The Power of Huddles

Photo credit: Free-images.com

This week before the Super Bowl seems like an appropriate time to make some comparisons between football and life. (Hey, I have three brothers! I ‘get’ the game!) 

In football, each team is one unit, yet individual players contribute their respective talents toward the shared mission of winning the game. In their quest to score touchdowns, those who play offense strategize before the game and then, more importantly, they meet in huddles on a regular basis to check their progress and encourage one another. Huddling and working together to utilize every player’s skills make the whole team stronger.

In life, God has given us ‘teams’ that provide us with opportunities to contribute to the common good and to strengthen us as we work toward our goals of loving and serving God and loving our neighbor as ourselves. These teams include our family, friends, work, church, and the organizations we participate in.

Community is important – we strengthen our ‘offense’ by working together with our teams to reach those goals. One powerful way to do this is to ‘huddle’ on a regular basis. When we huddle, we forge bonds with the other members; we affirm and support each other; we make each other stronger. Family huddles include setting aside time to listen to each other, maybe at mealtimes. Huddles with our coworkers, friends, and group members include meetings, social gatherings, and rehearsals. Huddles to strengthen our spiritual resolve include participating in Mass and other services and receiving God’s grace through the sacraments. 

Football is a rough game. The defense will do everything they can to crush the offense. They huddle to communicate their plan of attack. The offense’s huddles help them anticipate the defense’s tactics so they’re not caught by surprise.  

Life can be rough, too. Evil forces in the world attack us – they use all kinds of tactics to stop us from reaching our goals. We experience this, for example, when we rationalize our persistence in what we know are unloving or hurtful actions. We see this, too, when we run into determined interference in our efforts to huddle with our teams – huddles that would strengthen our relationships and our efforts to serve God and others. These challenges are part of life; as Christ told His followers, “I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take courage, I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). 

Thank God for the teams He’s given us, and the huddles we participate in, that strengthen us in our efforts to love and serve God and our neighbor.

“May the God of peace… furnish you with all that is good, that you may do His will. May He carry out in you what is pleasing to Him through Jesus Christ…” 

– Hebrews 13:20-21

Open my eyes, that I may see You. Open my ears, that I may hear You. Open my heart, that I may love You in the people around me.

Thank you for reading my reflection!  All thanks to God for giving me the ideas and guiding my words.    © 2025 Gina Bedell   

  

Through these reflections, I invite you, the reader, to reflect on a given topic and then seek deeper answers through prayer, additional spiritual reading, and/or consultation with clergy or other qualified persons in order to grow in your faith and understanding of God’s love and will for your life. 

Comments are always welcome! Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. 

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P.S.

Pray for peace at home and around the world. Donate to a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Photo credit: Free-images.com

Whether you’re at home, traveling, or working this Thanksgiving Day, I hope you experience many moments that put a smile in your heart. As you celebrate the holiday, may you feel contentment and gratitude for all of God’s creation and those priceless gifts we call family and friends. If you’re grieving or struggling, if ‘celebrate’ is the last thing you feel like doing, may you sense our Lord speaking His love to irreplaceable you through people who wrap you in their love and appreciation today and in the days ahead. 

This Thanksgiving Day, may you notice many things to be grateful for:

Thankful that you can stay in the comfort of your own home, or thankful for the time and means to travel.

Thankful for work to do, and thankful for the people who will benefit from your work.

Thankful for good health, or thankful for those who care for you while you recuperate.

Thankful for struggles that have brought out an inner strength you didn’t know you had, and thankful for the individuals who helped you get through those trying times.

Thankful for all the people our Lord has blessed you with.

Above all, thankful for God’s unconditional and ever-present love. God is Love; whether you’re aware of it or not, this Love is always with you to guide you, strengthen you, give you hope, and bring you joy.

May you have a spirit of gratitude that is deeper and richer than a mental ‘attitude of gratitude.’

I’m thankful for all of you who read my reflections, pass them on to others, or give me feedback on what I’ve written. God gets all the credit: I thank Him for giving me the ideas and the words to write. If something I’ve written touches your heart, it makes me happy to know that I’ve conveyed the message clearly.

May this special day of giving thanks remind us all of God’s goodness and fill us with joy. Happy Thanksgiving!

“In all circumstances, give thanks…”  – 1 Thessalonians 5:18

“Thank You, Lord, for the countless blessings You have given to me.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

You can also find my posts on Facebook!

P.S.

Pray for peace around the world. Donate toward a cause that tugs at your heart. Take care of those around you; take care of our planet. Pray for the families around the globe whose lives have been torn apart by war and natural disasters.

Gratitude Lightens Our Burdens

They say that if we tossed our troubles onto a pile with our neighbors’ problems and then had the opportunity to take whatever we wanted, we would all choose to take back our own struggles over those of our neighbors. Maybe that’s because, while our challenges are burdensome, they are also familiar to us. 

