Prayer

Time for a little honestly.  You wanna know something?  I pray with my eyes open - all of the time - even in a crowd - no matter what.  I have always done this.  There are times when I try to pray with my eyes closed but I get distracted by the "stars" in the dark of my eyelids.  If my eyes are closed, I have no idea what the prayer is because I can only think about... having my eyes closed... it's so weird.  So, I pretty much stopped trying to pray with my eyes closed.  I just bow my head and look down.  So, now you know.

Also, Bro taught me a neat little prayer that we have been praying each night.  It is to the tune of Frère Jacques and it goes like this:

God our Father.  God our Father.

Once again.  Once again.

We thank you for our blessings.  We thank you for our blessings.

Amen.  Amen.

So guess how excited I was when I saw this post on facebook this week.

What if you woke up today

with only the things you thanked God for last night?

I was worried at first.  Wow!  But, then I remembered our nightly prayer - "We thank you for our blessings" - and I was like COOL - dude - I don't have anything to worry about.  Right?  I just thanked Him "for my blessings" - that means all of them right?  Sweet! {{Do a little happy dance here.}}

Ok.  In all seriousness, I am very strict about my requests to God.  It goes like this... you see... you might believe in Him and you might not.  Either way... I don't want to wear out my welcome.  You know?  So, when the time comes that I REALLY need something... I don't want him to think... Who is that?  oh is that YOU again?  What do you want THIS TIME???  I need Him to take my request seriously.  Right?  I know I might not get the answer that I am looking for {{thus I have not won the lotto yet}} but at least I want Him to know that I am serious.

In fact, I am so serious about this that I did not ask God for a single request, via prayer, for 36 years {{up until about 3 months ago}}.  The ENTIRE time I was young I had the same nightly prayer.  "Dear God.  Thank you for this day.  Amen."  What I really meant was, "Dear God.  Even if today was awful, I am going to thank You for it so You can remember this in the future if I ever come to You with a real need.  mkay?  Amen."

Then, I grew up and had kids.  I am ever-so-blessed that I still do not have a real need.  However, I know people who are seriously struggling; thus, I find that I do have to throw some requests into my prayers nowadays.  Mostly I am praying for Peace.  I know that God is going to do whatever He is going to do but I really pray that those who are suffering can find peace with the outcomes in their situations. I prayed for these friends this week:

I have a friend of a friend whose husband just died in Afghanistan.... wife... 4 kids.  Ugh.

I have a friend who was stationed overseas and had to have an emergency evacuation to come back to the states for exploratory surgery on several lumps in her breast.  She has a toddler at home.

I have a friend who has fostered 2 brothers for the better part of the past year.  The brothers came from a home that we would all probably consider to be awful.  The brothers have been and ARE part of her family... and just this past week they transitioned to a new home.  My friend, her husband, and her biological daughter miss them terribly. The details of this story pull at my heart strings.

So, I pray that these women, men, and families can find peace.  This is awful stuff... can someone please just give them the peace to get through this?  Please!

Since I am starting to get the hang of this prayer thing,

feel free to send me an email or comment below

if you want me to pray for you.