Along the journey towards the greater, there are many small, daily steps to better understand oneself, God, and others. This is one of my “daily steps”.
IMG_3529 from Gretchen Crowder on Vimeo.
Today I walked down the hallway past an overflowing basket of laundry into a room to find a lost shoe. The room, like the house itself, had gone from stable to disaster in a mere five days. It has been a long week, and an equally long and busy weekend lay ahead. And though there are so many enjoyable things ahead, I found my well a little empty today.⠀
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So I was shorter with my boys than I should have been and a lost shoe suddenly seemed like the worst possible thing on a #Friday morning. The little things became the big things… and the well of spirit inside was a little dry. ⠀
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But on the way to school as my boys engaged in a heated debate about who exactly was best friends with daddy (what am I, boys, chopped liver?) I started to think about why the well felt dry. I was tired. I had tasks ahead in my day that I was a little anxious about. And I was letting the small things become the big things.⠀
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#stignatiusofloyola in the #firstprincipleandfoundation reminds us that:⠀
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“The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit. All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily. As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.⠀
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In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.⠀
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Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me.”⠀
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I’m praying this morning to redirect my thoughts, words, and actions towards the big thing – a stronger relationship with God. And to remember, the laundry always gets done!
