Blog Hop: Encouraging Words from Down in the Mud

One of my favorite sto­ries of encour­age­ment is about St. Teresa of Avila, she’s also one of the Doc­tors of the Catholic Church, & a woman who did not give up easy. One time when she was trav­el­ing, the cart she had tipped over and she fell into a muddy stream. As the story goes being pretty ticked off at the fact that she was doing God’s work & being tossed into the mud St.Teresa looked to heaven and cried, “God, if this is the way you treat your friends, no won­der you have so few of them!”

Why is a lady yelling at God after being tossed around in the mud so encour­ag­ing you might won­der? Well it is because it reminds me that when things are bad God can take me let­ting Him know how I feel, He is a friend that can take it. And EVEN the Saints had rough days & had days that were a strug­gle.  Knocked down in the mud kind of strug­gles, she had a lit­eral day like that not just the fig­u­ra­tive days that we all might face.

But you know what she got back up and con­tin­ued to do what she needed to do. If she could get back up & con­tinue on, after being tossed in the mud, then I can. There are days when it’s been a real strug­gle for me & know­ing that I can get back up, mud & all, and be stronger in the process helps me see a future where those strug­gles can help deepen my faith, my rela­tion­ships with fam­ily & friends, and my life even if at the time I want to let God know how ticked I am.

She’s also the patron saint for headache suf­fers, most moms might be able to ben­e­fit from her help in that depart­ment too. Not that I’m say­ing anyone’s kids give them headaches. But if they did, for exam­ple Mr. J when he was in school was asked by his teacher “What do you give your mom?” The ques­tion was part of learn­ing about lov­ing fam­ily, talk­ing about giv­ing fam­ily hugs, help­ing each other, & kind words etc…  His answer with a big smile “She says I give her a headache some­times.”  Now Mr. J those are lov­ing headaches.

Tagged as: blog hop, doctor of the catholic church, encouragement, st. teresa of avila