Milestone!

Happy Saturday! Good afternoon blog friends!  I’m really tired today.  I was in the city on Monday, didn’t sleep well that night because I wasn’t in my own bed and arrived home about 12:15am Wednesday morning and I feel like I have been running every since.  This morning I got up at 7:30 to get ready and attend the Women of Faith breakfast at our local Anglican church here in Cobourg!

Doesn’t sound like much, I know, but I am getting older and the MS seems to want me to rest more. Not a bad week coming up, although I have something on every day, it seems.  Ah well, this coming week will end with a weekend visit from my cousin from Ottawa and her friend.  I’m quite looking forward to it.  I will do much ahead of time and use my slow cooker, so that I’m not spending too much time in the kitchen.

As to my milestone, I actually kind of missed it.  This is my 152nd blog post, so I missed the celebration of 150!  Wahoo!  I have managed to keep it up all this time.  I’m kind of proud of myself, I must say. I don’t exactly have any super exciting posts, but I am reasonably consistent.

This is simply a part of my spiritual journey that began when I was a kid. I have had a few detours along the way, but it’s all good. Major life lessons are always worth it.  It may not seem so at the time, but you get to grow as a person.

There was a lovely lady speaking at the faith breakfast this morning, and she mentioned more than once, that there wasn’t a person in the room who hadn’t gone through challenges in their life and, of course, she is right. Some have had rather minor challenges and some have some pretty tough challenges.  In her case, she married someone who became an alcoholic.  After her divorce about 15 years later, she met a wonderful gentleman, and after a time they planned to get married.  Two weeks before the wedding, he died of a heart attack and she was on her own again, not only with her daughter from her first marriage, but the two children of the groom-to-be. Very tragic.

Like many of us, she is a survivor and carried on.  She met and married someone else some time later and outlived that fellow as well and in the midst of all of that, her first husband died, too.  Wow, it kind of makes you feel grateful for your own challenges.

It reminds me of a story I heard recently about someone carrying a cross, signifying his challenges. The man complains to Jesus that it is too heavy a burden and Jesus takes him to a room filled with crosses of all sizes, giving him the opportunity to choose a new one.  The man looks around and feels that some are way too small and would be okay for a child, but not for him.  Others are too big and he feels that he cannot manage those.  He picks one out, convinced that he can manage it and Jesus tells him that it was the one he was originally carrying, given to him because Jesus thought he could manage it.

I believe it to be true.  You will only be given what you can manage.  As the saying goes, ‘If God will bring you to it, he will get you through it.’ Challenges may seem unmanageable, but be patient, you will get the help you need.  I certainly did, in my life.

So, hang in there! And, don’t be afraid to ask for help.  Sometimes, the right people show up to get you through a rough time.  I remember as a single mother thinking that if I just went to the food bank once, I would be able to get ahead of the money running out before the month did. But I was stubborn and just kept going.  I did get through that time, but it would have been much easier, if I had asked for help.

I pray that you have a gentle week and may God bless you all!