One friend emailed me yesterday morning and told me that she was praying for us to have "grace to breathe and receive what each day holds..." Such good words as we had a very difficult day with our movers on Friday. They still had not loaded the truck yet and would not call us back after we were forced to send more funds their way. Oh my.
This quote below was the best word for me and I have been really trying to live into it (may thanks to Heather Fosth for sharing it! I REALLY needed to hear this.) :
"We must bless without wanting to manipulate. Without insisting that everything be straightened out right now. Without insisting that our truth be known. This means simply turning whoever it is we need to bless over to God, knowing that God's powerful love will do what our own feeble love or lack of it won't. I have suggested that it is a good practice to believe in six impossible things every morning before breakfast, like the White Queen in Through the Looking Glass. It is also salutary to bless six people I don't much like every morning before breakfast."-Madeline L'Engle
more good words to share... (this arrived in an email this morning that I get from the Henri Nouwen Society, and it fits in so well with the other thoughts!)
When we have been deeply hurt by another person, it is nearly impossible not to have hostile thoughts, feelings of anger or hatred, and even a desire to take revenge. All of this often happens spontaneously, without much inner control. We simply find ourselves brooding about what we are going to say or do to pay back the person who has hurt us. To choose blessings instead of curses in such a situation asks for an enormous leap of faith. It calls for a willingness to go beyond all our urges to get even and to choose a life-giving response.
Sometimes this seems impossible. Still, whenever we move beyond our wounded selves and claim our God-given selves, we give life not just to ourselves but also to the ones who have offended us. –Henri Nouwen Bread for the Journey
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