A Light for My Path

Every week when I sit down to write my blog post, I start with a prayer. Specifically, Psalm 19:14:

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.

I love to write. Putting words on paper helps me untangle my thoughts and my emotions. But I don’t want my writing to be all about me or just throwing my self-therapy out there for everyone to see. I truly hope that some of my experiences of being a bereaved parent and the growth in my faith and trust in God can be of help to others. So, I ask for God’s blessing on what I write.

I also often struggle with writer’s block. Not knowing what to say. So, I sometimes say my prayer and then just start to type. Hoping I will get inspiration as I go. That’s what I’m doing right now.

My heart has been heavy lately. The world doesn’t feel like a very friendly place. There’s so much divisiveness in our country. People are angry and violent. I worry about my grandchildren’s safety and their potential too-soon loss of innocence. It’s too easy to get caught up in reading story after story in the news about hatred and evil actions. It’s depressing and frightening.

I have to remind myself that bad news sells. That horrible, hate-filled actions make attention-grabbing headlines.

But my actual life — the day-to-day things I do, the people I interact with, the conversations I have – doesn’t make headlines. And that I actually know many, many more good, nice, decent people than hateful ones. I believe most of us do.

Here are some examples of goodness I have witnessed just in the last week:

• A young man stopping his car in the Walmart parking lot to lift a bag of softener salt off the bottom of my cart into my car.
• A woman at the gym showing another woman how to adjust one of the weight machines.
• A neighbor texting others that she’s going to the grocery store and does anyone need her to pick up anything for them.
• A person at a restaurant quietly paying for the breakfast of an elderly couple at another table.

None of these actions is earth-shattering. None of these kindnesses will make the news. But they happen every day. Let’s look for them. Let’s be them.

Let our words, thoughts, and actions be acceptable in God’s sight. Like the good people He made us to be.

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Laura