EmmanuelJ2A

Where did the week go? I am sitting here looking at my calendar and am realizing that there are 17 days until Christmas…I don’t think I have even one gift bought, never mind wrapped! Work is running on overdrive as we transition to a new electronic medical record (I am a psychiatric nurse practitioner at Thundermist Health Center at both the West Warwick and Woonsocket sites). What a ride it has been!

What saves me from going totally crazy with all of this is remembering what is REALLY important in my life…namely, my faith in Jesus. Whenever I start unraveling, I stop and think about what I have to be thankful for (oh! so, so many things), like my family, my Emmanuel church community, my friends, my job, and so on…I know I have been blessed with a full life that is based on both the special qualities given to me by God and then, more importantly, what I am DOING in my life with all that He has given me.

This week in our class we are going to focus on “Our Unique Gifts and Abilities” or as I stated in the title - What Makes Us Special??? We tend to focus on the negative aspects of ourselves, especially as a teenager (I know that I did! I would not leave the house until my hair was absolutely perfect - at least in my fourteen year old mind). Tomorrow we are going to begin to look at those special qualities and how God may be calling us to use these qualities in our lives, even as teenagers in middle and high school. The Gospel according to Matthew 25:14-30 (The Parable of the Talents) will be read by all to help inspire our discussion on the “choices” we make in our lives, is it for us or for God to do what He wants through us? Tough questions, but very important to begin to look at we we grow in our faith…Everyone will be given an opportunity to identify (on an ‘inventory” worksheet) those unique gifts and abilities that he or she possesses as a gift from God.

Ask your teens about what they feel really are their unique gifts and abilities given to them from God…you might be surprised to hear what they say! As adults in the church community, we are all charged to support and encourage the teens as they look at these gifts and then (hopefully, with the grace of God) begin to use them as God is calling them to do in their young lives. I say - GO FOR IT! Take the risk! Be yourself! Practice here on Sunday mornings here with us - there is no safer place to be than here to start looking at these issues…

I am copying the prayer below once again in a color that hopefully can be read more easily on this blog - we will be reading this prayer together tomorrow in class.

Peace,

Carol Mowatt

Thomas Merton’s Prayer

My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end.
Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you and I hope that I have that desire in all that I am doing.
And I know that if I do this, you will lead me by the right road although I may know nothing about it.

Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death, I will not fear, for you are ever with me and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.