Day 8…Thanks to St. Agnes Parish, Divine Redeemer Parish & Faithful 40 Days Team!

Am I Pouring Myself Out…or Just WEARING Myself Out???

You may be wondering why I chose the photo of the wind-up robot toy for today’s blog reflection. Well, I tried to find a royalty-free image of the “Energizer Bunny”…but could not find it. Apologies to anyone under the age of 50…you probably have no idea what I am talking about.

Anyway, I wrote a blog a couple weeks ago about “Pouring Ourselves Out“, in which I talked about feeling overwhelmed with busy-ness this month, with so many pro-life events happening all at once. The point to the reflection was that we cannot “save” a part of ourselves “for ourselves”. I made the point that any part of our lives that we attempt to keep for ourselves ends up being wasted…but ALL that we give to God, is kept by Him for all eternity. It is like truly storing up our treasure in Heaven.

Well, this morning, I woke with a heaviness on my heart. I was feeling stressed and anxious about the upcoming PCUC banquet. This is my first time ever being in charge of a banquet, and I was really working hard to do everything I could think of to make it a success...but the reservations were just not coming in as I had expected. During my prayer time, I felt the Lord show me something that I will share in this reflection: He showed me that I go about my days stressed, working as fast and ferociously as possible…thinking to myself that, “It is okay that I am not happy…it is okay that I am stressed…because I am POURING MYSELF OUT for God!” God showed me that that is NOT what I am doing at all. The image of the Energizer Bunny came to mind. Wound up, running frantically and aimlessly…running into walls with my feet still moving, but not getting anywhere!

God seemed to tell me, “Nikki, you are not pouring yourself out…you are wearing yourself out!”

What is the difference? I think that He was showing me that when I offer myself to be “poured out”…it is HE that is doing the pouring. But when I wear myself out, by running around in circles…determined to get things done no matter the cost… that is ME doing the work, not God.

So this morning I surrendered the work to Him. I will continue to try my best, but when I get tired…or there are family responsibilities that need to come first, I will surrender the pro-life work to Him…and He will do more with my surrender than I could ever do on my own efforts.

This was a long way of saying to you that yes…pro-life work takes a lot out of us. Especially for those of us with families and numerous other responsibilities. It is important to do what we can to help the cause of life…but that we need to do it with peace of soul. Trusting God that He will take our little loaves and fishes and multiply them to feed the thousands.

Instead of running into walls…I am going to try to float in the gentle current of God’s Will. Please say a prayer that I will remember this the next time I am feeling stressed…like probably in the next 10 minutes!

NOTE TO TEAM MEMBERS AT THE END OF THE DAY: when the materials are wet, please take out of the bag so they can dry out overnight…they get really gross when they are put away wet. Thank you!

Cathy, Peggy & Mary 7:30-9:00

Larry & Julie 9:00 – 11:00

Today we had a wonderful showing from Christ, the Divine redeemer, St. James and Sewickley. We also had Elsie and her husband show up. We had a truck come to pick up a piece of equipment, that made reciting the rosary very noisy.

Conrad 11:00-1:00

We had a good number 40 day-ers on the sidewalk today from 11 to 1. Ed and Karen stop by to pray and we passed out a lot of literature. Elsie stayed after her church group left. Unfortunately the volume of women going in was steady for the two hours shift. Not many accepted any literature.  I told the 1 to 3 shift to expect a lot to come out and offer them postabortion literature. The number of people praying during my shift was very encouraging.

Judy Z & Kevin 1:00-3:00

Kevin, Arlene, and Karen

Arlene, Susan, and Barb

Mary Anne and Georgette

Ed

There was light to moderate traffic in and out of Planned Parenthood today during the 1 to 3 p.m. shift. Kevin and Judy were joined on the sidewalk by Ed, Arleen, Karen, Mary Anne, Susan, Georgette, and Barb. Parishes represented included St. Joseph the Worker, St. James, and Regina Coeli. We prayed the rosary a number of times. Judy offers this encounter: “A young lady walking into PP hesitated as she opened door and took the brochure as I talked. She told me she was just going in for tests. I told her we could get those done free of charge. She came out within a couple of minutes and I again approached her and noticed she had a PP card in her hand. I showed her the different clinics listed on the brochure. She even asked which one she should call. I saw her talking to someone on the phone shortly afterwards but was not positive if she was actually talking to one of the clinics. I asked if she needed a ride anywhere which she declined. I told her we would pray for her. 

Steve & Eileen 3:00-5:00

Quiet afternoon! Eileen and I said our Divine Mercy Chaplet and the Rosary, and greeted the folks on the sidewalk. It was great to have Red’s protection- he is a really nice guy!

We were joined today with Mary Anne Sue, Georgette from Swissvale and Turtle Creek and Barbara from Greensburg until 4- but forgot to get a picture of all of us!