Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Philippians 4:6

God’s Word tells us that we can pray about “everything;” however, what are some things in your life that you do not pray to God about? Why don’t you pray to God about what you named above?

The topic of prayer has always fascinated me. I spent countless hours standing or sitting in church while a pastor prayed aloud, alone or with the congregants. I could not begin to count the number of times I sat quietly in a pew during a specific period in the worship service reserved for silent prayer. I joined hands with my fellow parishioners as we all stood around a table set with food and prayed our thanks aloud before sitting down to enjoy a meal. There have also been a few times when I took the hands of other family members gathered around the bedside of a dying relative and recited the Lord’s Prayer or other intercessions alongside them.

During a Bible study some years ago, the participants were asked to anonymously jot down a few words about their prayer life on an index card. The cards were then given to the pastor who read some of the responses aloud. I was rather embarrassed when the pastor read and commented upon my description: Praying is like breathing — automatic and essential for life.

O Lord, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, Lord.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessing on my head.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too great for me to understand!

I can never escape from your Spirit!
I can never get away from your presence!
If I go up to heaven, you are there;
if I go down to the grave, you are there.
If I ride the wings of the morning,
if I dwell by the farthest oceans,
even there your hand will guide me,
and your strength will support me.
I could ask the darkness to hide me
and the light around me to become night—
but even in darkness I cannot hide from you.
To you the night shines as bright as day.
Darkness and light are the same to you.

You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body
and knit me together in my mother’s womb.
Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex!
Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it.
You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion,
as I was woven together in the dark of the womb.
You saw me before I was born.
Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
Every moment was laid out
before a single day had passed.

How precious are your thoughts about me, O God.
They cannot be numbered!
I can’t even count them;
they outnumber the grains of sand!
And when I wake up,
you are still with me!

. . .

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

Psalm 139

There is nothing about me that the Divine Creator does not know. There is no thought in my head, desire in my heart, or word upon my lips that I am capable of hiding from the Divine Creator. My thoughts, hopes, dreams, triumphs, and disappointments — conscious or unconscious — are part of an ongoing dialogue with the Divine Creator. I can never escape from the Spirit or be distanced from the unconditional, unending love of the Divine Creator.

Viewed from that perspective, there is no aspect of my life about which I do not pray. There is no requirement that I stop at a particular time of day, go to a specific place or use any tool or instrument in order to pray. I pray at any time and any place, alone or with other people.

One of the areas in which my thoughts do not often enough take conscious form is prayer for my enemies. (Matthew 5:44) I do not wish harm to anyone, but I do not often enough enunciate deliberate petitions for those persons for whom I do not feel much affection or empathy absent concerted effort. “If you love only those who love you, what reward is there for that? Even corrupt tax collectors do that much. If you are kind only to your friends, how are you different from anyone else?” (Matthew 5:45-47) I resemble a “corrupt tax collector” more often than I care to admit. I am indeed a work in progress, but am buoyed by the knowledge that each day is a new opportunity to succeed where I failed yesterday.

And I frequently get so wrapped up in daily activities and challenges that I forget to say two simple words: Thank you. Sometimes I am appalled by my own lack of appreciation. I take my many blessings for granted and neglect to let my gratitude take tangible form.

These days, I spend a lot of time praying for the future of the United States, and that our President-Elect be granted wisdom and the ability to lead effectively and with integrity during the rough days ahead. Every time I think of him, I pray for his safety — for his sake, as well as his family’s and the nation’s. Having lived through the 1960’s, I fear for his well-being (and with good reason, according to recent news reports detailing the number of threats that are made against him every day). I pray for my friends, neighbors and colleagues, asking that they be allowed to keep their homes and jobs. I also pray for my friends who are facing other challenges such as their own ill health or ailing loved ones.

Tonight, I have spent quite a bit of time praying for the folks in Southern California, as wildfires are again raging there and many people have lost their homes and all of their belongings. As you read this, please say a prayer for the firefighters who are struggling to get those fires under control.

Click here to access the list of all participants and read their thoughts.

