While working in the gift shop at “the caverns” yesterday, I encountered a young man (9 or 12 or something) that made quite an impression on me. What did he do? He thanked his parents for bringing him to see the caverns and for the things they bought him in the shop.
Now, that may not seem like a big deal. After all, it’s simple good manners to say thank you. I’ve waited on hundereds of parents buying their kids stuff in the gift shop this summer though, and this is the first time I remember hearing the child say thank you. I’m sure there were others that I have forgotten, but all the same, it’s a rare thing for this to happen. More often I hear kids whining about not getting the item they really wanted, or wanting more, or while seeming happy about the purchase not saying a word of thanks.
When the transaction was completed I looked at the boy and said that I needed to tell him something. “I’m really proud of you!”, I began. “You said thank you to your parents and not many kids to that. I’m impressed! You’re a good kid. Keep up the good work.” A huge smile lit his face as I talked to him.
We all take so much for granted, children and adults alike. We forget to say thanks and don’t take the time to use good manners. As parents and teachers we need to be grateful ourselves and voice that gratitude, and gently teach the children in our care to do the same. Once they’ve been taught, we should expect good manners and hold one another accountable. Not a big deal, but it sure would make the world a better place.
Can it be that from our endings, new beginnings you create?
Life from death, and from our rendings, realms of wholeness generate?
Take our fears, then, Lord, and turn them into hopes for life anew:
Fading light and dying season sing their Glorias to you.
Words by Dean W. Nelson, 1988, in Wonder, Love, and Praise
My Prayer
Lord, as this year ends I thank you for all the days and the ways that you touched my life. As the new year begins I look with anticipation to the days ahead, believing that you will continue to bring light and wholeness to all the areas of my life. I look around at the events of this earth and it would be easy to enter this new year in fear for the future, yet I choose instead to enter it in faith, praying that you will bring about the fulfillment of your plans for this planet. I pray that you will bring into reality the things you have spoken to my own heart, and that I will accept the challenges and allow you to form me into the person I really am. Jesus, dear Jesus, you came and you changed everything. It is in you that I hope. It is for you that I sing: Gloria! Amen
Alone in the darkness, I lit the first candle on my advent wreath. Suddenly, light in the darkness. Light with the hope of more light to come.
Light of All Lights,
I gaze at the light that signals your coming, and expectation grows in my heart. Light in the darkness, what does this mean? Things hidden will be hidden no longer. Fear is vanquished as dark shadows are swallowed up in brightness. Warmth and healing are on the way. I am not alone.
Come Lord Jesus, come.
I think perhaps the reason that I don’t write sometimes goes far deeper than the fact that I’m busy, even though that may be true. To write I must think deeply, and that takes energy that I may not feel I have at the moment. But beyond that, to write well I must allow myself to feel and experience my own emotions, and that is not always comfortable. So I protect myself, and find things that don’t really matter to fill those moments when I know I’m being tugged at by the Holy Spirit to allow myself to feel things I’d rather ignore. I’m too busy to think. I’m too busy to write. I’m too busy to be me. Yes, I make myself too busy to be me! Like it or not, that mixed bag of emotions, half formed thoughts, fears shoved under the carpet, and hopes I’ve yet to dare to hope are all a part of me. To deny it is to deny myself, yet that is what I choose to do.
Prayer~~~~~ Lord, grant to me grace enough to face myself and all that that means. Help me to love myself enough to take the time to listen to all the parts clammoring for attention. Help me to trust you enough to be….me. AMEN
I sure appreciate all of you (all 7 of you!) who actually read what I write here, so THANKS. If you have the old blog, Along the Way, on your blogroll could you please change it to the new Life With LadyGrace?
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU AND THANKS!
