Somehow when I think of the phrase mixed blessings, I think of what I can remember from the movie Tender Mercies. Even the expressions seem to go together.
Perhaps mixed blessings are evidence of tender mercies.
Or perhaps it is that blessings come in the midst of life, where the whole package deal is not necessarily only blessings. We can have blessings in the midst of difficult times or difficult circumstances. When that happens, I always feel a sort of angel's wing on my shoulder, an encouragement to keep on going.
Recently I heard an older man speak about the importance of doing something or doing something good, even if we can't do it perfectly. Because, presumably, if we wait until we can do it perfectly, it would never be done. Even doing something half way or partially completed may be better than doing nothing.
It reminds me of doing errands. They are never finished.
John Updike's stories of a troubled marriage are gathered for the first time in hardback, The Maples Stories. I doubt I will read them.
I have a hard time getting into Updike's writing style. I also found them difficult to read for their, I think, negativity, and I suppose when they first came out, I was too young to appreciate them. I found them dated and misogynistic even them. But:
They are as true today as when they were written. Heller McAlpin 8-23-09 Christian Science Monitor p 43
The moral of these stories is that all blessings are mixed. Also, that people are incorrigibly themselves. John Updike
That last sentence made me laugh -- people are incorrigibly themselves. Best not to try to change them, that is a place only for the divine, unless you are moved by an angel.
Here's a quote I like about angel's doing our errands:
And how is man, seen through the lens of Spirit, enlarged, and how counterpoised his origin from dust, and how he presses to his original, never severed from Spirit! ...Then will angels administer grace, do thy errands, and be thy dearest allies. The divine law gives to man health and life everlasting — gives a soul to Soul, a present harmony wherein the good man's heart takes hold on heaven, and whose feet can never be moved. These are His green pastures beside still waters, where faith mounts upward, expatiates, strengthens, and exults. Mary Baker Eddy
Do you like Updike's works?
If so, what should I try to read?
And how about blessings?
Do you make them count? Do you gather them up in a journal perhaps so you don't forget them? Try to find a few blessings every day in your days -- and make them count! Don't forget some of these blessings are how you bless someone else.
Karin
www.savvythinker.com
don't steal my posts -- you know who you are!
Originally posted 2009-09-05 15:12:54.
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