“What must it feel like?”

As President-Elect Barack Obama wrapped up his victory speech a little while ago, NBC News Anchor Brian Williams asked that question as images of a sea of celebrating supporters flashed on the screen just before Vice President-Elect Joe Biden, and the Obama and Biden families joined the 44th President of the United States on stage.

Indeed. What must it feel like to be Barack Obama tonight?

Tom Brokaw observed, “I don’t think we’ve fully caught up to what happened here tonight. . . I don’t think that we fully understand how sweeping [the change] is going to be.”  As the months and years of his Presidency unfold, we will get a better understanding of the profound accomplishments that have been achieved tonight.

“A new dawn has come to America.” President-Elect Barack Obama

When, just barely after 8:00 p.m. and the closure of the polls here in California, NBC announced that Obama had won, I looked up at the television screen and choked back an involuntary sob. As I sat here with tears streaming down my face, I was surprised by my own reflexive, visceral response. I cast my vote for and hoped that Obama would win, but actually seeing the headline on the television screen, I was immediately filled with a surprising mixture of joy, relief, excitement, and . . . awe.  I stand in awe of this moment in history, as meaningful and unforgettable as so many other momentous occasions I have witnessed.

Yes we can. We can get this country back on the right path.  We can restore the American dream.  We can unite in celebration of our diversity.  We can work together to achieve a common goal.

Watching the images of Americans celebrating in the streets of New York, San Francisco, and other cities, and Grant Park in Chicago, I realized that the one word that best describes how Americans feel tonight is one of my all-time favorites:  Hopeful.

As for our next President, tonight was his “rendevous with destiny,” according to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.  He knows that he has secured his place in America’s history and is a transformative figure in this country’s story.  I plan to keep him, his staff and their families in my prayers on a daily basis, and urge all of my readers to do the same.

But I can’t help but wonder as I consider the images of him celebrating with his family and consider his inspirational victory speech: “What must it feel like?”

You Have Our Attention, Lord

A prayer by Max Lucado written in October 2008

Our friends lost their house
The co-worker lost her job
The couple next door lost their retirement
It seems that everyone is losing their footing

This scares us.
This bailout with billions.
These rumblings of depression.
These headlines: ominous, thunderous-“Going Broke!” “Going Down!” “Going Under!” “What Next?”

What is next?
We’re listening.
And we’re admitting: You were right.
You told us this would happen.

You shot straight about loving stuff and worshiping money.
Greed will break your heart, you warned. Money will love you and leave you.
Don’t put your hope in riches that are so uncertain.
You were right.
Money is a fickle lover and we just got dumped.

We were wrong to spend what we didn’t have,
Wrong to neglect prayer and ignore the poor,
Wrong to think we ever earned a dime.
We didn’t. You gave it.
And now, tell us Father, are you taking it?

We’re listening. And we’re praying.
Could you make something good out of this mess?
Of course you can.
You always have.

You led slaves out of slavery, Built temples out of ruins,

Turned stormy waves into a glassy pond and water into sweet wine.
This disorder awaits your order.
So do we.

Through Christ, Amen.

What emotions are evoked in you after reading the poem?

I’m already glued to the television.  I can’t help myself . . . I’m switching channels, surfing from news channel to news channel, comparing the projected Electoral College totals, enthralled by the latest poll numbers.

Like the rest of America, I am poised to cast my vote in the morning and then wait to hear what America’s future looks like.

And as I read that poem and for several hours afterward, the phrase that would not leave my consciousness was this one:  It is always darkest just before the dawn.

