Friday, March 24, 2017

God's Hug (addendum)

I found this and decided this is something I need to remember when I am so overwhelmed with stress that I cannot sleep.

Sunday, March 19, 2017

God's Hug

The other night the stresses in my life overwhelmed me.  They overwhelmed me to the point that at 2 o'clock in the morning I found myself sitting at my dining room table with a cup of tea and my Bible instead of sleeping in my bed.  So many questions and worries were running thru my head that my brain just refused to shut off and let me sleep.  I thought of my dad, gone now over 20 years, and how, when I was a young girl, his tight bear hugs and the smell of his Old Spice aftershave made every worry just disappear.  Oh, how I missed that.  I called to him quietly at 2am and hoped he would hear me from heaven and send me some comfort.  I opened my Bible searching for the words of my heavenly Father that would bring me peace and found myself reading the words in Isaiah 41:13,

 "For I am the Lord, your God, who grasp your right hand; It is I who say to you, 'Fear not, I will help you.'"

As I read His words, I felt a comforting warmth spread over me as if two strong arms had wrapped me in a protective hug.  I knew then that I could sleep and that the worries that had kept me awake would work themselves out with His help.  I am convinced that my cry for help was heard and that both my earthly father and my heavenly Father came to my rescue.

Saturday, March 11, 2017

Lenten Inspiration 3/11/2017

"Lent is a favourable season for opening the doors to all those in need and recognizing in them the face of Christ."-- Pope Francis

Friday, March 3, 2017

The Need To Apologize

Both my husband and I are retired, so we do all our banking, bill paying and grocery shopping at the beginning of the month.  Doing things on a once a month basis usually means that we spend a longer amount of time at the bank and the grocery store checkout.  Why I feel the need to apologize to people in line behind me or checking me out or helping with my groceries I do not know, but I do it (to the amusement of my husband).

Yesterday, we went to the bank first.  I had deposits to do, transfering of money from one account to another, money orders and double checking on my tax refund.  It didn't seem like it took a lot of time but I found myself turning at one point to the gentleman behind me and apologizing for having so much to do.  He smiled and said "no problem".  He also looked a bit confused as to why I apologized.  I don't know why I did it, I just did.

At the grocery store the same thing happened.  I shop only once a month therefore I have lots of groceries.  On top of that, I have become a coupon clipper since retiring. Now, I am not an extreme coupon clipper.  I do not carry around an entire book filled with coupons.  I mainly have about 15 to 20 with me when I shop.  However, after the woman checked my groceries thru and I handed her my coupons, I felt the need to turn to the woman standing behind me in line and offer my apologies for taking so long.  She smiled at me with the same confused look as the man at the bank.  When the man bagging my groceries offered to push the cart out to the pick up lane for me, I thanked him and then  apologized to him saying, "this is what happens when you only shop once a month".

My husband finds all this apologizing I do very amusing and in the past has asked why I do it.  But after 43 years of marriage, he has stopped asking.  He chalks it up to "Ellen being Ellen".  I don't know why I do it.  Most of the time, I don't notice I have done it until after the words are out of my mouth.  But I suppose I could be saying something worse so I am not going to worry about it.