When these things happen, you sometimes hear it explained as karma or as the stars perfectly aligning. But actually these happy occurrences are just actions of God’s plan showing through in our daily lives.

I was walking home from school recently after finishing a conference call with my editor to discuss my plans for an upcoming column I intended to write. After coming to the conclusion that I would write about God’s plan, I began to try to make a conscious effort to recognize His work in the world around me.

So as I passed one of those take-a-book-leave-a-book libraries, I noticed a book titled How’s My Faith?: An Unlikely Spiritual Journey by David Gregory. It’s about this former NBC news anchor’s personal journey of probing different religious traditions to answer important questions about what he believed.

In that moment, I felt I had to borrow that book, knowing it would nag at me for the rest of the day if I didn’t. Selecting that book changed my day. Not only is it thought-provoking but it provided the solid reassurance I needed from God. In a world of seven billion people, He noticed me.

Both my parents are proud practising Catholics and they are very aware of God’s presence in their lives. Growing up, from the age that I learned to pray, my parents told me about a Tuesday ritual they learned when they were children. 

Every Tuesday, when you wake up, if you say three Hail Marys, you will receive a pleasant surprise from God that day. So every Tuesday since I can remember I have been saying three Hail Marys and every Tuesday I have noticed a pleasant blessing from the Lord. 

I am so grateful to my parents for passing down this incredible tradition of waking up and praying. It’s something that I will pass down to my own children one day, but I think that this is something we should understand and recognize every day. 

My parents understand God’s actions and His place in their everyday lives because they grew up in an era when people were more devout. 

Today’s youth really struggle with religion and the Church has seen a severe drop in youth attendance at Mass. So it is no surprise that today, when good things happen, people have multiple different spiritual reasons to try to explain the positive events in their lives.

While trying to research ways that people acknowledge or notice the Lord in the daily lives in the modern society, I came across a quote that really sums up how people need to consider God and His importance in their everyday lives.

“Every thought of God, IS God.”

(Riley, 23, is a third-year journalism student at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Alta.)