Continuing a reflection on the gift, grace and virtue of LOVE --- a signpost along each person's journey of life, especially during the season of LENT, recall that we become "successful adults" when we become the good persons parents tried to teach us to be.
Think back to your childhood day even if that period of your life is many moons passed. Try to recall one or two of the goals your parents sought to implant in your little mind and heart. Consider the goals you eventually achieved. Give you heart a little time to evaluate what those achieved goals have brought to you ... especially the goal(s) that enabled you to reach out to others.
My father was a cabinet maker and draftsman: two wonderful skills he learned in his secondary education that he was never able to finish because of the Great Depression. As I look backwards to his attempts with all six of us siblings, I recall a father who tried to teach us directly and indirectly that helping others was very important. So many times he would take one or two of us with him to his cabinet shop to help him fabricate a small cabinet, even a chest of drawers for someone in need whose want had been brought to his attention. Why bring us along? Because he had learned from several people especially a wonderful African American lady who served as a daytime Nanny for my dad, my aunt and their sixteen, yes, 16, cousins while all the parents were out eking out a living in terrible times. That lady taught him and my distant Richmond, VA cousins so much about caring for others.
What my father was teaching us was rather simple: caring for some one's needs was an experience of God's graces of love. He never called it that. He just would say it was what we should do. Well, just recently two of my brothers called to share an event that took place in each of their lives. I realized that Dad's teaching continued. Each had gone out of their way to help someone in great need. Each of them, as they had done before, shared with me the transforming emotions and graces their acts of love had brought to their lives.
What my brothers experienced was the fulfillment of our Dad's teaching, his modeling for us. What seems to have happened is this: these two adults had allowed the God-given grace of love to spring forth from their very being to help someone whose plight had been brought to each one's attention. They heard and lived out God's call to love another be that person a neighbor, a friend or even someone not so favorable to them.
So, what does the sign, LOVE, along your journey mean to you? What does the LOVE of Jesus for you that you have encountered again on your journey of LENT 2008 speak to you? Has that same love impacted your life, your actions?
Think back to your childhood day even if that period of your life is many moons passed. Try to recall one or two of the goals your parents sought to implant in your little mind and heart. Consider the goals you eventually achieved. Give you heart a little time to evaluate what those achieved goals have brought to you ... especially the goal(s) that enabled you to reach out to others.
My father was a cabinet maker and draftsman: two wonderful skills he learned in his secondary education that he was never able to finish because of the Great Depression. As I look backwards to his attempts with all six of us siblings, I recall a father who tried to teach us directly and indirectly that helping others was very important. So many times he would take one or two of us with him to his cabinet shop to help him fabricate a small cabinet, even a chest of drawers for someone in need whose want had been brought to his attention. Why bring us along? Because he had learned from several people especially a wonderful African American lady who served as a daytime Nanny for my dad, my aunt and their sixteen, yes, 16, cousins while all the parents were out eking out a living in terrible times. That lady taught him and my distant Richmond, VA cousins so much about caring for others.
What my father was teaching us was rather simple: caring for some one's needs was an experience of God's graces of love. He never called it that. He just would say it was what we should do. Well, just recently two of my brothers called to share an event that took place in each of their lives. I realized that Dad's teaching continued. Each had gone out of their way to help someone in great need. Each of them, as they had done before, shared with me the transforming emotions and graces their acts of love had brought to their lives.
What my brothers experienced was the fulfillment of our Dad's teaching, his modeling for us. What seems to have happened is this: these two adults had allowed the God-given grace of love to spring forth from their very being to help someone whose plight had been brought to each one's attention. They heard and lived out God's call to love another be that person a neighbor, a friend or even someone not so favorable to them.
So, what does the sign, LOVE, along your journey mean to you? What does the LOVE of Jesus for you that you have encountered again on your journey of LENT 2008 speak to you? Has that same love impacted your life, your actions?
