Meeting Mother Teresa at 2am

I know the title of this post suggest that Mother Teresa appeared to me in the middle of the night. She didn't, however that would be super amazing! This week was just a tough one for some reason. Some weeks are like that I suppose. One highlight was our middle child turned 21! Yay! I looked at my husband and said, holy crap we've raised two adults! How awesome is that? The youngest in our family will be 18 soon and then the one who this blog is mostly about will be 18 the end of May. Anyway, it's January and I always struggle with this month. The chaos of the holidays are over, everyone is trying to get back to normal whatever normal is. The weather is yuck, it gets dark early, I could go on and on. So it was a blah week and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself. A couple of Sundays ago, Fr. Fallon mentioned Mother Teresa in his homily. I hadn't thought about her in a long time. I decided I needed to read up on her and learn more about her as obviously she was an amazing person. I bought the book, Mother Teresa In My Own Words. Amazon Prime is fabulous, that little paperback was in my mailbox within two days! It sat on my kitchen counter for a couple of days. I thumbed through it but hadn't taken the time to actually read it. Finally, it made it's way to my nightstand where I swore I'd read it. Clearly, I will never be promoted to sainthood as I'm easily distracted by Netflix, Pinterest, and Instagram, I pray a lot but probably not as much as I should, I sometimes have tantrums when things aren't going my way, the list goes on and on. No sainthood for me! ha.. I didn't open the book that night. I did however wake up at 2 am and I opened the book. 


Reading the introduction, I could feel my little pity party I'd been having melt away. I had no business feeling sorry for myself after reading about what this saint did for people. I truly doubt she spent much time feeling sorry for her self.  Umm hello...of course she didn't! I carried with me several of her thoughts the rest of the week. Where can I be of service? What can I do? I did my best to turn the thought of "this isn't happening fast enough" to "okay, what am I supposed to be learning with this situation?" How can I be an example of Jesus when I'm not perfectly happy with something or someone? Remember the WWJD bracelets? I was thinking what would Mother Teresa do? She would love and she would give what she had and she would pray. 

 I haven't read the whole book. But, I've highlighted several of her quotes to share here. Maybe they'll touch your heart. One of her favorite prayers is the Prayer of St. Francis. This is one of my favorites too and sadly, I had forgotten about it. I grew up sining this song in church. 


"I ask you one thing: do not tire of giving but do not 
give your leftovers. Give until you feel the pain. "
Mother Teresa

"True love causes pain. Jesus, in order to give us the 
proof of his love, died on the cross. A mother
in order to give birth to her baby has to suffer. 
If you really love one another, you will not be able to avoid
making sacrifices. "
Mother Teresa

"Do not ever allow sadness to take such a hold of your spirit that it leads you to forget the joy of the resurrected Christ.
We all long for God's paradise, but we all have
the opportunity to find ourselves in it right here.
we only need to be happy with Christ
right here and now."
Mother Teresa
(love this one! shuts down the pity party for sure!)

"Sometimes when I encounter selfish parents, I tell
myself, it is possible that these parents worry about
those who are hungry in Africa, in India, or in other countries of the 
third world. It is possible that they dream of ending 
hunger felt by any human being. However, they live unaware
of their own children, of having that poverty and that hunger
in their very own homes. Moreover, they themselves are the ones who cause that hunger and that poverty."
Mother Teresa
(This one hit home for me. This one made me think of everything K has been through. the lack of unconditional love, the physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Selfish parents suck! (see definitely
not on my way to sainthood)

Thank you Mother Teresa for being such a beautiful example of love. Thank you for reminding me to be love and to continue
to believe in giving and sacrifice. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

All The Things

Image
 Here we are June 2023... How'd we get here so fast? Funny I should actually think that? Y'all we are going on 8 years. You know the saying, the days are long but the years are short. That absolutely applies here. There were days I didn't think would end. And, then I'd look up and another year passed. If you've read previous entries, you know I sort of write these with me looking back. I need to have Anna Leigh paint that picture. A lot sure has happened in 8 years. Refer to previous entries to learn all about it. Fast forward to now, to today, June 2023. Rick and I are legit empty nester people. Like what? I know! Crazy crazy!! It's good though. It's all good. Our children are all grown and living their lives. I keep reminding myself this is the goal. We made it to the finish line! Roots and Wings Tracy, you gave them roots and wings. Sometimes I catch myself thinking but do they know this or that? Did I teach them everything they need to know? Lord knows I...
Read more

Hot Damn! God's Beautiful Work Shining Once Again!

Image
 Really didn't expect to be writing a post so soon, but here I am! I always said this journey is God led and that doesn't mean easy, it means, God makes it possible.   I have prayed and prayed and prayed over the years for Kenley's family to know her, to reclaim her and bring her close.I think one of the ridiculous stories her parents gave was we took her from them.. Umm no, we certainly did not take her. Anyway,  I reached out since the beginning and I never heard from anyone. Listen, I know they weren't being told the truth. I know what manipulation and lies were happening so it's all okay. Her mom's side was awful, went into protection mode for golden child and that was that. But, I knew dad's side was different. I just knew it. I knew they were good people. And, they are good people! I told Kenley early on, she was probably 16 and we were talking. I said you are all going to grow up. Your cousins won't be kids forever and they will find you. I said, ...
Read more

Our Journey Together Is Over....

Image
My husband uttered the words to her. "Our journey together is over." He said, "It's now time for you to go and start building your life. Our cozy nest is not helping you grow anymore." Thinking about those words, our journey together... They make me sort of gasp. If you've read this blog, you know, that I see myself sort of standing on a beach looking back at all the years. To this day, I still shake my head and think, did that really happen? And, I can honestly tell you when I say I felt like we were in the twilight zone, looking back, we were in the twilight zone. With that being said, we managed to live. We managed to continue to put one foot in front of the other and go to work, and church, and vacations, and track meets and art shows and we celebrated weddings and birthdays, graduations, scholarships & anniversaries. We laughed and loved. Only by God's grace was that possible for us. But our journey together in our home is over. We both rea...
Read more