Lord, Make Me An Instrument of Thy Peace

I have another prayer today.  Following the devastation in Joplin, Mo., as well as all the other states that have been hit by tornadoes or flooding recently, I think it's appropriate.

The United States of America is made up of wonderful people.  It has come home to me in countless ways that we really are at our best during the worst of times. 

I think it is important to spend time at prayer when you are not asking for anything.  As a parent, I cannot help but think that God appreciates that. 

He knows what we want.  He knows what we need.  These things are often the opposite of each other, at least in my case.  Blind trust is hard, even with God.  The arrogance of man is truly what sets us apart from the animals.  How caught up we get in what we "want"....what we "need".  I have even caught myself trying to explain things to God before!  Once you start explaining it's hard to tell when it will end, but not where it will end up.  It always ends up in the same place, I just take the long way around sometimes.  I'm getting better, but still have far to go and I may never get there!  I don't worry about the destination anymore.  I'm caught up in the journey these days, still learning to trust blindly and trying not to miss the lessons. 

Sometimes you have to just quit asking and listen and you might be surprised what you hear.  Surrender.  You will feel better knowing that you aren't required to do it all by yourself.  There will be help.  Don't wonder where it will come from, just trust that it will.  It just will.  Really.

This is dedicated to all the public servants, volunteers, bikers, truckers, circus workers, elephants, and everyone who helps in any way to do the Lord's work.  Look around.  They are everywhere!!

Lord, Make Me an Instrument of Thy Peace

Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love,
Where there is offence, pardon,
Where there is discord, unity,
Where there is doubt, faith,
Where there is error, truth,
Where there is despair, hope,
Where there is sadness, joy,
Where there is darkness, light.

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Get real

http://www.punditandpundette.com/2011/01/baby-boy-so-big-he-could-walk-me-to-bus.html
If you haven't seen this article, you should.
It is horrible.  It is graphic.  It is almost, ALMOST, incomprehensible to me.
It makes me sick and makes me feel hopeless for our country.

The easiest thing to do is to stop the problem.
On TV when I see teenagers talking about what they think we should do about teenage pregnancy, (Let's stop right there:  WHY are we asking teenagers what they think?  Are we not giving them more credit than they, perhaps, are due?  Is this not like asking the fox how he thinks the henhouse should be guarded?  Contemplate this question.) and the interviewer asks "What about abstinence"?, (Let's stop again to contemplate whether this is, indeed, a common sense, affordable solution that anyone can accomplish) the teenagers get a flat eyed, arrogant expression on their (still forming, round cheeked) faces and say "That's not realistic".

Now, let loose and laugh, all you people with children, laugh and laugh and laugh.  I did.  Every time I saw it, and I saw it 4 times.  Once for each child I had.  Of which I planned exactly 1.

I would refer these teenagers to generations of women AND men, who, from the dawn of time, have had to face the reality that action A would have a very good chance of resulting in consequence B.  And those were just the MARRIED ones!! These teenagers could ask their parents, grandparents, friends, neighbors, why, they could even ask a priest (!) and they would get the same story from anyone who has ever given birth, found themselves pregnant, or known someone who has. 
Yep.
I think that a responsible adult would tell them the truth and NOT sit there and listen to the drivel they come up with to excuse themselves from taking responsibility, as if it made any kind of sense. 
I think a responsible adult would say "Get real, people."

Here is another good article with some history on abortion since Roe vs. Wade:
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/257640/truth-about-abortion-robert-verbruggen

If you are inconveniently pregnant or know of someone who is, please consider adoption. 
I almost always know at least one couple who would give anything to have a child.  LOTS of people know  couples who want a child.  At least consider it.  It would be a realistically good choice.  A true win-win situation as close to "no regrets" as it is ever possible to be in this world.