Getting Burned

   
    

     Okay, so I am straying from my positive focus today to go on a slight rant. Please forgive me. Yesterday I spent almost my entire day helping an elderly family member with what I thought was a potentially life threatening problem, only to find out at the end of the day that my kindness had been seriously taken advantage of, and the situation was quite different from what I had been led to believe. I will spare you all the grizzly details, but it has me thinking. What do you do when you feel like all your efforts are unappreciated or worse, wasted? Of course, a truly kind act does not spring from expectations of some form of reward or return. We are usually not even seeking acknowledgement, but to feel taken advantage of, that's another thing. I feel resentful of the time I put in that could definitely have been used to do the myriad other things that need my attention. For one thing, this mission took me away from my children for several hours. Time that I willingly put in, thinking it was sorely needed.
      Will I go to this much effort to help again? Probably. But I hope this is the last time I will play the fool.

Photo Credit:
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/begotka/10860998686/">The Wild Roam Free</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>
     

It Begins in the Home

    

You may have guessed by the above quote that I am inspired by Mother Teresa. I think it goes beyond that. I love her. In fact I almost went to India to work with her sisters after college, but I ended up getting married instead. That was a difficult decision for me to make. Not because I didn't want to get married, but because I had lofty ideas about life as a missionary that didn't fit in with my idea of what married life was going to be. Boy was I wrong, and Mother Teresa would be the first one to tell me to stay here and do what I'm doing. She was a firm believer that we need to be missionaries in our own homes and neighborhoods. She even said "What can you do to promote world peace? Go home and love your family." This is much easier said than done. It is especially difficult to treat those we live with with kindness, sometimes even though they are the ones we love the most. I find it difficult more often than I would like to admit. It is way too easy to fall into a pattern of brusqueness with those you know will forgive you. But what begins in the home travels out into the world. If we receive harsh words in the morning we are more likely to be cross and short with those we meet throughout the day. And from whom do our children first learn to be kind if not from us? I fail at this frequently. I need to remind myself of it on a daily basis. It does not get easier with time either. If anything it gets harder. But I try to remember the words of Mother Teresa and ask for help from the one who inspired her. That's all any of us can do.