A Mother's Prayer

prayer.. (Photo credit: aronki)

GOOGLE

Even Christians at some time in our day or sometimes in everyday, we sin by mouth , eyes, or even ears; but by asking God to forgive us, he does. That doesn't mean we get to go out everyday and sin, it means we recognize our sins and pray for the fortitude not to sin those sins again. Some find new ones and think that is okay, but we know it is not. Our commitment is to not sin,and to be praying a consistent prayer with God all day asking him to guide us away from sin. But Satan is a strong enemy and we must be aware of the worldly things around us, (which is pretty much everything) and find our own way in the world not giving into to worldly ways.
We lose friends over this, we make enemies over this, we lose family; but our promise is that at the end of time we will be re-united with those we love at God's right hand and if we want that to be our children, then we must take the time NOW to discipline them along those lines.

I spent some time last night reading through a notebook my son had written in during his stay at the last rehab facility he was in. My heart was lifted when he spoke about falling on his knees in gratitude asking for forgiveness. It is every Christian mother's dream to have one or all of her children find their way through the Holy Spirit. It would be nice if they could find their way without having to reach the bottom, but as a mother, I will take it any way it comes to them.
Many spend their days focused on the lack of everything we do not have, when in reality, it is what keeps us from attaining those things. Focus on what we have and thank God for it everyday with the idea that God already knows what you want and it is coming to you; but it is in his time. Do not be discouraged, God is bringing you what you want so express gratitude for it, as if you have already received it and you will begin to see it surfacing in your life.

My prayer to God today is recovery for my youngest and the removal of the blinders on his eyes, and the plugs in his ears so he may see and hear what is coming his way. Thank you, Lord for caring for him and being by his side through all that he has allowed himself to go through. Give him patience and fortitude until it appears.

A Changed Heart~

GOOGLE

It is sad when people use phrases like, "God told me to do this or that." To my knowledge, God has not spoken directly to anyone since the Old Testament. Correct me if I'm wrong, but scripture will prove that to be correct. Many that have recently experienced a change in their heart, will use that phrase; along with "I found God." But for me, I never knew he was lost.
We don't find God, he finds us; and has always known where we were. My daughter, a non-believer, was approached yesterday by an old boyfriend who led the conversation with those phrases. She was disturbed by this connection. I mean, I'm all for anyone that can help her to believe, but it will never happen for her with phrases like that.
Faith takes knowledge. The knowledge needed to talk to others about their faith and what the "Bible" says about God. When we are witnessing to others we need to use the right words and it takes knowledge to do that. I worry that this young man has been taught to witness incorrectly. He expressed some concerns to her that I think need to be addressed; but it seems like he might not be open to hearing the truth. Whatever the case, he needs someone to talk to, so I told my daughter I would be the one to do that for her. She immediately said, "You're the best," and surprised by that, I asked her if she could repeat it so I could record it. We just laughed.
God works in such mysterious ways. Not five minutes ago, my youngest son, knocked on my door, visibly upset. Upon further discovery I learned he had been fired. Fired from the only job he has held for 10 years. He's an alcoholic who has progressively brought himself to this place. I had a short talk with him about his next step and reminded him that just last week he told me this was probably going to happen soon, and here it is. It's funny how we bring ourselves to the place we say we are going. "We are responsible for our own reality." I think that is the hardest thing for most to accept.
God knows where we are going and always has, that is why he sent his only son to save us from sin. He sent Jesus to live in the "real" world and then sacrificed him to give us the grace we now have. We now have a forgiving God, and we should thank him everyday for his sacrifice.
This is a hard time of year for many, my son especially; but the strange part is that my church family and I have prayed for him to get here also. God has answered our prayer and now he will answer my son's when he turns to him for his much needed recovery. At this moment, he is not feeling very grateful and I understand that, but I am. I am so grateful that he is where he is so that he can now get the help he so greatly needs.
I know it must sound strange to many to hear that we prayed for him to hit bottom, but he was so unwilling to get there on his own that we felt he needed help and the only help we could offer was for him to  get here. With God's help the rest will right itself. It may not be a lasting solution, many have to try sobriety dozens of times, but for this Christmas; I am so grateful to God for bringing my son right where he is right now. God answered my prayer...