It has been a very dark eight years.  Depressing, demoralizing, stress-filled, discouraging.  We have watched the news reports about our fellow citizens dying on foreign soil and repeatedly asked ourselves why they  are there, praying, “Please, Lord, bring them home safely . . . soon.”  We have watched the value of our paycheck shrink and wondered how to fill up our children’s stomachs along with the gas tanks of our vehicles so that we can go back to work tomorrow and continue earning enough money to pay our bills and keep our homes.  We have watched our friends, neighbors, coworkers, and family members lose their jobs, homes, health insurance, and pride, and silently said, “Thank you, Lord, for not letting that be me” as we wondered why we were spared but those good people weren’t.  We have looked in the mirror and noted more gray hairs following another sleepless night spent tossing, turning, chasing away nightmares about being rendered unemployed and homeless, and prayed, “Let the company make it through the end of the year so that the kids can have a nice Christmas, at least.”  We have watched our aging parents choose which medications to take and which to skip because they can’t afford to purchase all of the prescriptions issued by their doctors.

And yet . . .

For those of us who believe in a force larger than ourselves that will never abandon or forsake us, there remains hope — that elusive, indefinable, portrayed-as-naivete-by-the-world emotion that allows us to get up every morning, survey our homes, neighborhoods, and families, and say “Thank you.”

I have not heretofore written about politics, instead preferring to place a few carefully selected quotes and images in the sidebar signifying where I stand on the issues.  It will come as no surprise then that I will be casting my vote for Barack Obama as I believe that he embodies the values, opinions, world-view, and leadership qualities that this nation needs at this moment in history.

As recently as this morning, I sat in front of the television set, mesmerized by the eloquent manner in which he addressed the crowd assembled to see him in person, moved to tears by the way in which he spoke about inclusiveness, not divisiveness; unity, not factions; dreams being achievable, not personal attacks upon and tired, pejorative commentary about his opponents.  In stark contrast, the news station cut to a live feed of John McCain standing quietly at the podium, smirking and mugging as the crowd booed in response to Obama’s name. But when Obama’s audience began to boo at the mention of McCain’s name, he stopped them, saying, “Don’t boo.  Just vote!”  He has refused to run a campaign that mirrors the small-mindedness, bigotry, haughtiness, and downright mean spirit that has characterized McCain’s. Thus, Barack Obama is the kind of person I want as my Commander-in-Chief.  He is the kind of role model I want for my children and, eventually, grandchildren.

Just as importantly, I knew the moment I heard Sarah Palin speak at the Republican convention that I could never cast a vote in favor of allowing her to hold national office.  As the weeks have dragged on, my initial impressions of her have only been confirmed and reinforced.  I have watched her arrogantly pander to her audiences but fail to live the principles she espouses.  I have listened to her responses to straight-forward questions that any candidate should have been prepared to answer the day she accepted John McCain’s invitation to become her running mate and crinched in embarrassment for her and fear for what will happen to this country if she and McCain are elected.

And most critically for us Californians, I have watched the rhetoric and histrionics surrounding Proposition 8 escalate, praying each day that my fellow Golden State citizens will possess the courage and compassion to reject a measure that would inarguably, inexcusably, and unforgivingly inject discrimination into our state constitution.

But through it all, I have continued to believe that the states of our state and nation are on the brink of improvement.  I have remained hopeful because that is my nature, but that is also the overriding emotion that my faith compels and commands me to feel.

Our Divine Creator will make something good out of this mess.  The Spirit will continue to speak to us and point the way, if we will just remain faithful, hopeful, and listen.

My prayer tonight is that at this time tomorrow, as the election results are being tabulated, it will become apparent that disorder is giving way to order.  And that by midday on Wednesday, it will be evident that it was truly darkest just before the morning light dawned.

Click here to access the list of all participants and read their thoughts.

Like most Americans, I watched the final Presidential debate last night. I found myself yelling at the television set a few times, wanting to turn it off and walk away, but unable to stop watching the train wreck that this campaign has become.

And this morning, I was still fired up about the upcoming election, my head — like so many Americans’ — swirling with thoughts of the economy, the deficit, the housing market, the future of my health care plan, my 401K account (and the monthly statements sitting on my desk, still in the sealed envelopes in which the letter carrier delivered them that I don’t have the courage to open), foreign policy, the financial cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that have now dragged on longer than World War II did . . .

As is my custom, when I got to work this morning, I visited the Sacramento Bee’s website, planning to click on the “Politics” link to read about local and State issues.

