A friend sent this Readers Digest story which might help when I want to throw up my hands in discouragement, doubt or futility:
A woman who was sick with cancer, told the story of when her daughter forced her to go for a ride up into the mountains on a cold, rainy day. They got out of the car, walked through the woods, and came to a clearing when a spectacle of thousands of daffodils in bloom spread out before them. On the little path to the field was this sign: "One woman, one hand-spade, one at a time."
And then of course, there is Cardinal Newman's prayer which we might keep close by:
God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission - I may never know it in this life but I shall be told it in the next.
I am a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons. He has not created me for naught. I shall do good. I shall do His work. I shall be an angel of peace, a preacher of truth in my own place while not intending it - if I do but keep His Commandments.
Whatever, wherever I am I can never be thrown away. If I am in sickness, my sickness may serve Him; in perplexity, my perplexity may serve Him; if I am in sorrow, my sorrow may serve Him. He does nothing in vain. He knows what he is about. He may take away my friends, He may throw me among strangers. He may make me feel desolate, make my spirits sink, hide my future from me - still He knows what He is about. Therefore I will trust Him.
Cardinal Newman (1801-1890)
