Creating Smiles...Saving a Parking Place



The vase of flowers given to me by Tita.

Often I pray for the Lord Jesus to give me the opportunity to make the world a better place and He ALWAYS answers my prayer. Now, the opportunities He gives me to make the world a better place are not going to be seen on the nightly news or in the newspaper. Also, I'm not going to be seen as a hero nor  will I receive any type of monetary reward and I'm thankful for that. I appreciate just being able to make someone smile. In this blog, I am going to tell you the experience that God gave me Friday evening when I took my mom to her weekly BINGO game.

 

Upon my arrival at the BINGO establishment I parked  in the parking lot and  while my mom was unfastening her safety belt, I saw a familiar car and a tiny, elderly lady sitting inside of it several parking spaces away from us. I said to my mother, "I see Tita is back." My mom answered in the affirmative. I had been aware that Tita, who is a regular at BINGO, had been gone for several weeks due to an injury. I decided to go say hi to her and inquire about how she was feeling.

 

I walked over to the car and she rolled down her window. I smiled and she smiled and exchanged greetings. I told her I was glad to see her back and asked her how she was feeling? She said, "Better, but still weak." She explained that she had fallen and hurt her hip and hit her head on a table resulting in a cut to her forehead. As she told me about this I noticed how frail she looked and that she was had minor shaking of her upper extremities and head.

Then, she told me she forgot her glasses at home and that she didn't want to to leave to go get them, because she didn't want to loose her parking place, which was right outside door to the BINGO hall. I understood her desire to park close to the door, because it was apparent that she would have difficulty walking any distance. I asked her if she wanted me to park my car in her place, while she went to get her glasses. A great, radiant smile followed with a very enthusiastic response, "Yes, I'll be back in about 10 minutes." With those words she turned on the ignition and backed out and I got in my car and parked in her space.

 

About ten minutes later she returned and I pulled out of her space and she pulled in. She motioned for me to come over to her, so I parked my car again and got out of it and walked over to her. She reached over to her passenger side and retrieved something. Then, she presented me with a white, glass vase with white and red artificial flowers in it. Her thank you present created a big smile on my face.. She told me how much she appreciated what I had done for her and that the flowers were just her way of saying thank you. I told her how beautiful they were and thanked her.

Tita told me that she has made over three thousand of these flower arrangements for people in nursing homes over the years. I smiled and told her how wonderful that was. As I stood there and looking down at her through her driver side window, I was so thankful that I was able to help her and made her smile. She had done so much to make other elderly person's lives better with her flowers and when she needed help God was able to provide for her.  I said goodbye to Tita,  thanked God, kissed my mom and wished her luck and headed home.

I always hesitate to write these things, because I don't want anyone to think I'm trying to glorify myself by sharing a kindness, which I have shown. But rather, I  am telling you this story, in order to glorify the One who gave me the opportunity to make a difference and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ...The King of Mercy. You see, it was Jesus who put me there at the right time in order to be His ambassador.  I thanked Jesus for being so merciful and thank you for using me to do Your will. He is the GREATEST!!!!

 

The world is full of much sorry, pain, loneliness...I'm going to continue to pray for more opportunities to be merciful to others and make them smile. I hope you will also. Have a beautiful day!

The Beauty of the Moment

My soul stirs within me when I see the beauty in life. Here is some of the beauty, which I have seen in the last month:

• The beauty of the sound of the cottonwood leaves, as they blow in the wind as I sit walk the dirt roads and deer trails which are in my life.
• The beauty of the fragrance of the fresh cut grass as it bursts forth from the morning dew. 
• The face of a tired looking, but beautiful young women, as she exits her car to pump gas.
• The light sapphire colored eyes of a man that shine with great brilliance, who starts up a conversation with me in the library as he tells me how he lost all of his memory, because of a stroke. He may have lost his all of his memory from before the stroke, but the light of Christ was beaming from within his soul.
• The sound of a woman's voice, which causes me to turn my head, so that my ear would be closer to her, as she sings in worship of the Lord during Holy Mass.
• The unique sound of the bird called the killdeer, when it is squeals,  as though it is delighted by my presence as it hears and feels the vibration of my foot steps and skurries away from me.
• The wild sound of a very special yearling buck, who permits me to bed down not far from him and how he audibly communicates to me in his way and the beauty of the peace I feel when I am in his presence.
• The melody created by a beautiful, but broken,  bone china mug  covered in chintz roses, as I release it from my hand and the shattered pieces tumble into the trash dispenser.

I find that when I see beauty, I can no longer control myself. I must tell them or someone of the beauty of which I am or have experienced. When I tell the person, the bird, the buck, the leaves, the grass... of their beauty, I like to think that I am also complimenting God for being the Divine Designer and Creator of them all. Yes, a compliment is ultimately a form of praise to God. Can you see that?

In the midst of the activity of the day, take time to recognize that which is really beautiful and then take a moment to praise the Creator of Beauty, with a compliment or by acknowledging it, in this simple way, you can make the world a better place to live.

Thank you Jesus for all of the beauty in the world. With much Christian love. Joelle

Use Me Lord, Consume Me!

Some time ago, I began asking something of God, which I greatly desired. The prayer went like this, "I want you to use me Lord in whatever way You desire. I was created for your purposes, not my own.  I want you to use me, I want you to consume me!"

 

This prayer came out of me from the depths of my heart with what I will describe as the fire with Divine Love. I wanted to make a difference in this world even in small ways, even if all I do is to make someone smile. I wanted to minister to people in whatever way the Lord Jesus chose for me to do this.  I wanted to show compassion, love, concern for my fellow man, woman or creature. I wanted to shine the love of Christ to those who I met each day. I truly wanted the Lord to use me and consume me.

 

What happened next? Well, God was answering my prayer, but I didn't understand what was happening in my life. I had forgot what I had wholeheartedly asked Jesus to do in my life. More and more,  I was finding myself in the middle of one dramatic situation after another. I was finding myself in the right place at the right time, it seemed. Although, initially in some of these situations I didn't really want to be there.

 

The following are only a few of the things that happened after I prayed this prayer. 

 

One day I arrived to find two people from another state, who were stranded and without financial means, because they had been the victims of having their car broke into and their money and credit cards stolen. I was able to help them

 

On another day, I found myself a victim of a man who chose to undress in front of my presence and then did obscene things to himself, I was able to have him arrested, because of my work in trying to capture deer poachers. However instead of catching a deer poacher, I was able to have a public nuisance arrested.

 

And today, I needed to get lubricating eye drops for our elderly cat, who is suffering from an eye problem. I  planned to go to a nearby store to get them, but suddenly I felt strongly compelled  to go to a store much further away from my location.

I argued with the Lord about how it would be less gas, time and effort for me to go to the nearby store. However, the more I argued the stronger it became that I was to go to the store further away. I did as I felt the Lord was requesting. While I was walking toward the front door of the store, I heard a tremendous crash. I turned around to see a terrible car accident involving two trucks. My nurse/paramedic training from years ago shifted into action and the incredible events, which followed in this terrible situation were the motivation for this most recent blog of mine.

 

I will tell you more specifics about these and other situations that have occurred in my life and which will occur in the future. I see now that these things are occurring, because I asked for God to use me and consume me. I am seeing my life more clearly now that I am seeing them as God wants it to be. I am in some way seeing them with His eyes... With Divine Eyes.

 

Until the next blog... Glory and praise to You... Lord Jesus Christ!!!! In Christ's Magnificent Love! Smiles, Miss Josie :)