Lord, teach me your ways. Guide me to do what is right.
- Psalm 27:11
The littles in my life, Jimmy (7), Olivia (3), Channing (2 1/2), Abigale and Isabella (1 1/2) and Jaci (1), are my nieces and nephews, some of them blood, some of them misfits, but I love them all as if they were my own littles. Their parents were not raised devote Christians, meaning they were not practicing in the religions they were born into. Mikey and Kathy and Brooke were baptized but had never attended church services on a regular basis. Mikey was baptized and attended church every Sunday while his parents were alive but once they passed he stopped going to church. Jordy (my blood brother), like myself was not baptized or even introduced to religious beliefs of any sorts.
I myself was not attached to any religion until I was the age of fourteen. I somehow convinced my brother he and I should be baptized, resolved of original sin, the whole nine yards of accepting God into our lives. I committed myself to God the day I received the Sacrament of Baptism. I was fourteen when I accepted Him into my life, I accepted the Grace he instilled in me, and I have been faithful in following His Word and maturing into the Christian I feel He wants me to be. Even though the adult Misfits in my life do not attend Mass on a regular basis, they allow me to touch the littles life with God's promise of love.I have been a part of every one of the Littles baptism ceremony and each time I witnessed this leap of faith I made a promise to God and to the Littles that I would make sure they have the opportunity to get to know God and who He is in their lives on earth. My gift to each Little as they were baptized was their first Precious Moments Bible. It contains prayers and bible passages that I use to teach them the good of God and the goodness he wants us all to show. While the prayers are not my own words, I read them to the Littles until they memorize the prayer and can 'read' it to me. Between the time I introduce the prayer to them and they can recite it back to me I use their journey in life to teach them what the passage and prayer means. The littles in the world will naturally make many mistakes along the way until the adults in their lives teach them the right ways. My hope is that as they get older and life presents them with new challenges they will remember the simple prayers they have learned from the beginning.
My Morning Prayer
Dear Father, hear me when I pray.
Guide my steps throughout this day.
Help me to be kind and true,
in everything I say and do.
Help me with my words today;
Keep them gentle while I play.
Help me to know right from wrong.
Guide and bless me all day long.
The Morning Prayer not only fits into the Littles world, it is just as telling to adults about simply being nice to others. Choose your words wisely, think before you speak, be kind in your words and truthful in your heart. You do not have to be a Christian to understand right from wrong, you just have to be a compassionate human being. What you do have to have is others in your life that will keep you motivated to want to be the best you can be, no matter who is watching you. The Littles completely believe, as I do, that God is always with you and that alone will keep His guidance of your goodness on your mind, as a reminder that when you are kind to others, God is happy and pleased with you.
Treat others as you would want them to treat you is a saying I have heard since I can remember. It is that simple: be nice, be kind, and be truthful in your journey and others will treat you the same. Anything less than your best will result in a struggle inside yourself that you surely will not win. Life is difficult enough, why make it any harder by being untrue to yourself, to God, and to your fellow man.
