Busy Times Ahead

It is more easy to be wise for others than for ourselves.

 ~François Duc de La Rochefoucauld~

I am still feeling under the weather, but can't indulge myself any longer in bed, so I am busy sewing.  I finished all the hooded bath-towels for the grandkids, and am busy sewing binding on all the soft, comfy, blankets.  I cough and sew and cough and sew all evening and well into the night. 
My daughter, Mikayla, looked at me this morning and said,

"Mom, you need to get well for Christmas!  You need to take a vitamin C drink every day, you know, that stuff you drink.  You need to drink two or three of them and you need to take two showers."
"Two Showers!" I said, "Why do I need two showers?"  (Seriously, I was starting to wonder if I smelled bad or something!)
"Mom, you know you always feel better when you are sick when you take a shower.  If you take two than you wash off all the germs and you can get well!"

I guess, with that infinite wisdom from my daughter, that I need to go and take a shower more often.  After all, I really do want to be well!  A hot, steamy, private, no kids to bother me, shower.  It does sound pretty good after all. 

I have found that one of the hardest things for me to do is to take advice for others.  I am the mom.  I was born to give advice.  I dish it out to my children, my husband, my neighbors, my friends, and pretty much, anyone that I think might benifit.  However, I am really not very good about taking it.  I found this quote today about advice.

The best way to succeed in life is to act on the advice we give to others.

I think a little more acting here just might be in order.  In Lewis Carroll’s wonderful classic Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Alice finds herself coming to a crossroads with two paths before her, each stretching onward but in opposite directions. She is confronted by the Cheshire cat, of whom Alice asks,

“Which path should I take?”

The cat answers, “That depends where you want to go.

If you do not know where you want to go,

it doesn’t really matter which path you take.”

Unlike Alice, each of each of us really do know where we want to go. It does matter which way we go, for the path we follow in this life surely leads to the path we shall follow in the next. It matters that we listen to, and take good advice.  It matters that we choose carefully.
My prayer today is that each of us will take a little loving advice from time to time, that we may know which path we should take and which way that we should go.  May we remember that the Lord is reaching out His hand and is always ready and willing to help us on our journey.

Jacob 4:10  Wherefore, brethren, seek not to counsel the Lord, but to take counsel from his hand. For behold, ye yourselves know that he counseleth in wisdom, and in justice, and in great mercy, over all his works.