“As each new day comes, we ought to rekindle the fires of our devotion, as if today were the first day of our coming back to God.” ~ Thomas a Kempis
I have to admit that I did not have a great appreciation for the nuns who taught me in grade school. I don’t think any child really does because we only see them as just another teacher and treat them accordingly. However, those good Sisters laid a foundation for us that we could come back to as we got older. As we aged, what they taught us began to make more sense.
One of the things things I never appreciated when I was younger was the morning offering. The nuns told us over and over again that we should offer our day to the Lord so that everything that we do and say might be done in His name. As children, the morning offering sounded more like homework than devotion. If anything, we might have seen it as piety coming from a Sister whose job it was to be pious. Therefore, they were generally ignored.
But, the seed was planted.
As I grew up, I began to understand what the Sisters meant when they encouraged us to devote our day to the Lord. When I would begin my day with prayer and a good morning offering, the day would seem to pass rather smoothly. There would be a joy found in the day. If I skipped my morning prayers and offering, on the other hand, the day seemed to come off the rails almost immediately. That was because I was not thinking like the Lord but, rather, viewing things through the eyes of the world.
Thomas a Kempis speaks about the morning offering. He talks about beginning each day anew, rekindling the devotion for God in our hearts, so that we may stay true to Him and on the path to His Kingdom. That is a good and wise thing to do.
We do not often take into consideration that each day is a gift. We did not have to wake up in the morning. We could just as easily have passed away in the night. God gives us a new day each day that we arise. It is a gift freely given and the gift, like any gift, deserves some token of gratitude.
We don’t accept gifts from others on birthdays or Christmas or other times in our lives and fail to thank those who gave them to us, do we? Should we not, then, take the time to thank God each morning when we wake up to a new day gifted to us?
When we begin to see our time as gift, we put ourselves and our relationship to God in the proper perspective. We have the chance to see who blessed us with life and who sustains us throughout the days of our lives. That knowledge should kindle the fire of love and devotion in our hearts and souls. Should we not, then, give ourselves to Him as He so lovingly gives Himself to us?
FAITH ACTION: Make an attempt to begin each day with prayer and devote your day to God.