Instead, I found myself drawn to the photo that graced the newspaper’s home page of the young family at the shore. I had to know why that young couple — the wife leaning lovingly into her strong husband’s chest — was prominently displayed. I caught my breath when I read the headline, hoping that it didn’t mean what I already knew to be true: “Soldier’s sorrowful homecoming — Dad brings body of his only child, killed in Iraq last week, back to Sacramento.”

Suddenly, my intense loathing of Sarah Palin and everything she stands for did not matter. In that moment, I no longer remembered who scored the biggest zinger during last night’s debate. For the minutes that followed, tears rolled down my cheeks as I learned about the sacrifice that young husband and father’s family has suffered for the good of their country, and it didn’t matter who wins on November 4, 2008. Because the reality is that one Sacramento family — like so many other families who have bid farewell to the soldiers among them and then held their breath between the long-distance reassurances that they are still okay — has suffered the greatest imaginable loss. And in the face of that reality, politics just didn’t — and don’t — matter.

Bradley Clark is the director of operations for Kalitta Charters, a company that contracts with the Department of Defense to transport the bodies of those who die overseas back to their families. Mr. Clark performs difficult, but necessary work. His is an honorable profession about which he says, “We’re proud to bring the fallen soldiers home.”

But today Mr. Clark was called upon to perform a task that should never be expected of any parent. Today, he brought home the body of his only child, Sgt. Michael Kyle Clark, pictured in the three-and-a-half-year-old photo above.

Michael Clark was a fire support specialist who coordinated and determined which enemy targets to fire at. He died during his second deployment to Iraq which was scheduled to end in early 2009, just three days after he and his wife marked their fifth wedding anniversary. He was 24 years old. His mother, a systems analyst for the State of California’s Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation told the Bee that Michael’s wife and child “were everything to him.” Just as Michael was undoubtedly “everything” to his mother and father, to whom, as fate would have it, fell the sad duty of bringing Michael home for the last time.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger issued a prepared statement, noting that Michael’s service and sacrifice will “forever be remembered,” and ordered Sacramento flags to fly at half-staff.

This country would not exist, even in its current imperfect, struggling state, but for the sacrifice of generations of soldiers like Michael who have fought for and defended it during so many wars on so many different continents.

The domestic issues we are facing are daunting. As Barack Obama has stated many times during his campaign speeches, we face the greatest economic challenges since the Great Depression. So many of us are struggling simply to fill the gas tanks of our vehicles so that we can get to work to earn enough money to feed our families, make our mortgage payments in order to hold onto our homes for as long as we can, and be able to turn the furnace on as winter settles in.

But we must pause from time to time and remember that beyond all of the political rhetoric, theoretical debate about foreign policy, and consternation about how and when to extricate our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, our fellow citizens are still there and many of them are dying each and every day. Many more families will, like Michael Clark’s, be mired in grief before Barack Obama or John McCain is inaugurated, takes up residence in the White House, and attempts to implement the policies that have powered him into the history books.

Today I am thankful for the life of Michael Clark and his willingness to serve his country, even to the point of returning to Iraq after being injured in a dirt bike accident following the conclusion of his first tour of duty. He told his mother that he had to return because he had a duty to his fellow soldiers and “If something happened, I couldn’t live with myself.”

Something did happen. Something horrific and heart-breaking. Something that shouldn’t be happening to Michael or any other American soldier. Something that no family back here at home should have to survive. Something that will continue happening until our elected officials figure out how to make it stop happening.

Tomorrow I will again peruse the headlines in the local and national newspapers. I’ll go back to loathing Sarah Palin and her lack of integrity. I’ll go back to procrastinating about looking at my 401K and bank statements, and curse when I stop at the gas station on my way to work in the morning and watch the numbers spinning around and around, stopping at a total dollar amount I never would have believed could be possible. I’ll go back to yelling at my kids to turn off the lights they seem to constantly leave on when they move from one room to another here at home, and I’ll brace myself for the shock when I see how much money it costs to fill the kitchen cupboards back up when I go shopping for food on Saturday morning.

