Are you good at accepting help? When you have too much to do, do you let other people take some of the tasks off your plate?
If so, I’d sure like to learn your secret. Because in most areas of my life, I’m an “I have to do it myself” kind of gal.
I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s the messages I internalized in childhood—messages that the women around me probably had no idea they were even sending—that a woman should be able to do it all herself. Maybe it comes from efficiency; after all, it’s quicker to do a task myself than explain to others how to do it.
The reality, though, is that it’s better when I let other people help. Not only does it take the heat off of me, it also allows for the positive surprise, the thing I didn’t plan, the little bit of grace at work.
This, then, is why the First Reading speaks to me.
"The Spirit comes to the aid of our weakness;
for we do not know how to pray as we ought,
but the Spirit himself intercedes with inexpressible groanings" (Romans 8:26).
I like to think of the Spirit as the friend who doesn’t even wait for permission but just dives in, helping us before we even think to ask. If you—like me—have a hard time relaxing your grip on the steering wheel of life, this is good news indeed.
And this help is not directed only at concrete chores, but at our spiritual life.
I may think that I am in full control of when and how I pray, but the reality is that the Spirit is there, too. When my prayer feels especially rich, or when I'm inspired to try something new, or when I have a sudden transcendent awareness of the divine even though I’m not formally “praying,” I suspect that’s the Spirit lending a hand. These are the positive surprises, the bits of grace at work.
They’re the reminder that in prayer—as in everything—we don’t go it alone.
Want to know more about the guardian angel you've been assigned? Take a read over here.
Ginny Kubitz Moyer is a mother, high school English teacher, and BBC period drama junkie. She is the author of three books, including Taste and See: Experiencing the Goodness of God with Our Five Senses and Random MOMents of Grace: Experiencing God in the Adventures of Motherhood. Ginny lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband, two boys, and about thirty thousand Legos. She is the author of our Blessed Conversations: The Seven Sacraments found here and a contributing author to our Advent devotional book, All the Generations. You can find out more about her here.
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