Valerie teaches small children. I was very amused recently, when on the phone, she told me:
“Kids can be charming sometimes! You will never guess what one of the kids told me this morning! I asked him, ‘What would you do if the devil knocked at the door of your heart?’ And this tiny little six year old boy answered, ‘If the devil comes knocking at the door of my heart, I will send Jesus to open the door Himself for me.'”
I do not know who this little boy is, but if I ever meet him, I will certainly give him a big big hug, because this little boy has grasped the ultimate secret. When life becomes tough we have a choice. Either we marshal our own resources as if the outcome all depends on us or we can see the situation as an exciting arena in which God will intervene. The choice we make can … build or destroy us!
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He was a medic in one of the best hospitals in the States. He confessed to me that he started again praying in his life because of a little girl. They were about to operate on her when the anesthesiologist said, “Therese-Ann, now we are going to cure you, but first we will put you to sleep. Don’t be afraid.”
“Am I going to sleep?” asked the little girl. And without giving anyone a chance to stop her, she got off the hospital bed, knelt down, and began to pray. She said, “Mummy always tells me to kneel down to say my prayers before I go to sleep.”
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Only God knows how often we have wished to say a word to someone and have found no one. We would have liked to share our emotions and feelings with an ear which listens and a heart which cares, but there was no one.
But this is NOT really so. He is there….He is always there, ready to listen, to show compassion, to comfort us.
A family was going through hard times. The father had died, they were in debt, and one day the only thing the mother could give her son Joseph to eat was a dry piece of bread. In the evening, the mother prayed with Joseph. “Let us say the Our Father,” she said. When they came to “give us this day our daily bread” the boy stopped, looked at his mother, and asked if he could add something to the prayer. “Add what you like,” she replied. So the boy said, “Give us this day our daily bread, and please add on some peanut butter ….”
This is real prayer.
We are not alone in the problems of life.
Never!
If only we remember this!
“Yes indeed, O soul most beautiful among all creatures – who wishes so much to know the place where your beloved is hidden – to seek him and embrace him – now I am telling you that you yourself are the abode where he dwells, and the inner room where he is hidden… What more do you want, oh soul? And why do you seek outside of you, when within you lies your riches, your joy, your satisfaction, your fulfillment, your kingdom – which is your Beloved whom your soul is seeking and longing for! “(Saint John of The Cross in The Spiritual Canticle )