Shalom!

This year has been quite the time of lent.  I have learned so much and shared so much and am so grateful I took this journey.  So, how did I do?

I said I wanted to volunteer more and I did.  I am now part of a group called “Golden Gathering” that meets once a month to serve guests with dementia and Alzheimer’s.  I also volunteer in the church office each Monday morning.  My husband and I helped cook meals to be distributed up and down highway 45, a program called 45 & Hope.  I will continue because, quite frankly, volunteering really makes you feel good!  I recommend it to all!

I said I would do some random acts of kindness and I did.  The random acts mostly consisted of letting people move ahead of me in shopping lines or holding doors open or helping people carry things or doing things (like putting groceries in their car).  And by people, I mean people I didn’t already know.  It was fun and I always felt a little better helping out and that I had made the world a little nicer for those in it.  Will I keep this up?  You bet!  Try it, you’ll like it!

I said I would contact people who might need a little sunshine in their lives.  I did!  

I sent letters and cards and made phone calls to people I knew who were sick or could use a smile.  I used snail mail and e-mail.  It was fun!  I also started keeping a prayer list on my phone so that I could spontaneously pray for specific people when sitting in traffic or waiting in line.  Boy, these are things I will continue in my daily life!

Keeping this daily blog really kept me connected with lent.  I cannot believe how much I learned over the past 46 days!  For every blog I wrote, I probably did 2-3 hours of research.  I didn’t want to include information that wasn’t accurate or that I didn’t know enough about.  It was always interesting to learn and discuss and grow in my knowledge.  But it was so much more fun sharing it with all of you!

That has been my journey and a successful one at that!  But this journey is now completed…

We use Shalom to wish others “peace” but did you know this is only one part of the meaning?  We can use shalom as both a greeting to others or to say farewell.  According to Strong’s Concordance, shalom means completeness, wholeness, health, peace, welfare, safety, soundness, tranquility, prosperity, perfectness, fullness, rest, harmony, the absence of agitation or discord.  Wow!  However, all those meanings are good ones – all representing good attributes for a full and complete life!

That’s what I am hoping for all of us!  Today I am saying shalom to you!  I wish for you all the things that it stands for!  And I love that I can do that in just one word!

 

Shalom!