All three of them were busy protecting my family and I as we traveled into north Missouri to watch two of our kids compete in a 5 K Warrior Dash - appropriately named for the Feast Day!!!
But the angels were not only along for the 5K Dash either, they were busy protecting us on the road when as we were going into heavy traffic in St. Louis, everyone came to a very sudden stop in front of us and we landed up just inches from the guy in front of us and the guy behind us barely stopped too. Later that day as we were leaving the event on a two lane road, a truck pulled out in front of us less than two car lengths away and I don't know how my husband was able to pull off the road and not let us slam into this guy or keep the guy from behind us from plowing into us too, but he did. Then there was antoher guy later down the same two lane that crossed the center line and swerved back in time before hitting us.
So we had all three Archangels taking care of us that day. Yikes. I now have more gray hair and less nerves. Our poor Guardian Angels are always busy, but the Archangels stepped up to bat with them that day!
My family's patron saint is St. Michael. Since we teach martial arts to kids to help them stay safe, we've always asked St. Michael to be our patron. Our prayer includes an intercession to him for his protection for us as well as all of our students, past and present. He has always come through. In fact the design above comes from one of our class T-shirts.
My husband's name is Michael, and when he converted to the Catholic faith he took Michael the Archangel as his Confirmation name. It's quite fitting as he is committed to keeping children safe and that is our family mission.
What does all this have to do with this week's lesson in Civility? Well, for one thing, when each of these "almost accidents" happened, it would be my normal reaction to scream and yell not so nice things at the other drivers. This time while I got upset, I calmed myself down without the usual ranting and raving about the lunatics on the road. The second thing I did was thank the Lord for protecting us. The third was to suddenly realize that all this happened on the Feast Day of our family patron saints.
While I cannot say practicing Civility all this year has made me into an instantly not so crazy person who never yells at other drivers, who looses her temper or goes off on a tirade, those things have become less often. And yes, you can ask my family, I think they would agree.
So tonight, my youngest is driving again and I'm worried about the road, other drivers, and the weather. Will I make it through without losing my happiness? I guess we'll see. I can't predict if I can remain calm through every storm or worry in my life. All I can do is keep trying to practice civility. I've learned that some of my civility is closely tied to trust in the Lord. I lose my civility when I am worried about my family. When I try to calmly trust in the Lord I am more civil. Trust...there's another year's worth of blogging!
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