I AM REALLY STRETCHING THAT COMFORT ZONE!

Image via Wikipedia

GOOGLE
I am really stretching the comfort zone today. I wrote to Ellen DeGeneres and asked for her to have the "cash for clunkers" to come to Norton, MA for me.
I recently wrote on one of my blogs, about how I went to the Dollar Tree one day and found two books that changed my life; they were "I'm Proud of You," by Tim Madigan, written about Fred Rogers (Mr. Rogers); and the second is called "The Prayer of Jabez," about how Jabez asks God to "Expand his Property" and God answering his prayer. "1 Chronicles 4:9-10"
The first book left me feeling curious and confused about why Fred Rogers was asking Tim Madigan's brother, who was dying of cancer, to pray for him,(Fred) and the second book answered that question. Fred Rogers developed a very close relationship to Tim Madigan and his family, especially when Tim's brother Steve, was in the final stages of Cancer. During that time one of the last conversations Fred had with Steve over the phone, he ended the conversation with, "Please pray for me Steve." Asking a dying man to pray for you seemed confusing and even a little frightening to me. It was a concept I had never considered, but then I read "The Prayer of Jabez," by Bruce Wilkinson, and my question was answered.
In "The Prayer of Jabez," chapter 2 is titled "So Why not Ask?" and in it are a couple of paragraphs that tell a story about Mr. Jones getting to heaven and how when Peter has finished giving him a tour of heaven, Mr. Jones asks why Peter has not shown him one particular building and Peter answers with, "You won't want to see what is in there." Mr. Jones persists, and Peter relents, and lets him in. When Mr. Jones opens the door, what he sees is a room filled floor to ceiling with shelves, and on each of the shelves are white boxes tied with red ribbons. Mr. Jones notices that there are names on them and asks Peter if there is one with his name on it. Peter says that there is, so Mr. Jones enters the room and finds his box. What he finds inside are all the blessings that God has had in store for Mr.Jones' whole life....but he never asked for them. The idea that God wants us to ask for ourselves, is a new concept to me, and one I am trying to find comfort in, but here I am trying to teach THIS OLD DOG SOME NEW TRICKS, TO BREAK OUT OF THIS PRISON IN MY MIND CALLED AGORAPHOBIA. And the answers come to me in two $1.00 books, that just happen to be in front of me, and I just happened to have a couple of dollars to buy them with. It is a powerful message to me and I have shared this message with as many people as I can, because I don't want another day to go by without others realizing that this is what God wants for us. God wants us to be happy, for him to be happy, simple...but true. "Pray for me."

I MUST BE ABOUT MY FATHER'S BUSINESS

Image via WikipediaGOOGLE

"Not the maker of plans and promises, but rather the one who offers faithful service in small matters. This is the person who is most likely to achieve what is good and lasting."

Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
1749-1832, Poet, Dramatist and Novelist

This is a quote by Goethe but it could just of easily been from "Think and Grow Rich." Napoleon Hill believed the same thing, perform faithful service,necessary service.

"First do what is necessary, then do what is possible and suddenly you will be doing the impossible." Some people blame themselves for things they cannot do, or the disappointment of others, or their own failings; but in their distress they forget that God does not expect us to be successful...only faithful. We must remember this when the necessary seems impossible. From the sorrow some strength will come." This is an excerpt from a movie with Cheech Marin in it as a Mexican Priest, as i mentioned yesterday. (and in the movie, pigs fly)

