A few years after my mother died, I remembered more vividly the times in childhood when she had made gloomy days seem cheerful. When something special to do inside, such as new paper dolls or a coloring book. Later, when I was in school, I always knew that on a rainy day I would come home to the smell of cookies baking in the oven . . .
I remembered, too, that in my childhood my mother had always balanced grief with comfort, pain with joy . . . To compensate for my childhood illnesses, for example, she used to read me stories which made the afternoon fly, or she would show me how to knit doll clothes out of the scraps of yarn which she had saved in a worn, brocade knitting bag . . .
Whatever the specific method used, my mother had learned, long before I knew her, how to balance pain with pleasure.
Elizabeth Skoglund
Today’s Prayer:
Lord somewhere in the world there are people in mental anguish over life’s trials and tribulations. Often such pain is psychologically unbearable. During these moments sometimes people don’t have the ability to hold their heads high with the assurance of knowing God’s powers to set things right. Because of their inability to see your spiritual support most times every breath taken produce questions of their existence. Lord to be honest it is during these times when emotional pain makes a person feel every so often they do not have much use for others. And everything accomplished is tarnished with the shadow of sorrow; as it seems to their misfortune they were not given loved ones to uplift them during moments of afflictions. Hum . . . Lord, it is within our moments of tribulations that we see the hand prints of God on our lives. Therefore, I’m asking for your Holy presence among those who have yet to learn how to balance pain with pleasure. Lord I’m asking that you teach them that sorrow only last for a moment. Lord, I’m also praying they learn how to allow thoughts of joy to diminish their temporary gloomy day(s). So, again, Lord, I’m asking that you turn on your spiritual lights for these people that they might see how to truly balance pain with pleasure; and in turn they will enjoy living once again. Amen.
Black Women Have It Going On 