Help us remember that the jerk who cut us off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and was rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry and spend a few precious moments with her children.
Help us to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for next semester.
Remind us, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job!) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.
Help us to remember that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they go shopping together.
Heavenly Father, remind us each day that, of all the gifts you give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open our hearts not just to those who are close to us but to all humanity. Let us be slow to judgment and quick to forgiveness and patience and empathy and love.
AMEN!
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* We eventually realize that just as the pains of alcoholism had to come before sobriety, emotional turmoil comes before serenity. *
Doll, Thanks for the prayer...yes, the young man that was described is my 19 year old son. I ask him when I saw him this past Sunday, why more piercings and the tatoo just keeps growing??? He said he is becoming who he was meant to be,please remember when you see these young people, they have a Mom who loves them unconditionally, and if they don't I pray they have a Heavenly Father who does.
The man who walks the streets of our small town, all day long, with his eyes on the ground, stooping occasionally to pickup change, is a Vietnam Vet, who is now an Alcoholic who has lost his whole family. God help him.
One day, I was shopping with my Mom in Wal-mart, I was becoming somewhat distraught...this women came up to me , a total stranger and gave me a hug and said her Mother had passed a month ago. She said she knew how I felt, but she wished she still had her Mom, then she gave my Mom a hug and disappeared. Was she an angel...sometimes I wonder. Reminder from above, to remember, this too shall pass, smell the roses while you still can.
I was recomended a book... 5 people you meet in heaven.
Its the people that come into our lives in the form of an angel. We may have never met them personally but we made some sorta contact with them.
Like you say they come in all shapes and sizes, we never in a million years would of considered them an angel.
Doug gets profiled all the time.
He has a long pony tail, with tatoos all over his body.
He got pulled over for no seat belt. It was a under-cover drug task force cop. He had him put his hands on the truck and spread em. He didnt have his license...but all sorts of paperwork proving who he was.
He was arrested and taken to jail (swear to God). The cop profiled him, and then didnt like him on top of it. The man woulnt hurt a flea. Well maybe a snake or a mouse.
His bail was $80.00
Now you can drive around La. with a loaded gun...but God forbid ...dont forget your seat belt.
La. is suposto be the most corrupt State in the union, they are money hungry.
I hope the hard earned dollars that have come to the aid of this state, because of Katrina is in the right hands.
So yes, we shoulnt judge a book by its cover!!!
Nancy Jo
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Life is full of ups and downs
But the faces of love will
ease the pain and suffering
from:My Mother
Nancy Jo