Just a reminder

    My sacrifice beads hang on a peg in my kitchen.  They have been there since I made them with my Little Flowers group last winter.  I planned the craft for that meeting, so many months ago, as much for me as for "my" girls.  I knew having the beads would remind me to offer up little sacrifices throughout the day.  I knew, as soon as I finished stringing them all together and tying on the medal of St. Therese, right where I’d put them.  The visual of that humble little string of dark brown beads hanging by the light switch in the kitchen would be the perfect inspiration to do all things for Christ.  I could easily slide a bead up each time I washed a sink full of crusty dishes that had sat a little longer than they should have, or cleaned out a sippy cup of sour chunky milk, that had been found behind the couch after a few days.  After wiping up another spill or wiping the little one’s sticky hands for the fifth time or finally finding a few minutes to pick up the cheerios we’d all been crunching under foot for hours, it would just take a fraction of a second to add another bead to the side of sacrifices and remember why I do the things I do.

    It worked so nicely for a while.  For a few days, I was very conscious of sliding beads and offering sacrifices and serving God in the big and little ways each day.  But then, the string of sacrifice beads seemed to fade into the background of the kitchen, like the inevitable piles of papers and the overflowing junk drawer and the numerous colorful refrigerator magnets all over.  The beads hung there, quietly, unnoticed.  Now, of course, I did not forget to wipe off sticky hands or wash the dishes or clean up the scattered cheerios but some days, lots of days, I forgot to offer those little things up to God.  I lost sight of the value of my little acts of kindness, my little ways of serving God each day.  Today, somehow I remembered those beads.  I looked behind the set of keys that got hung in front of them and there they still were.

Sitting quietly, just waiting.

So, I moved the keys aside, and then slid a bead for pulling myself out of bed at 7:30am when I wanted nothing more than to sleep in a little while longer.  It was not a big thing but it counted, because I did it for God.  It was a exercise in discipline, a little sacrifice of rest, a little chance to grow closer to Him.  I did it because I knew it was what He wanted me to do.  I have since slid a few more beads, made a few more tiny, little sacrifices.  I don’t know how long I will remember the beauty of those little beads this time around, but at least today, I am remembering to serve God in all I do.