On Prayer and Humility

My sister's family is going through a difficult time right now. My nephew made some bad decisions and now has to face the consequences. During such times, it is easy to question the value of prayer. After all, I have prayed quite regularly for this person, that God would help guide his choices and his life. I know that others have prayed as well. Yet, here he is, stuck in a quagmire of his own making. "God, where exactly where you when all this was happening?" I was feeling that way this morning when I did my Bible reading. Then I read the gospel for today:

"And I tell you, ask and you will receive; seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." (Luke 11: 9-10)

God does answer prayers and there is nothing so bad that He can't bring some good out of it. So, I will keep praying. In fact, I am starting a rosary novena tomorrow - 54 days asking our Blessed Mother to intercede on behalf of the situation. I don't know why all this is happening but I will continue to trust that God has a plan.


In other news, I finished both "A Resilient Life" by Gordon MacDonald and "Memories of Hawthorne" by Rose Hawthorne Lathrop today. So, I will leave you today with a quote from each of them.

Humility is an issue I have been struggling with lately, and something I think that God is trying to teach me. Gordon MacDonald offered this on the subject of ego:

"'Humility,' wrote Archbishop William Temple, 'does not mean thinking less of yourself than of other people, nor does it mean having a low opinion of your own gifts. It means freedom from thinking of yourself at all.'"


In the last pages of "Memories of Hawthorne," Rose Lathrop quotes a writing of her mother, "If man would not babble so much, we could much oftener hear God. . . Our own closed eyelids are too often the only clouds between us and the ever-shining sun. I hold all as if it were not mine, but God's and ready to resign it."