We are the likeness of God...God-like and as such, we must act like God. We should be "going about our father's business." I was fortunate enough to catch "The Loretta Young Show" on EWTN through my Comcast Service, and I remembered how much I used to love watching her when I was a child. What I didn't remember was that every show had a lesson and her favorite phrase was, "I must be about my father's business." She played a Nurse in a Catholic hospital where many of the nurses were Nuns. Every time she ran across a needy patient, she would go to the chapel to pray for guidance and while there, they would call her over the loud speaker to attend to an emergency or a patient. She always managed to accomplish what was needed. In one of the shows she was handed a $5.00 bill as a Christmas gift from a young girl that volunteered at the hospital because her only sister and family had moved and she was all alone for the holidays. The Nun put the $5.00 into the pocket of her habit and "went about her father's business," she was paged over the loud speaker to attend to a very disturbed patient who had been burned severely, and lost his sight. She managed to help calm him down and give him a morphine shot to ease the pain. A short time goes by and it is time to begin to ween him off the morphine, and he is screaming so they page her and she tries to convince him that he is going to have to go much longer without the medication or it will just be more difficult to get off it later, as she begs him to hang on a little longer. He gets really angry and she decides that he is not going to listen to her and as she is leaving, to get the shot for him, even after telling him it is only going to be worse the next day, he stops her when she reaches the door. When she goes back to his bedside he says "just five more minutes right, Butch?" He doesn't realize that she is a Nun because he has his eyes bandaged from the burns. When he agrees to wait, she reaches into the pocket of her habit and finds the $5.00 bill, she calls one of the nurses and hands her the money and tells her to go across the street and buy some magazines for men about sports, fishing, etc..She begins to read to him and they manage to stretch it our for an hour, without the medication. The story goes on to where he is about to get his sight back and he tells her he can't wait to see her (like he is coming on to her) and she apologizes, and tells him that she is a Nun, which makes him very angry (again). The day that they take off the bandages, she asks the young girl that gave her the money to be at his bedside with her as they take off his bandages. Well naturally, the first thing he sees is the pretty young girl and the rest is history, so to speak.

The point to why I just rambled on about these shows is this, (I am addicted to television, just kidding)if we are made in the image of God, then we treat others as we would have them treat us, even with the smallest of tasks. What takes place then is God responds with the tools we need to help with this small task, answer the question,or the prayer so we can "go about our father's business." We can offer faithful service. Faithful service is believing that our prayers will be answered, and it doesn't matter who or what we are praying for, he will answer. (It just
might not always be "YES") So be sure to take the time to listen. I like to do my listening through meditation. Have you listened for the answers from God?" )or if you prefer the term "The Universe?) Take the time to listen and the answers will come.

This is actually a pep talk for me, I just thought it might be of benefit to others...I hope it does.

Image via WikipediaGOOGLE.COM
I was reading a post in a thread on Powerful Intentions. A woman posted that she found herself in tears, crying that she was unable to give even something small to a few children. What I saw about her post was beautiful. In the few moments that she was crying...the answer came to her. She remembered that she had a resource she had forgotten about, and she made that resource the way she would both give and receive that year. IN HER TEARS, SHE "ALLOWED."

"The Secret," "The Law of Attraction,"and "The Law of Abundance," all teach us that it is when we "allow" that what we desire, is given to us, or shown to us. It is through our "feelings" that our desire is expressed, and the answer is shown to us, or our desire is received.

I am not saying that when we don't get what we want...we should sit down and cry, and that is not what this woman did. I am saying that in order to receive what we desire, we must feel that it has already been received, or it is already on its way, and so it is, and it shall be. We only have to ask the Universe once for what we desire, it already knows, and we must feel it...already on its way to us, and feel that we are receiving it, and so we will.

I was listening to Joyce Meyer the other day on television; she was talking about how God always answers our prayers, but sometimes the answer is "NO." That made me begin to think in a different way about what and how we ask the Universe. The answers are always there, it is how we listen to, and for them, that they show themselves. We are the only one that can change our life, it is in our own realm of existence to make the necessary changes to our life, to accomplish, or reach the goals we choose. I am going to reach my goals this year, because I am going to listen for, and to, the answers that I am given. I am going to follow the "instincts" that I have always known exist in me, and I will take the time to listen to and find the answers that are being shown to me.

What are your goals for this year? What do you hope to receive? What do you plan to give? These answers are all crucial to reaching our goals, and having what we desire in our life for the coming year. Ask in your prayers or in your communication with the Universe through meditation, to me they are the same. I pray during meditation and I pray to God during prayer. Everything around me is telling me to listen better this year, and that is what I'll be doing...LISTENING.