I was listening yesterday to my local hardward store owner at a training session for mentoring couples in our parishes’ marriage preparation program. I had tapped him and his wife as potential candidates to mentor some of our young engaged couples, thinking they would do well. Now, I have known this man and is wife for 23 years. I have frequented his store many times over the years, and have often found that he has the piece of plumbing I need that I have not been able to find at some of the larger stores in the area. He has fixed more than one problem I have come in with.
Anyway, he and his wife were sitting around a table with five other couples plus the training couple. They were to introduce themselves as if doing so to an engaged couple in a first meeting. What he said, among other things, was that for all those years (35 +) he considered his hardware store a ministry to the People of God. He said he really didn’t do it for the money, but to help people who have problems in their homes and yards. He meant what he was saying.
I thought, “This is what the vocation of the laity is all about. Being a witness of your faith in your job, career and family. Here is a man who is doing what he is called to do.”
They will mentor well the couples we send to them for marriage preparation. God bless them!
