Slash and Burn (The Sequel)

Slash and Burn (the Sequel)

We sat for dinner at the kitchen table like every other night when I go off to see clients. My husband pulled our Toyota Matrix into the driveway minutes fresh after retrieving it with four new tires from Firestone.

Thirty minutes later, I threw my bag and purse in the back seat to head off to work when I noticed a hissing sound coming from our van. I leaned over to verify that air was quickly leaving the two right tires. I called Joe to come and see. He spent the rest of the evening changing the tire and moving all of the items out of the garage so we could park both vehicles there.

The boldness of our vandals coming a second day in a row in broad daylight left a creepy feeling. I felt being watched by someone studying our weekly routines. This time it did feel personal, not like a random act on our block.

Vandalism has no redeeming value, it is merely an attempt to hurt someone else. Supernatural Key #3 from my new book, “The Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships: 12 Supernatural Keys to Make Good Relationships Great and Improve Difficult One” helps put this evil into perspective. The key “Maintaining Catholic Reality Contact; Internalizing the Realities of Sin” helps us respond appropriately to the sin in us and around us.

For the Webers, it means we now always have to park our vehicles in the garage with the doors closed, a protective message in response to the sin near us.

But it isn’t just vandals whose sin causes hurt and even harm for us. Often we are sprayed with the negative effects of sin of those closest to us. The challenge as Catholics is to discern the self-protective measures we be need to be taking while still keeping ourselves as open as possible to love.

Catholic Women’s Guide to Healthy Relationships: Look in your heart to see if you are pulling away from someone close to you who has hurt you and discern the best way to respond rather than react.