Spiritual Disciplines...

At Wednesday Teaching this week (on Wednesday, even), Mike was teaching us about Spiritual Disciplines. What struck me most was a) that I need to actually READ some of the books I inherited from my Dad – loads of the classics really, and b) I need to keep checking my attitude.

Well, a) started pretty well, as I located my copy of “The Imitation of Christ” by Thomas A Kempis, and started re-reading it – great stuff. Felt good, and that maybe I’d earned a brownie point or two.

As for b), well, that was a different matter…

Take Friday, for instance.

The day went pretty well, really, and my Sis phoned me up to see if I wanted to join her and mum at a local garden centre for a cuppa (they have a nice café!) I realised that I only had some small change in my purse, so decided to go to Tesco’s to get some money from their hole-in-the wall. Due to problems with burst water mains near the supermarket entrance, the entire area was gridlocked, so that was out. By this time, I thought I just had enough time to try out the cash dispenser in Moulsham Street. Dashed there, only to find it “Out of Order”. Plan C was to dash over to Asda, and try their machine, and then go onto the Garden Centre. Arrived at Asda with about 5 minutes to get the cash, only to find that the machine I needed was “occupied”- that is, there was a woman in front of me, bending right over in some horribly tight jeans, fumbling inside this suitcase of a handbag for her cash machine card. All the while she was talking VERY loudly on her mobile, with loads of “I love you too, darling”, whilst her young daughter – I guess around 9 years old - stood there trying not to cringe. It was hard to know where not to look, as she was wearing the kind of underwear designed to show everything with hipster jeans. I kept looking pointedly at my watch, and eventually she decided to end the phone call, and gave up on the search for her card and walked off.

As I rushed back to the car, and went to drive off, another woman with a baby in a buggy blithely walked right in front of me, jabbering away on her mobile, with no thought of looking to check on traffic. Her very young daughter (about 4, I guess) had more road sense than she did.

Needless to say, I felt like “Harassed of Chelmsford” when I arrived at the Garden Centre, and definitely into Minus-Brownie-point territory

Pat’s Thought for the Day
Spirituality is what happens while life goes on around you. We have responsibilities to God to keep our spirits sweet. And the word “responsibility” is made up of two words; “Response” + “Ability”. And like any ability, we need to practise what kind of responses we should make, even (and maybe especially) when life seems set against us.