[Excerpt]
As bosses, leaders, co-workers, neighbors, friends, family members, spouses and, yes, even as parents, we’re called to serve the Lord. Of course we serve our children in that we give them our love, nurturing, guidance, affection, security, protection, education, material necessities, support, and prayers. However, we work heartily, as St. Paul puts it, for God’s sake – we serve him in and through the situations and people in our lives. We serve, and then let go, knowing our reward lies in heaven, not here on earth.
So when we’re old and crotchety, teetering back and forth on our rocking chairs and sipping away at our mugs of hot chocolate, we can think back on all the wonderful moments God has given us and all incredible opportunities we’ve had to be part of his plan, grateful and content in knowing that we’ve worked heartily and served the Lord.
Read more here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/cw/post.php?id=453
This article hit the nail on the head regarding my feelings these past few days. We missed being with and seeing and enjoying our children and grandchildren. We're thousands of miles away from most of them, and it certainly was a time of thinking about our past lives with them and the many Christmas's that we were all together. I know one thing though, my thoughts and prayers for them keep them all in my mind and thank God for my computer screen where I have a Yahoo Widget showing all our family pictures, one after the other, right before my eyes! I can't be with them in person, but I can be with them spiritually! Maybe this is what is is like when we get to heaven. To look down on our children and pray to Almighty God for them. I'm already doing that now, why not later? This reminds me of a story I read about a woman who's son died in a car crash and she kept asking the Blessed Mother Mary if her son was in heaven. One day she received an answer: Her son was in heaven with Our Lady and he was looking down upon her. That certainly lifted her anxiety and she was at peace. I always knew my own father, who died in 1947, was watching over me from heaven. It kept me from be a really bad kid knowing he was watching me. :-) God bless us all+
Deacon John
