We all do it – we forget where we are going and who is in charge.

It looks different in each woman’s life, but it’s there – moments of seemingly insurmountable odds. Have you ever felt that the room is caving in? That the floor is falling out from under you? Or that you’re at the edge of a precipice?

Sounds pretty dramatic, but it’s true. It can happen in the most serious and insignificant moments in our lives. Like a ship lost at sea, when faced with the impossible, our hearts search for every single opportunity for sun or land on the horizon.

Some face financial issues or the unending job search. Others question their methods of motherhood. Still others wonder if they’ll ever get married – or have a baby.

As women, we do a pretty good job of worrying about things we cannot control in an instant and instead, let those things control us! Trust me.. I know from experience! I’m a pro at placing hope in all of the wrong places. I condition my hope, thinking: “If only… XYZ.” Do you ever do this?

“We could be financially stable if only…”

“Our marriage could be stronger if only..”

“My loved one would become Catholic if only..”

“I know the next guy could be “the one” if only…”

If only! If only we knew how to channel our hope instead of conditioning God’s participation in our lives. Because rather than becoming opportunities for hope, these conditions actually become limits! We tell the story the way that incorporates our own “brand” of hope as a sure-fire solution, instead of letting God BE the solution. His way of handling things is so much better than ours, anyway. 🙂 

He’s with our story and all it’s impossibilities from the beginning to the end. 

St. Monica once said, “Nothing is far from God.” Her story alone is fuel for our measure and source of all hope. She prayed and hoped her wayward son to becoming a Doctor of the Church. Was it because she put conditions on God? No! It was because she knew that God was her hope and Heaven was her home. 

Let’s think about that last word for a minute – home! We were not created to produce a perfect story. We were literally made for Heaven – to know Him, love Him, and serve Him to an absolutely glorious end. Heaven is our home; that’s where it all begins and ends. If that’s not epic, I don’t know what is!

The hope of St. Monica is ours to share and emulate. The next time we are faced with a worry, be it big or small, let’s leave it with hope to the One who is truly in charge. It’s amazing how even the greatest of problems can shrink and even disappear with this whispered reminder, “God is my hope and Heaven is my home.”

Regularly. It’ll do your heart and home a world of good!

They’re only $3.74 at Aldi’s – and they’re worth every single penny. I promise.

A bouquet may last only a week, but I’d say it’s effects are everlasting. A flower reminds us of something greater that this world cannot satisfy – the ultimate beauty of heaven.

Every bouquet is different. Sometimes I look around a room in my home and realize I haven’t used or appreciated the things I’ve worked hard to furnish it with – from the glass bottles on top of my bookshelf in the corner to the budded wreath on the wall. But a fresh bouquet of flowers is always the first thing to catch my eye! When it finds that posy, it will rest – even for a few seconds, oblivious to the rest of the room’s plastic and plaster. It’s just the kind of rest I need in this world of distractions and stimulations!

A fresh bouquet of flowers serves not just one, but anyone else who lives or visits your home. And that aroma! I like to think of it as the “soundtrack” to our life; that unheard compliment to the one’s day.

But Mary, you say…

That’s what husbands and boyfriends are for! Buying me flowers is their job.

Uh huh. For some reason, society has deemed flowers and chocolate the official treats for women to enjoy from the men that love them. While that’s all well and good – it doesn’t have to stop or begin there. Why do you think men buy women flowers in the first place? Maybe its because they represent that which is beautiful, resilient, and living in their own hearts. Let the men in your life shower you with flowers because they associate them with you!

Let them see your bouquet – and raise you one. 🙂

I don’t have a man in my life. Buying myself flowers is lame.

Do you enjoy a beautiful sunset? Stand in awe at the ocean’s edge? Do you make a nice dinner every once and awhile? Of course you do! I don’t know about you, but while enjoying these things with someone else is always preferred, I don’t need that someone else in order to enjoy them. Let’s be good in our own skin and surround ourselves with an extra sunbeam for a change.

Buy yourself that bouquet. You’ll be that much more content with who you are and where you’re going.

And when someday that man does give you flowers – you’ll remember back to the ones you enjoyed and take even more joy from those given from the heart of someone who thinks you deserve them.

More than anything else, that bouquet you buy or are given, is an invitation to see something deeper and further still:

“When we see a beautiful object, a beautiful garden, or a beautiful flower, let us think that there we behold a ray of the infinite beauty of God, who has given existence to that object.” – St Alphonsus Maria de Liguori

Why are you waiting for? Let’s go find a bouquet!

That word. You see it and you groan, if not externally, most definitely with an inward pang of sharp pain. As you read the word in this blog title, you likely imagined an hour-glass timer with sand twirling around your internet browser as if to convince you into thinking that it’s actually working magic and not taunting you, instead. Or maybe your dreaded icon goes around and around so many times you begin to wonder about the “righty-tighty” theory.

Whoever came up with the term “buffering” must have been having a bad day, when you think about it. It sounds impossible and huge, not to mention terribly ugly. We see “buffering” and we think, “Gosh, I’m going to be here all day.”

Interesting enough, the computing definition is, quite literally, “to store (data) in a buffer while it is being processed or transferred.”

It’s actually a way of saying, “Hang in there, we’ve got this. Just give us time to process your request.”

If this isn’t like my life, I don’t know what is!

I work and pray and focus on the good things and goals I’ve set out for myself. I strive to love more fully, live more intentionally, and to choose joy in every situation. And when I don’t do all of the above, I get discouraged.

Sound familiar?

And I pray! Novenas, rosaries, holy hours – you name it! In the past, I prayed for specific things with all my might, thinking about the “rose” at the end, the “sign” to show me the decision I should make, or the actual gift, grace, or miracle I’m begging God to grant.

But not anymore. Because I realized that in waiting, hoping, and focusing on the end goal, I forgot that the process in getting there is just as important – actually contributes to the end I’m so eager to achieve. 

Sometimes the process includes falling. Crying. Staring blankly at the Monstrance in Adoration. Praying with lips and searching for the connection to the heart. Heaving through heavy doubts and worries. Trying over and over again to trust in a living, faithful God.

And frankly, sometimes this includes the simple resolution to try again tomorrow as I lay my head upon the pillow.

Guess what? A priest friend recently reminded me: God is more interested in the process than we are. He sees our end-of-the-road desire and smiles at our zeal. He sees us struggling to get to the end and reaches out His hand, instead, to take the process from us! He wants us to seek Him, lay our heads on His shoulder, give our Hearts to His care, let Him in on the process. He doesn’t have a magic wand. He doesn’t say, “Bippity-boppity-boo.”

No! He cries with you, stares back at you, treasures your prayers, and caresses your worries. He is a living, true, and faithful God that is in love with YOU – and your process!

And, as I continue to learn with every day behind me – the process actually carves out the path to the end goal. Like a treasure map’s dotted line, extending all over the universe to the “x” marking the spot – the end goal can’t be found without the process.

So the next time you see the hourglass appear in your life with a seemingly endless supply of sand, be grateful for the process. Think of it as God saying, “Hang in there, I’ve got this. Share it with me. Let me process your request in my own Perfect Time. I promise – it will be even better than what you think it should be.”