The path to a good, happy, prosperous, and successful life isn’t easy. We’re often distracted by personal and worldly matters. We experience a mixed bag of success and failure, happiness and disappointment, order and chaos. We do our best to work through the challenges, remove the stumbling blocks, and overcome the temptations. We’re not always successful, but we struggle to move forward.
One of the most difficult challenges is learning the art of self-acceptance. We listen to faulty messages that say we’re not good enough. We deny our innate beauty and goodness. We’re blind to our unique gifts and talents. We allow fear and self-hatred to become stumbling blocks to our personal growth and development. We’re tempted to give up, act irresponsibly, and blame others for our unhappiness. We can’t progress until we believe in our own goodness, put fear and self-hatred behind us, and overcome the temptation to make others our scapegoat.
People of faith set our minds and hearts on divine things, not on human things. We believe God has a plan. We’re given the grace of discernment and the strength to do God’s work on earth. We have confidence as sons and daughters of God that, with the help of the Spirit, we’ll remove the stumbling blocks and overcome temptations that prevent us from spreading the Good News.
Ponder: What are my challenges, stumbling blocks, and temptations?
Prayer: Lord, your resurrection conquered sin and death. Give me the strength to overcome pride so I can become a humble servant of your love and peace.
Practice: Today I will be faithful by honestly naming and facing my stumbling blocks.
Adapted from Faithful Meditations for Every Day of Ordinary Time (Weeks 11-22)
by Rev. Warren J. Savage and Mary Ann McSweeny (Liguori Publications, © 2013).