What's The Point?

I had a couple of comments to my blog this week which made me aware that my point in writing is sometimes (perhaps always?) not clear. The comments focused on a few words I said and ignored the bigger point I wanted to convey. Perhaps that’s just human nature – focus on what strikes you as interesting (or agreeing with your viewpoint) and ignore the rest. I read a prayer tonight: “Let your Word, Father, be a lamp for our feet and a light to our path, so that WE MAY UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU WISH TO TEACH US.” How easy it is to focus on what we want to hear, not what is being said.

I often write, as now, sitting in a church or chapel. In the quiet with God, “ideas or emotions” sometimes come to me, and if they stay a while, my mind connects them to experiences I have had or emotions I have felt in the past. The “ideas or emotions” turn into an organized story in my mind, and I write it down. The Google blog-posting system I am using very conveniently allows me to post my story as a blog, and my “ideas or emotions” – the key points of my story – as “Labels”, which you can see at the bottom of each post. I’ve included a search engine on this blog (in the upper left side) so you can look at articles on a particular theme (keyword), to see it from different angles, to develop the thought more fully.

The overall theme of this blog is its title: Do Not Be Anxious, from Matthew 6:25. If you read that section of the Gospel you will see that the overall reason to “not be anxious” is that God is in control, and he loves you. My posts are illustrations of anxieties I (and you) face, and how I see God as in control – or as he should be allowed to be in control. Each morning I pray: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” In a way, this blog is an answer to that prayer.

My life has a unique aspect to it in that I am the primary caregiver of a parent who now has special needs. Providing them and focusing on them and my responsibilities can create stress or anxiety. Other caregivers of parents, spouses, children, or even heavy-responsibility jobs, can feel similar stresses. This blog is to help them see and gain comfort, as I do, in knowing that God is in control, and therefore things will turn out all right.

Don’t let this blog’s focus on stress or anxiety lead you to generalize about my life, or my mom’s who I care for. I have much Joy in my life, and am usually very happy. My mom has similar feelings. I have days when my blood pressure rises, and mom has had days of agitation also. The times of my stress are minor compared to the times of my happiness. The times of my mom’s illness being worse are far fewer than the days she enjoys her life.

This blog has a focus; it is not a telling of my general life events (or even my mom’s) as some blogs may be. You’ll not see any posts focused on saying “Well, today we played cards (mom won again) and laughed at cartoons,” even though that did happen today. I hope this blog will not be read as indicating a totally stressed-out or unhappy life of my mom or me, although some comments recently seem to have that impression.

But I won’t let those misimpressions stress me out!! : - )

I hope you are having a good day today. God is good. Your life, his creation, is good. Smile!