Let go, let God

This week was one of those "get home and try just to do the basics but be really tired and do half of what I wanted to do" weeks. Today was the culmination of tiredness at work, having lost one contact halfway through the day and had a crying kid throw a temper tantrum (in class) that lasted about an hour. A part I read in St. Therese of Lisieux's Story of a Soul has really stuck with me this week: 

"The fact that, left to myself, I could do nothing, made my task seem all the more simple; there was only one thing for me to do, unite myself more and more to God, knowing that He  would give all the rest in addition. This was no vain hope; no matter how often I have to feed the souls of my Sisters, my hand is always full. I assure you that had I acted in any other way, had I relied upon my own resources, I should have had to lay down my arms at once. At first sight, it appears easy to do good to souls, to make them love God more, and mold them according to one's own ideas, but in practice one finds that one can no more do good to souls without God's help than make the sun shine in the night. One realizes that one must completely forget one's own ideas and tastes, and guide souls along the particular path indicated for them by Jesus, not along one's own..." (in chapter "The Way of Love")

And so I have to remind myself there is only one thing to do (unite myself more and more to God). I remind myself of this when I try to "mold" my religious education students, when I worry about my youth group, when I try to "fix" Daniel or my family members. Here's to LETTING GO!