HAPPY "HOLY-DAYS!" #Christmas#MeaningfulMessages#Writing#CountingBlessings

Truly "the most wonderful time of the year." A time to count blessings, lay aside troubles and disappointments, and look forward to 2018 as an even better year.

Inspiration for the holidays

Meaningful Messages

One of my blessings is having author friends send me inspiring, touching, humorous, and thought-provoking messages and writings. Here is an edited version of one that brought a chuckle. 

“Can I ask you a question, God?”

           Of course.

“Promise you won’t get angry?”
          I promise.

“Why did You let so much bad stuff happen to me today?”

Such as . . .?

“I woke up late and my car took forever to start.”

           Yes.

“At lunch they made my sandwich wrong. I had to wait for a new one.”

           Hmmm.

“On the way home, my phone went dead, just as I picked up a call.”

           True.

“When I got home, all I wanted to do was to soak my feet in my new foot massager and relax. It wouldn’t work. Nothing went right today. Why did all these bad things happen?”

First, you woke up late and your car wouldn’t start right away because there was a drunk driver on your route to work. He would have hit you if you had been on the road at your usual time.”

“Really?”

           Really. At lunch the person who made your first sandwich was sick. I didn’t want you to catch what she has and have to miss work.

“Good, but what about my phone?"

           It went dead because the caller was going to spread lies about what you said. I didn’t let you talk, which took care of that.

“Thank You so much!”

           The foot massager had a short that was going to throw out all of the power in your house tonight. I didn’t think you would want that.

“No way. Sorry for complaining.”

           Don’t be sorry. Just learn to trust me in all things.

“Thank You, God. I will.”

😊

Special Blessings

I treasure comments from friends, readers, and strangers who take time to let me know I have touched their lives in some way, usually through my writing.

One eighteen-year-old girl wrote, "It's hard to be a PG teen in an R-rated world. The choices your heroine made in . . . helped so much in making tough decisions in my own life."

A friend simply wrote, "Thank you for being there for me when I needed someone to listen."

Such comments mean more to me than being on the New York Times best-seller list (although that wouldn't be bad, either)! 

So does knowing I am in the right place at the right time, doing what I have been called . . . and privileged . . . to do. One of my favorite poems says it all.

I Shall Not Pass This Way Again

by Anonymous

 
Through this toilsome world, alas!
Once and only once I pass,
If a kindness I may show,
If a good deed I may do
To a suffering fellow man,
Let me do it while I can.
No delay, for it is plain
I shall not pass this way again.



I would add to this the inspiring words from a Mahalia Jackson song:

"If I can help somebody as I travel along . . . my living will not be in vain."

We cannot give without also receiving. My Christmas prayer is that each of us will make a difference in someone's life. Kind words and smiles cost nothing--but they light candles in hearts that may need what we can freely give.


And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. Matthew 24:40 (KJV).


Love and blessings,
Colleen

Joy to the World