Become The Best Reflection Of Yourself... Become More Like Jesus Christ...

You and I are a work in progress.  Our best self has yet to be revealed.  You and I are living in Christ Jesus every single day.  He is in us and we are in Him.  Let that settle deeper into your psyche.  Deep breath.  Jesus created you in his likeness and in His image.  He made all of us beautiful.  He made the universe, the stars, the oceans, its creatures, the sun, the moon, the stars, everything he made has a purpose, as do we.  What is our purpose?  God created us to love him, to serve him, in this lifetime, as well as, into the next.  This is the way we were taught as children growing up Catholic.  The sisters, the priests, all taught us well.  They gave their lives to God and they gave their time to teach and preach and cultivated a future society in every child they mentored.  I learned how to be disciplined, respectful, thoughtful, creative, competitive, enthusiastic, and giving where the need was the greatest.  I was shown the importance of having an appreciation for everything good.  Afterall, that was the environment I grew up in.  My mother and my father protected my sibling and I.  They gave us the best of themselves.  We both received a Catholic education.  That foundation was rock solid within me.  Never forgetting who I am, where I came from, and where I am going.  Life is a mystery.  And yet a gift. Our Faith is our direct connection to God.  We study it, we preach it, we live it.  We enter into the gospel life, we experience spiritual maturity, and we die to ourselves and our old ways of thinking.  We grow in Jesus Christ.  And thank God for that!  We should be conscientious of growing in God and in holiness because we were created by God, we were created for what is best in his eyes and we want to go out of our way to please God in all circumstances in our lives.  Why, because, individually we effect ourself, but we also have an effect on humanity.  To choose goodness, to choose to love, to choose all things in Christ Jesus, is to truly live. Our decisions can hurt us if we choose poorly.  They can cause a disruption in us, and a disruption around everyone else we come into contact with.  So we must be fully aware at all times of our behavior, our words, they can hurt another really easily, so we must be cautious, not callus.  To be in Christ, we must learn how to put on the mindset of our Lord, and aim for perfection even though we may never fully reach it.  But we must try our very best in bringing forth our very best self in all circumstances.  My Dad always reminded me as a child, as a teen, and even in adult life, the importance of always thinking before I spoke.  I was determined to make my Dad proud of me, even more so towards the very end of his life, he told me, how very happy he was to see me in this light.  He was in essence saying, I am proud to call you my daughter.  And I loved that!  My Dad and I went to confession together, we prayed at the Stations of the Cross together,  and he agreed to attend one of my Franciscan Fraternity meetings at Saint Mary's Church, now a Basilica in Key West.  It was a joy in my heart I will forever treasure.  Seven years later Jesus came but I never forgot what Jesus did for my dad and I before he had left this earth.  Jesus blessed us both, with beautiful memories, Jesus allowed me to see the love my father had for me by embracing the faith.  He endearingly called me a woman of the cloth".  Words I had never heard being used before, words I had never heard being used again.  I understand now more than ever the richfulness of my faith, family, and my God! It is essential for humanity to reach this plateau of knowledge before they are assumed by Christ.  To truly live in Jesus, is the greatest life ever imaginabe!