Parishioners' Reflections: Sonia Smith

Sonia has been sharing her thoughts on the services on the parish Facebook page.  For those of you who don't wish to use Facebook, she's accepted an invitation to share them here too from time to time...

A Reflection on Hope
Sunday, October 20, 2019

HOPE: That was the sermon given today by Rev. Robert. As he talked I could relate to what he was saying about hope and never losing hope. Not only for injustice, but for what we went through as a family. 

Hope was all I had when I came to St. Cyprian`s. A hope that my heart and soul which were in utter shatters (sorry for the dramatics, it felt that bad at the time), would finally find some sort of peace in this church and with God. It didn't happen the day I walked in. I had to live in hope for many years. 

But when I walked in I knew I was in the right place to give myself and my problems to God and to finally restore the hope I had started to slowly lose. Living in an abusive environment and seeing my mother slowly deteriorate in body and mind were killing me....yet I had to cling on to the hope that Things were going to change. 

I prayed. Mom prayed. And things changed. 

My dad finally got care....and then I had to find hope again...the abuse and the tears and the agony of life in general still held a black cloud over our heads.Without getting into details, I had the hope that my dad would go to a different facility for care, he was now violent. I had the hope that mom and I would one day find peace with each other and spend her remaining days making memories. And we did. 

I had the hope, and this one blew me out of the water, that my dad would make his peace with God. And he did. Seeing Reverend Lee or Deacon Doreen, always made him happy. He wouldn't even step into a church. This in itself was pretty amazing. You had to know what my dad was like to understand fully what a difficult person he was. But hope came through, God came through and sent him on to I believe a better place that where he was. And he went out acting like the class clown....fitting actually. I mean that in a good way. He went out laughing and joking. 

Point is never give up hope. Hope for dad to find peace. Hope for making memories. Hope that life will turnaround and God will provide and guide through the darkest of times. Sometimes all seems lost....and there is no way in heaven you can see your way out of the darkness. Keep the faith, keep hope. God is with you. God was with me. It took me time to see it. Until one day I realized who had really been guiding me and to a better life. The blessings come everyday. I thank God for them every day.