The Confirmation

Mary had gone through an up and down cycle of emotion the very same day as she began to process just what it meant to her to have grieved all those years and not lived in the now enjoying where she was, who she was, and all she had accomplished. But as she read step three in the third chapter Mary realized she needed to be grateful. This she did. She began to thank God for all she had, all she was and all God had favoured her with. It was time to let go and bury the past. It was time to live in the moment and stop being a victim. She would take responsibility for herself as she worked with God and as He led her. Everything would be okay.
Later that day as Mary drove to Windsor to pick up her husband from work she listened to the Christian radio station as she always did. Today some minister was quoting a chapter and verse from Isaiah she had never heard before but was definitely meant for her to hear today! Mary heard the announcer loudly and clearly state Isaiah 1:26 “I will restore your judges as in days of old, your counsellors as at the beginning. Afterward you will be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City”. It was that key phrase that God would restore the counsellors that made Mary cry with delight. That was what she thought of when she thought of chaplaincy – counselling. Though she had established herself in the small town she lived in she felt somehow it was not enough. God was confirming what she had received while reading that book on co-dependency. She would be restored! That made her day and buffered the pain that came with the realization of how much time she wasted grieving what happened to her so long ago.
With this fresh word Mary continued her ride determined more than ever to begin journaling that past experience so long ago and ritually say goodbye to it and focus on living today. She smiled to herself as she drove along watching the wheat being collected and yellow clouds of chaff billowing up like some desert windstorm. It was an awesome sight and Mary felt her life was in the same process right now – a harvest was coming. At the moment she was separating the good from the bad. Hopefully, when she was all done Mary would have discarded what was robbing her of today and live a little more fully; thankful and grateful for whom she was now. Excitement rose up within her as she contemplated letting go of those memories. Soon, very soon she would get it all on paper and let it all go.
However, despite her best wishes she had to drive home before she could even consider getting started so Mary continued her drive enjoying the scenery and thanking God as she went for things she had long ignored or appreciated in her life. She was being restored even in this moment, she realized. It was so healthy to thank and praise God and it had always opened heavens gates. Singing a little ditty of praise Mary went on her way confirmed in His love feeling freer of the past than she had ever felt before.