Thoughts for another day

May 16, 2014.

Today's verse:  Pro. 9:10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. (RSV – copy. ack.)

(Pls. read the above before you read further.  Thanks)

When small, I remember one thing my dad and my elder sisters taught me and that was to fear God and keep on His side of things.  We were trained to pray at home as a Catholic family and we took that rather seriously, with one kid leading the prayer at the exact time each evening and the next one the other day, etc.  We were packed off to church early morning each day and mind you, my dad never allowed us to be late for Mass.  When I see it today, I thank God for my dad who was so hardworking and despite my mother passing away when I was a little kid; my family didn’t go off track, but for one sister who married a non-believer.

From early childhood, I was ingrained to pray and fear the Lord, not to see Him as a big task master with a stick waiting to use it on us when we fell off the line, but rather as The One who looked after and cared for us.  Yet despite this, I can’t remember my knowing God the way I do now; and believe me, the knowledge of God is so precious, so rare and so illuminating and strengthening to my existence that I can’t comprehend living a single day without God by my side.  I thank His Grace by which we as a family had such a close relationship with Him and funnily, despite our not knowing it.  But as we grew up, we also grew out of the family’s code of behavior going wayward in our ways including our habit of attending church and praying and that led to a lot of disarray in our family.  Yet, God never forgot us for I know He loved our little hands clasped in prayer when we were small and despite our moving away as we grew up into adulthood, He has today brought us back to Him, except for that sister and I believe someday, she and her family will join the fold; it’s inevitable.

The point I make is that the fear of God in our lives when we were small is the one thing that has kept us with Him, even in the moments of our unruly behavior as young adults.  And somehow only God knows how, our little knowledge of Him has secured us to Him as a baby is secured to his mother with the umbilical cord.  Truly our Word above is so true in my life and I’m so grateful to God for all He did for me and my family.  Today, I’ve ingrained the same values in my daughter, again by His Grace, and I know that despite the numerous jaunts we may have in the labyrinths of mire, muck and danger, He is there for us for we know Him and those who do, He never allows to slip into the devil’s grip, however hard he try.  And you know what, He has put a safety board around us warning the evil one not to intrude and the board says: This is My property; no trespassing!