Obedience…..

I was getting ready for my day, pondering my last week and the victory I had in obedience. Let me tell you about it.

My married daughter has been very sick with mono. This is the fourth month and their little family is living with us because she has not been well enough to look after her 2 very sweet children.

We have tried lots and lots of different things to help her on her road to recovery. We are natural-minded and know a lot of things to use. It has been a slow climb.

One one of her bad days, I talked to Vincent about how her day was. He told me to give so-and-so a call and try her “remedies”. I was dubious and didn’t really want to. We had tried everything and this just seemed lame. We were both (my daughter and I) wore out with “ideas”.

But my better self kicked in and I thought”OK hubby said it, I will just do it” (standing ovation, please). 🙂

Well, as you might imagine, God blessed it and she has had some very good days. It’s still up and down but we see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Now, because I am not here to hang out dirty laundry I will not tell you about the two times this week when I was tested in the same virtue and, in some way or other, goofed. 🙁

I say “mea culpa” and pray I can be a better example to my kids. After all, if we can’t obey cheerfully in the little things, how do we expect our kids to?? If we always have to have an opinion about something, why shouldn’t they?

It makes me think of the saint who was told by her superior to water a dead branch each day. The saint really wondered at the stupidity of it, but did it under obedience. One day, God showed her how pleasing this obedience was to Him and it bloomed.

We may not be externally rewarded each time we bend our own will to the will of our husband’s (though sometimes we are – like the remedy story) but we will be blessed in many other ways. We will be a good example to our children and we will grow in virtue which is a beautiful reward in itself!