Conquering Weaknesses
by Fred Schaeffer, OFS
God could remove all our difficulties but He really loves people who excel for Him. He loves people who are willing to go the extra mile for Him. People who aren't afraid of a little challenge and thus find out about His love and join theirs to it, to Him!
Human beings suffer from many weaknesses. Lazy people suffer because they have no motivation. They are usually procrastinators, people who leave everything until tomorrow or the next day. In living out one's faith that comes into play also - people who procrastinate very often do not pray. They put it off.
Someone who is a bad listener is unfocused. This can be a real burden and it can be downright rude to neglect the other person while he or she is looking for a sympathetic ear.
People who cannot keep their financial house in order suffer a weakness, too. I know, none of us are perfect, least of all myself, but if you have financial or other domestic worries, we had better worry about it lest we end up paying with a check when our account is really empty. That can be very embarrassing.
Constantly criticizing other people isn't so good either. When we criticize others, we often try to cover over a weakness - we are very insecure about something which is embarrassing. I went to school with a whole bunch of people, and one of those felt he had to make a comment about everything I did or didn't do. His jabbering on nearly drove me crazy and I had to tell him to stop. Fortunately, the end of the term took us into different ways. His picky attitude was a weakness but then my quick temper is a weakness also.
Complacency is another weakness; it is being self-satisfied to the point of not caring about others or possible dangers associated with this self-satisfaction. We need to be jarred out of our complacency. Our Lord does this so well, when in the quiet hours of the night we hear his voice. We think about an unchaste situation, or about some gossip that came our way, and we dwell on these thoughts knowing that they can be harmful to us and to others in our lives. And, they can be harmful to the State of Grace we wish to be in all of the time.
How can we conquer weaknesses? – through daily prayer and by curtailing sin. When we ask Jesus and Mary to help us in our difficulties, large or small, our prayers will be answered. And when we ask them to help others, those prayers will be answered also.
May God bless you and keep you.
Fred Schaeffer, OFS
9/4/2023