Anne Catherine

msmoriartys:

Guys, I’m begging you to do me a favor and spread this. I can’t express how important it is to me, honestly. It’s been five days and there have been absolutely no leads. She completely vanished without a trace. I only know her because we have mutual friends, but my heart is heavy and I hate to see my friends go through this. So please, REBLOG, REPOST, SPREAD THIS ON OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES. She could literally be anywhere at this point.If you want more information, you can go to the facebook group that’s provided on the poster. Here are other articles:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-05-22/mickey-shunick-missing-louisiana-student/55132622/1

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57439062-504083/michaela-mickey-shunick-louisiana-college-student-missing-after-bike-ride/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/21/mickey-shunick-missing_n_1533388.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/search-missing-louisiana-woman/story?id=16409728

http://nancygrace.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/23/college-student-22-vanishes-while-riding-bike/?hpt=ng_mid

(via hesmyraggedydoctor)

In order to do any good for ourselves or for others, we need to be able to recognize truth, and to distinguish how things seem from the way that they really are. This is increasingly difficult in a society where people are afraid to say that anything is truly right or truly wrong for fear of being called unloving or prejudice or judgmental. But it is a perverted mindset to think it is more loving to silently allow people to do whatever they want, regardless of the harm they cause themselves, for fear of being called narrow-minded or intolerant. It seems that we are trying so hard to appear compassionate that we are falling short of being so. We are mistaking cowardice for love. 

“Do not accept anything as the truth if it lacks love, and do not accept anything as love which lacks truth. One without the other becomes a destructive lie.” - Edith Stein 

“The success of love is in the loving – it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.” - Mother Teresa

I love how true and relevant and in desperate need of being known this quote is. This is so very important to be aware of, because it seems we fall into the mistake of weighing the success of loving or praying for someone by whether or not we see a direct outcome. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not an accurate or healthy way of measuring the value of our love or our prayers, and furthermore, this thinking has a complete absence of truth.

In order to do any good for ourselves or for others, we need to be able to recognize truth, and distinguish how we feel things are from the way that they really are. Unfortunately, we are constantly surrounded by magazines, advertisements, campaigns, newspapers, agendas and ordinary people in our lives who make this increasingly difficult. We are lied to about what beauty is, about what masculinity and femininity are, about sex and money and fame, and what is important in life, and the common factor here is that nearly every one one of them tries to define our worth. Not coincidentally, this doubt about our worth tends to take over our thoughts and reasoning. And then something as beautiful and powerful and difficult as loving someone becomes just another way in which we measure our own value. 

As Christians, we are called to love one another. Love is not a fairytale notion, a sign of a weakness, or a children’s belief. Love is powerful and life-altering and painful. And it takes far more strength and bravery to love than it does to be hateful or critical or simply detached. But it becomes distorted if we lose focus of the other person and become more concerned with ourselves, with the fear that for some inexplicable reason, we aren’t good enough because our love doesn’t seem to make a difference. The unfortunate outcome is that we’ll become discouraged with ourselves and be less likely to continue to love and pray for someone who needs it far more than we can understand. And if this person is in such a rough place that our prayers aren’t seeming to do any good, becoming discouraged and ceasing to pray for them and care for them is the worst possible choice we can make. Furthermore, not only are our prayers doing them good - even when it’s difficult to tell - but being prayerful and loving and compassionate is one of the strongest ways in which Christ works through and strengthens us, as well.

One of the most important things I can remember being told is also one of the most basic, simple concepts. A woman I have the blessing of knowing who is involved in ministry once told me that sometimes you have to do what’s best for yourself. Just that. But because we’re always told to be selfless and to be strong witnesses and such, I think that we forget the importance of this, or  mistakenly think it’s selfish. But she didn’t mean that we should stay within our comfort zones and never reach out to people and never go just a little further than we think we’re capable of. As C.S. Lewis said, “If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.” Rather, what she meant was that we need to take care of ourselves, that while a lot is asked of us, it is also vitally important that we know when to stop and tend to our own wellbeing. Because if we become so physically, spiritually, or emotionally worn out that we can’t help ourselves, we won’t be able to help anyone else either. We’ve got to be careful not to become so caught up in everything else that our own wellbeing suffers, because we need to be taken care of as much as the people who we are trying to care for. 

What Mother Teresa’s quote brought to mind was another favorite quote of mine, which I think simplifies even further what she was saying. “You cannot save people. You can only love them.” Because ultimately, a person has to make the decision to save themselves. We can spend every minute of every day down on our knees praying for them, or actively out comforting and speaking to them and making every possible effort to help them, offering honest council and love and encouragement. And God will be right beside them waiting for the moment that they turn to Him, waiting to heal them and to offer all of the love that they could possibly accept. But when it comes down to it, they have to make the decision to save themselves, and that is the tricky thing about free will. The choices that the people we love make, beyond every effort of our own, is not a reflection of the worth of our love. It is not our fault. “The success of love is in the loving - it is not in the result of loving.” Please, let your love have no limits, let your prayers have no stipulations, no conditions.

May you find strength and peace and comfort in the faith that His ways are greater. 

“Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.”

“The most terrible poverty is loneliness and the feeling of being unloved.”

“The hunger for love is much more difficult to remove than the hunger for bread.”

“The success of love is in the loving – it is not in the result of loving. Of course it is natural in love to want the best for the other person, but whether it turns out that way or not does not determine the value of what we have done.”

(Source: arvinddevalia.com)

Old-fashioned, handwritten letters that you stamp and send in the mail. They are far more personal, enjoyable to write, a great way to encourage and affirm loved ones, wonderful keep sakes, and, of course, delightful to receive.  
Can you doodle in an email? Nope.
Can you enjoy (laugh at) peoples hand-writing in an email? Nope. 
Can you send pictures in an email? Yes, but it’s not nearly as neat as actually receiving a photograph. 
Does receiving an email elicit the joy and surprise of receiving a letter? Nope.  
Can you spray cologne or perfume on an email as though you were a character in an old novel or film? Nope. 
Does an email carry the risk of getting lost along the way? Hardly, but where’s the adventure in that? 

I’m only saying, I prefer my box of letters to my inbox full of emails. There is something magical about those tangible keepsakes. And that childish excitement of running out to the mailbox to see if you have a letter (which only happened about twice a year, but you still kept going back) never quite goes away. 

On a related note, this summer will likely consist of more letter-writing than anyone wants to receive. 

It’s the (not so) little things that make life beautiful.  

Best wishes to you this day. Be brave and faithful in all things, and may God’s love and strength and peace surround you always.

I know that this may come as a shocker. But some things actually take time, and really good friends and reliance on God and a whole lot more healing than can be found at the bottom of a bottle.

And then again, some things don’t.

Anyway, that’s pretty much all.

Happy Saturday, folks!