XIV. Aunt Millificent asks for help

XIV. The Prayer of Aunt Millificent

                So Hobblestone finally made his way to Aunt Millificent’s house, bringing the Disappointing Letter from Graduate School and the piece of pineapple upside-down cake from Virgil’s mother. He knew from experience that if anyone could help him get back to a Good Place it would be Aunt Millificent.  

Rule # 95: Sometimes there are people in our lives who help us build bridges to our Good Places. It’s a good idea to stay in touch with them. 

                Who helps you when you need to get to a Good Place?

How can you help others  build bridges to their Good Places? 

                I hate to disappoint you.  Well to be honest, I don’t hate disappointing you at all because it’s for a good cause, so don’t go running off to a Bad Place because that’s as far as we’re going to get in the story this time. You can always skip to the next part.  

Rule # 36: When you’re reading a book and you get stuck in a boring part, it’s okay to skip over it (unless it’s going to be on the test).  

Now: The rest of this blog entry is about spirituality, so if you’re not in the mood, you can skip it and wait until next time to find out what happened. And then if you end up getting in the mood later, you can always come back and find out what you missed.  

Rule # 53: There are some things you can put off if you’re Not in the Mood. However, this rule hardly ever applies to firemen, policemen, emergency room doctors and nurses, and many others, including little boys who have been told For the Third Time to clean up their rooms. 

Let’s go back a bit. Before Hobblestone drove over to Aunt Millificent’s, he called her to let her know about the Disappointing Letter From Graduate School. “Oh my,” she thought, “I’d better pray about this.” And so she did, which wasn’t surprising because it’s part of Her Way of Dealing with Things. (What’s yours?) So she started praying, just like Saint Benedict said: “Always begin a good work with most earnest prayer.” And so she did.  

How did she pray, you ask? That’s a very good question. I’m glad you asked, so I’ll tell you how she prayed:  She took several deep breaths, and imagined Jesus standing before her and saying “What do you want me to do for you?” just like he said to the blind man one day. And then she answered. 

She did not pray for Jesus to fix Hobblestone; She simply prayed  for God to bless Hobblestone. She left it up to Him to figure out how he would go about doing that. She knew she didn’t need to go and tell God how she wanted him to fix things, like so many people do. She also didn’t go on and on talking and talking like some people do  when they’re saying grace and the food is getting cold. 

She also prayed that if God wanted to use her to help Hobblestone (notice how humble she was—humility is good in prayer), that he would give her the insight she needed to be of help. This brings us to another rule:

Rule # 125: Sometimes God chooses not to use us to help somebody. We have to accept that and not go on trying to fix things on our own. He’ll decide who’s going to help. After all, we can’t all be going about trying to save the world. Jesus did that; all we can do is help in our little ways when and if he wants us to. 

                And just in case you think I have too naïve a view of things, I want to tell you that there were times when God didn’t answer Aunt Millificent’s prayer, like when Hobblestone’s uncle was trying to decide whether or not to move to Topeka. She prayed that God would give her good advice to tell him, but God didn’t answer. Apparently, he didn’t need her to say anything at all, because Hobblestone’s uncle was already getting all the help he needed. In fact, he was already packing his bags and putting the house up for sale while she was praying.        

Aunt Millificent never gave Hobblestone’s uncle any advice at all because she didn’t know what to say. Thank God she’s not like some people (like Virgil’s mother) who always have something to say even thought it isn’t particularly helpful. Sometimes silence is better, and, once again, she remembered what Saint Benedict had to say: Sometimes it’s better to remain silent, even when we have something good to say. If you have a habit of shooting your mouth off when you really have nothing valuable to say, maybe you might put Rule # 15 into practice: 

Rule # 15: When you don’t know, it’s better to keep silent. 

There’s another thing about Aunt Millificent’s prayer that I want to tell  you about, but I’m not In The Mood right now. I’ll save it for the next entry. 

                Maybe this is a good time for you to take a moment and ask God to bless some special people in your life. Just don’t go about telling him how to bless them. 

                And don’t worry about the following: 1) Sources for the Rule of Saint Benedict; 2) people who give advice when it isn’t asked; 3) superheroes.