557. My Mother Worked Hard to Prepare a 60th Birthday Party for My Mother-In-Law, But..

💌 557. My Mother Worked Hard to Prepare a 60th Birthday Party for My Mother-In-Law, But..

I was very exhausted because I had worked hard the day before to celebrate my mother-in-law’s 60th birthday. However, I opened the beauty parlor at 7 a.m. with a joyful heart practicing Semchigo as if I received the love of God. I was working frantically because there were so many customers but suddenly, I heard the door of the beauty parlor slam open roughly with a loud bang.

“Daughter-in-law, I need to see you!” I looked up in surprise. It was my mother-in-law who had gone up to Gwangju the previous day. She could have entered through the back door of the beauty parlor connected to our house but she was so angry that she did not even care that the parlor was in business. She came straight through the main door of the parlor and yelled at me. All the customers there were surprised.

Surprised, I excused the customer and quickly took my mother-in-law into the kitchen first. (To get to the room, one must pass through the kitchen.) When I said, “Mother-in-law, let us go to the room,” my mother-in-law immediately raised her hand in the small kitchen and pointed her finger at me as if she would stab me, saying, “How could you do that?” 

Since I had no idea what was happening, “Mother, what is wrong? Did I do something wrong?” My mother-in-law glared at me and said, “Of course! Why did you not contact ○○ in the country yesterday on my 60th birthday?” She was the only person I did not contact because my mother-in-law said she would reach out to her personally.

So I said, “Mother-in-law, you decided to do it yourself, so I did not call her.” Then she said, “Why did you not say a word when you visited my third daughter-in-law in the hospital?” So, I said, “Dear mother-in-law, why did I not say a word to her? I told her, ‘How much have you been through? It is tough, is it not? Let us just hang in there and endure.’ And I told her many good words and prayed for her.”

Since the sister-in-law was not yet a Catholic, she would not understand what the “Offering Up” is, so I said, “You must have had a hard time marrying into a poor family. Let us just hang in there and endure.” However, I did not mention the word, poor, to my mother-in-law.

Then my mother-in-law roared, “She said you left without saying even a word to her!” When her third daughter-in-law was having a hard time, I helped her by buying her a sack of rice without anyone knowing. In this way, even while I was going hungry, I secretly helped all my other siblings-in-law, even if it’s only a little.

My mother-in-law kept talking about things that did not happen at all and poured out her anger. No matter how unreasonable her words in a loud voice she raised, I offered it up with Semchigo as if I received love from her. I even felt sorry for my mother-in-law who had to take care of her eight children and her daughters-in-law.

I felt sorry for her, thinking, “How hard must my mother-in-law be going through to act like this?” So, I said, “Mother-in-law, since we have so many siblings, I imagine you must be facing many difficulties in various ways.”

But before I could finish my words, she shouted at me loudly and said, “Hey, you bitch! Since I have so many in the family, then, have you cooked for them? Have you ever bought them clothes? Or have you ever paid for their education? You bitch! You, a lowly person like you, surely know that you are living comfortably and bragging, all thanks to your husband you met luckily. You b**ch, huh?”

If I take her words from a human perspective, it was an utterly absurd statement.
Did I not devote myself to my in-laws even while dying of terminal cancer?

However, I took it thinking, ‘Oh, the devil of division is trying to bring me down in various ways through my mother-in-law! Then, not at all did I feel resentful; instead, I offered it up with Semchigo as if I received love. My mother-in-law, shouting and gesticulating wildly with all sorts of unreasonable accusations, came so close to stabbing me with her hand, that I was startled and stepped back.

However, I offered it up with the Prayer of Life, practicing Semchigo as if my mother-in-law had touched me with love and Semchigo as if she had spoken words of love. “My beloved Jesus! I offer up these insults thrown to me for the reparation for the insults You received. Please allow the countless souls who sin with their tongues to repent so that it may become a comfort to Your torn Sacred Heart.”

My personal reflection note with Mama Julia🌹💗 

Link 👇🏻

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