Meekness vs. Weakness

I wanted to talk to everyone today about something I feel that I am guilty about more often than not.

Sometimes I believe that I focus way too much on what is happening in my own spiritual life and not enough on helping others or even the spiritual lives of others.

The proof of this is in the last post I wrote.

I know this is probably redundant of me, but please be aware of what and who is around you.

Even those that we are close to~ Just because we are close to someone does not mean that we are always aware of everything they are struggling with or even how they feel about things.

Our culture is amazingly selfish.

This doesn't mean that good things do not happen everyday but how many of us actually stop and instead of doing something we really want to do......do something for someone else because we know it will make the other person happy.

As long as what we are doing is not morally wrong or illegal, this is something selfless we can do for someone else.

Even something like this can be offered to our Lord as a small suffering or sacrifice.

I really admire St. Therese who in her own spiritual life adopted what she called "the little way".

She knew that she was a very simple soul and felt that she would never be able to offer our Lord something big or great.

But one day it struck her that she could do all of the simple everday mundane things greatly!

This means offering up every little conquering of own will or doing something as everday as washing the dishes and doing it for our Lord.

So you might ask, How on earth and what on earth does it mean to "wash dishes for our Lord"?

Well I'm not suggesting that you are actually washing the dishes for God, but you are washing them not because you want to, but because you know it is something that must be done and if that's the case it is something that God expects you to do to the best of your ability without complaing and without looking for recognition.

I think this is harder than a lot of people might think. Just try it, next time you have a lot of chores to do, do it without someone asking and when you are done do not tell people what you did or ask them what they think of your job.

This might sound strange to some of you, but this is serving our Lord with humility and love.

This means every time someone is impatient with me, I will be quiet and listen and not act impatiently in return.

Oh, if you only knew how valuable this "little conquerings" are to our Lord! To learn to be truly MEEK!

Some of us believe that meekness = weakness!

To me weakness is impatience, cowardice, and living a life of sin.

Meakness, on the other hand, isn't necessarily turning the other cheek, but knowing when to turn the other cheek with grace as opposed to standing up for what is right.

My standard for meekness is.....people can say what they want about me but not about our Lord!

This is because in my own eyes I am only as much as the Lord makes me to be and how dare anyone think less of our Lord!

You might think that maybe I am suffering from a low self-esteem or something and that is why I feel this way.

To those who are cynical of this kind of thinking, I wish I could let them see things through our Lord's eyes.

Being meek is not taking the guest of honor's place at the table but taking the last place as the guest.

If you're someone who normally does not like to be the center of attention~ This can also work in the opposite way.

If someone wishes to honor you for whatever reason, let them.
For some, this is harder than not being the center of attention. It is because it is embarrasing or humiliating for them.

Offer up this humiliation because the Holy Spirit may be working in the one who wishes to honor you and who are you to block the inspirations and actions of the Holy Spirit?

So for those of you who know me, I am making a public promise to you to try and be more aware of the Holy Spirit's inspirations in your own life and I pray that the Lord will help me to understand as opposed to being understood.

Just as saving a penny or two a day can add up to a lot of money over time......
Think about how much all these little sufferings and offerings will add up as a gift to Our Lord over our entire lifetime!

So even if you feel you cannot do great things on earth, you can do little things greatly!

So start putting some treasure in your heavenly savings account so you can make a huge withdrawal at your time of death and offer it to our Lord as gratitude for everything He gives and takes away!

It all starts with a prayer from the heart!

God bless you and reward you in all you do, say and think!