Tuesday, November 20, 2012

M.I.A.... Back for a visit

Wow!!! My long lost friend. I cannot believe how long it has been since I've logged myself on my own blog. I suppose I needed a break from blogging, and honestly would not have come back on here had I not needed to go back and refresh my own memory for a retreat talk I am going to be giving which I have given in the past.... While looking I felt the need to leave a post and what better post than to reflect on the name of my own blog...

Taking it one step at a time...

This year how have I taken things one step at a time? How has my faith journey been going since I blogged last? Where am I in my life now? It's funny how in day to day life nothing seems to change, sometimes it feels like I am doing the same things day in and day out and life feels the same... In reality though there has been incredible change in this life of mine.

SO what has happened in this crazy wonderful blessed life of mine in this past year?

Well first of all I have been blessed to have a wonderful youth minister here in my parish. I have been blessed to hang-out with some of the best friends and wonderful support group known as the core team family. I have enjoyed sharing in a more spiritual way my faith with the youth that come to our Thursday meetings. It has been beautiful to watch the small group of maybe ten or eleven (all girls last year) teens who would come and grow deeper in their relationship with God grow to about three times as many teens this year. To see the excitement in their faces as they enjoy their faith and learn more about it is a wonderful feeling. Being on core team has been more time consuming than I ever imagined it would be with planning meetings on Tuesdays and youth group on Thursdays and then the activites over the week-ends. I would not spend my time any other way! God, You are truely amazing! Thank-you for blessing my parish with such energetic young adults. I can't wait to see what your plans are for them.

Secondly, I not only met the wonderful love of my life this past year, but on July 5th, 2012, I was asked to marry this wonderful man, David. There is a quote that says, "Do what you love to do and you will find someone that loves the same things you do. Don't look for love, beg for love, or search for love. Just live." Well this past year I did just that and next thing I know God brought David into my life and I am so grateful for him. David has helped keep me on track in my faith so very well starting with our first date... Praying the rosary, going to confession, and attending Mass together.... We try to go to adoration and pray the rosary and go to Mass together as often as possible. It is harder to do that everyday as he lives in a town two hours away so we spend our week-ends together. So In the midst planning our wedding and mentally preparing myself for leaving my hometown in just a matter of months he reminds me that now we need God more than anything else. As long as we keep God first everything will fall into place. David and I have most certainly had our ups and downs, as most couples do... the biggest one for us happened almost two months ago. We found out that his mother was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer and then just two weeks later she passed away. She was a very wonderful woman and even though I only knew her for eight months she made a huge impact on my life and she will always hold a special place in my heart... I miss her so...

Thirdly, so I mentioned I am now an engaged woman, but I did not mention my wedding date. I will be married on April 6, 2013, which means right now there is four and a half months left until the big day. This means I am very much into, you guessed it, wedding planning. Again I know that if I keep praying to God everything should work out just right, but still it is hard for me to kind of freak-out in my head when I think of all I need to get done. I'm not a huge dressy fancy kinda girl so trying to figure all this decorating stuff out is a bit frustrating. Thank-goodness for my family and friends who have put up with me the past few months as all I seem to have on my mind is wedding wedding wedding. I'm sure secretly they must be thinking, "seriously girl, snap out of it!" but it is kinda hard to do. Praying is a must these days!

Fourthly, work this year has been a mixture of ups and downs as well... I had to remember that the quote "Preach the gospel, use words only when neccessary" daily for awhile there. I don't want to get into everything, but lets just say when you don't want to follow the crowd when you know it is the wrong thing, well it is not always welcomed in an approving way. Needless to say I knew that if I were to eventually win them over than I needed to not try to play their game because it would only feed into their fun... In time things have calmed down, but I still have a hard time trusting some people there. On the other hand I have become closer to some of my other co-workers and have learned a lot from them. I love my job. Working with the kids is still a passion of mine. They teach me so much in their simple childlike way, and I am so blessed to be able to work where I am.

I am still no where near perfect, and I never will be, but right now where I am in my life I am feeling pretty good about... :)


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