Dear Frugal Catholic Readers,
I thought I’d written this blog for ten years because I have ten years' worth of articles in here. But upon looking more closely, I only became a blogger in 2012. However, since I am 70 (and we all know how older folk forget), I will say this is my tenth-anniversary issue because The Frugal Catholic published her first article in the Saint Cecilia Catholic Church bulletin August 2009. So Happy Tenth Anniversary to The Frugal Catholic blog!!!!
And as a gift to each of you, I'd like to share the three wise things I've learned in these ten years.
#1 SILENCE ROCKS
The first piece of wisdom is “silence is golden.” It really is. During these 10 years, I’ve watched family problems with all five kids, neighbor issues, two-family divorces, dog biting incidents, financial challenges, and health complications. I wanted to say some very, very ugly things to some really nasty people (especially to the neighbor whose dog bit ours three times). But I didn’t. And now that all of the above situations are better, I don’t have to take back anything I said BECAUSE I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING. Amazing!!!
But how did I keep my big fat mouth shut? Oh, this is the delicious part. Well, I constantly kept silently saying the “Hail Mary Prayer.” “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Amen” Must have silently said that prayer a billion times during these past 10 years when my lips were sealed. Thus, a good self-control formula is SHUT MOUTH+ HAIL MARY PRAYER = SELF CONTROL.
"a time to tear, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;"
“The Lord will fight for you while you keep silent.”
#2 LOVE WORKS
The second wise truth I learned is, “When you want to hurt someone, love on them instead.” One of my children really gave my husband and me a huge zinger in her behavior. I wanted to tell her how ashamed I was of her and how she had disgraced the family, but silence prevailed. And a wise friend, Lyssa Froud, who had gone through something similar with her daughter, said, “Love on that child, Martha, all you can. Just love on her.” So I did.
And you know what? By me being silent and loving on that child, God changed her. I couldn’t have changed a thing, but my silence and love gave our heavenly Father the chance to do His work. And by my giving her love, God changed me too.
#3 CHANGE ALWAYS HAPPENS
And the third piece of wisdom is “Nothing will be the same in a year from now.” My husband’s cousin, Janice Encalada, thoughtfully shared this piece of information when we were thrown into that ‘zinger period.’ She said, “Martha, I don’t know what is going to happen, but one thing I do know: Nothing will be the same in a year from now.”
And you know what? She was right: Everything was changed for the better. Thank you, Jesus!!!
Thank you, faithful The Frugal Catholic readers, for reading ten years worth of thoughts. And remember that the very best Frugal Catholic of all is YOU!!!
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Martha Wild King, M. Ed., Author
The Frugal Catholic: Learn to live on less to give and save more.
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