Monday Morning Musing -- Too Many Blessings to Count!

It's been a really (and I do mean really) hot summer...which offers a great opportunity. Go out and sit in the sun for five or ten minutes on one of the days when the thermostat approaches 100 degrees and reflect on hell. You really, really don't want to go there! After that, return to the air conditioned house or apartment and thank God for inspiring men to invent all kinds of wonderful things to make our lives easier and more pleasant. 

Do you ever thank God for your washing machine? Think of women going down to the lake or creek with a washboard to do the laundry. Think of indoor plumbing and the luxury of a hot bath or shower whenever you turn on the tap. Remember the days when people went to the town well or down to the river to collect their daily ration of water.

Did you plug in the crockpot this morning to do the cooking for dinner tonight?

Think of all the machinery that's replaced the horse and plow, the horse and buggy, the lamplighter with his ladder, the buildings filled with computer equipment. You have more power in your cell phone than businesses had in entire computer systems only 50 or 60 years ago.

Someone who writes like I do and is old enough to remember typewriters and whiteout really appreciates the ease which with text can be moved or modified with the click of the mouse. 

Of course there's always a downside. Movies and TV can be great teaching tools, but also offer countless opportunities to infect your soul with poison. Seeing people at restaurants glued to their smartphones instead of talking to their companions is a head-shaker. But plenty of things that are morally neutral that can be used for great good can also be used for great evil: fire, guns, knives. Hey, even stones! Remember Cain and Abel.

I want to be mindful today of all the blessings in my life. They are too numerous to count. The most wonderful are my husband, my five children, their spouses, and our twenty-eight grandchildren. And of course our parents and all the ancestors who made our family possible. 

God's love never shines more brightly than in the face of a newborn baby. So I thank God especially for the two babies born and welcomed into our family this year -- two little boys.

I'm always praying for the blessing of a priest or religious in our family. Who knows, maybe one of these little boys will someday be wearing a roman collar. Perhaps one of our granddaughters will don a wedding dress to become the virgin bride of Christ.

Every first Sunday we mothers and grandmothers gather at the communion rail in our little chapel. We pray that one of our children or grandchildren will be called by God to the priesthood or religious life. I've been praying for that since our first child was born. 

God called our five children to marriage and family life, a precious vocation. I watch with anticipation to see what He will do in the next generation with each of our awesome grandchildren. We won't be here to see the adulthood of our great grandchildren, but we will continue to pray for them after we leave this Valley of Tears for our true home.

Have a blessed Monday and may Jesus Christ be praised!