In today's 1st Scripture reading we read these words:

...for this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue,

virtue with knowledge,

knowledge with self-control,

self-control with endurance,

endurance with devotion,

devotion with mutual affection,

mutual affection with love..."          (2 Peter 1:2-7)

“Make sure that what you do elevates or encourages, and doesn’t tear down.”  Martha Williamson was given that advice by her father when she told him she wanted to become a TV producer and writer.  She took those words to heart when working on her shows Touched by an Angel and her new Hallmark Channel series Signed, Sealed, Delivered about postal workers who track down the recipients of long-lost mail. 

Williamson incorporates her father’s virtues into her stories whenever possible.  She notes that he was born in 1901, always remained a gentleman, and conveyed a lot of wisdom to her.  She thought of him when writing a recent storyline about a young postal worker who befriends a lonely, elderly woman at a retirement home.  The goal was to share a message about how we as a society treat our elders. 

Williamson said on Christopher Closeup, “Because my father was so much older, I not only spent time with him as an elderly person, but with his friends. The greatest mistake we can make is to discount the power of what those folks have to offer.”

Love, devotion, endurance, affection ... apply to our behaviors with everyone no matter who they are, no matter their age, no matter their walk in life, no matter our personal feelings about them.

In You alone, God, I place my trust -- from today's Responsorial Psalm

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