficult for me at times to stay in his company long.  When he asked if I would take him to mass with me, I refused because of my schedule.  It was only moments after the "no, I am sorry, I have to be somewhere after mass" that I regretted my words.  As I sat listening to the 2nd reading from James  chapter 1 : "Be doers of the word, not  hearers only," my heart sank even lower.  I had a 12 year old WANT to go to church to learn more about God and the church.  I certainly did not behave like a doer of the word!  What a lesson to learn.  I asked for forgiveness and strength to share our Faith in our heavenly Father.  I also pray that the opportunity comes along again soon!