Our sufferings are real, and life seems full of them. Our current problem may be so oppressive that it’s like a hand being held right in front of our eyes, blocking our view of everything else. If we mentally step aside for a moment, though, and move away from that blocked view, we would see that, even with this burden, we still can find much to be grateful for. This gratitude helps us handle our challenges. 

We can be grateful for our magnificent bodies, with the intricate workings of cells, organs, and systems that function without any effort from us! Even when we’re faced with illness or injury, while we’re taking steps to help our body heal or adapt we can still gratefully think, feel, do, and live! 

You are not a mere product of science or chance! Everything about you was deliberately created by God. You have skills and talents. You may not think yours are anything special, but your gifts are not exactly the same as anyone else’s, and your unique personality shapes how you use them. 

Look outside yourself and consider with gratitude your family, friends, and acquaintances. They are gifts for you, and you are gifts for them! Think of all the happy memories you’ve created together, challenges you’ve conquered together, things you’ve learned from each other, and how you’ve made life sweeter for each other just by being yourselves. 

Look with gratitude at your home, your clothes, and your possessions. Look with awe at the natural world around you. From the food that grows to the stars that capture our imagination, God created all of it for us to enjoy, marvel at, and learn from. 

Finally, consider God’s intangible gifts like laughter that eased your pain; strength that got you through a tough challenge; and answers to your prayers, even when you didn’t get the answer you’d hoped for. You’re grateful for all of it because you know that God does everything out of His love for you. Your gratitude reassures you that He will help you with your current challenge, too.

How do we show our appreciation for all God has done for us?  We take care of our bodies the best we can. We care for each other and cherish our time together. We share our time, talents, and possessions. We use the blessings of nature responsibly. 

We consider the wonders of all His gifts and pray from the heart: ‘‘Thanks.” 

“How shall I make a return to the Lord for all the good He has done for me?” 

– Psalm 116:12

“Lord, open my eyes to fully appreciate all that You’ve done for me.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

p.s.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...

Take a Day to Unwrap Your Gifts

 

“The sabbath was made for people…” –Mark 2:27

When our four kids were little and I was a stay-at-home mom, I needed to make Sundays different from the rest of the week. Otherwise, the week would feel like one long continuous day, without a break. So, Sunday was the day for church, an easy supper, and no laundry. Church: I set aside one hour a week to formally thank God for everyone and everything we have. Supper: The family God gave me needed to be fed, and on Sundays I kept it simple. Laundry: This never-ending chore could be done the other days of the week. Making Sundays different helped me feel a bit rested come Monday morning.

What does this verse in Mark’s gospel mean, ‘the sabbath was made for people’? Look at it this way: What would happen if you didn’t insist your toddler take a nap or go to bed at night? Is it cruel to demand that he stop playing and go to sleep? No; you know that the child needs to rest to have the energy to run and play when he’s awake.

God designated the sabbath as a day of rest for our benefit. We slow down to relax, talk, listen, and laugh with each other, and thank God for gifting us with each other. Also, He wasn’t talking about neglecting the people around us (see Mark 3:4). For example, there’s much work inherent with raising children that could be called Love in Action: tasks like feeding them, reading to them, hiking and playing with them, and teaching them. If you love to cook and it doesn’t feel like work to you, then this could be the day the whole family shares in the creative fun of preparing dinner together. And if your employer requires you to go to work on Sunday (or Saturday if that’s your sabbath), and not showing up would cause you to lose the job that allows you to provide for your family, then you may designate a different day as your sabbath. 

There’s more to it than not working, too. It’s acknowledging that God created all people and all of nature. It’s ‘taking church outside’ by making space in our hearts for the people around us and seeing the wonders of the natural world as exactly that – wonders.  

The point is to set aside time to rest, recharge, and refresh our bodies, our minds, and our spirits so as to strengthen our relationships with each other and with our Lord. 

It’s taking one day a week to unwrap and see as new the countless gifts God has given us, and thanking Him for all of them.

“Lord, thank You for insisting we take time to rest.”

Thank you for reading my reflection. © 2023 Gina Bedell     Comments are always welcome! 

Please share this with your friends by clicking on one of the icons below. Blogspot doesn’t have a ‘subscribe’ feature and so I appreciate your help in sharing my reflections. Thanks!

If you or someone you know would like to receive these writings directly to your inbox, please email me at ginabedell1@gmail.com and I will add you to my ‘BCC’ email list.

p.s.

We continue to pray for an end to the war. If you’d like to help the people of Ukraine through the Cleveland Maidan Association, you may use either PayPal or a credit/debit card here:

https://www.paypal.com/donate/...