But for today — just for today — I’m taking a break from all that and saying “Thank you” to Micahel’s family, all of the other families who have lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan, and the Divine Creator for the service of my fellow Americans on my behalf. I’m giving praise and thanksgiving for their families, especially those who, like the Clark family, are in mourning today for a son, daughter, husband, wife, father, mother, sister or brother who will not return alive from a war that makes absolutely no sense to most of us, anyway.

And no matter what we think of the politicians who sent them there, we must be grateful for their service because they are there not for the politicians, but on our behalf. Please join me in praying for their safe return to their families.

“God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.”

Romans 8:26b-28

What is one thing that happened in your life that initially may have been a bad or painful situation that you saw God work together for good?

Tenacious.

If I were asked to describe myself using only one word, I think “tenacious” would be among the words from which I would be compelled to pick. Among the word’s various definitions, this is the most applicable: “Holding together; cohesive; not easily pulled asunder; tough.”

Until I left organized religion in January 2007, I was a church member and musician for my entire life. I spent many, many hours each and every week in church. The time spent in Sunday morning worship services was merely the proverbial drop in the bucket. I spent thousands of hours per year attending Bible studies, meetings, and rehearsals, not to mention providing other services such as designing, creating, and maintaining the church’s website, editing the weekly church bulletins and monthly newsletters, etc.

Of course, such a heavy commitment of time and talent also brings a lot of socialization with other members of the church, only a few of whom I counted then (or now) as genuine friends.

When I first left the institutional church, I had absolutely no doubt that I was following the Holy Spirit’s lead. In fact, because I am so tenacious, I should have left at least three years before I actually walked out the door and, on that evening, the Holy Spirit all but picked up my bags and pulled me by the hair out the back door of the building.

At the time, I was very hurt, upset, and disappointed. I had been manipulated and lied to by the pastor, and, to this day, most members of the congregation do not know the truth about what happened or why I really left. I have heard a few of the rumors that circulated, none of which — not surprisingly — had any relationship to reality. I felt beat up, as though I had been run over by a truck.

I also felt enormous relief. And freedom. And then I wondered how I had managed to survive it all. With each passing day, as I felt better and better about myself and my life outside the church, I came to understand just how badly beaten down I had been . . . for such a long time. I hadn’t even realized it. I had spent years tenaciously trying to make an unworkable, untenable situation into a success.

I had unwittingly spent years disavowing and ignoring a philosophy with with I was familiar and in which I claimed to believe. I had been rejecting the principles set forth in the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;
Enjoying one moment at a time;
Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;
Taking, as He did, this sinful world
as it is, not as I would have it;
Trusting that He will make all things right
if I surrender to His Will;
That I may be reasonably happy in this life
and supremely happy with Him
Forever in the next.
Amen.

Reinhold Niebuhr

My tenacity has often been my salvation. And, nearly as often, my undoing. Because I am not a quitter, I constantly need to remind myself that the Serenity Prayer is a blueprint for success.

But even when I forgot that, the Holy Spirit did not. Just as Romans 8 teaches us, my “wordless sighs” and my “aching groans” did not go unnoticed, even when I could not even articulate their origins or meanings. The Holy Spirit knew me “far better than” I knew myself, knew my “pregnant condition, and [kept me] present before [the Divine Creator].” And in the end, all things worked together for good.

I have never been happier than since I walked away from the institutional church. I have never had a better relationship with the Divine Creator. I have never been as focused on my spiritual life as since I got away from the confines of organized religion. I have never felt as free to worship as since I stopped going into a building purportedly designed for worship . . . and began worshiping wherever and whenever the Spirit inspires me to offer praise and thanksgiving.

And since that time, I have been more mindful of the tenets of the Serenity Prayer, asking constantly for the wisdom to discern between situations where my gift of tenacity will serve me well and those where my tenacity is an impediment to my own spiritual development. That too is an example of how every detail in my life of love for the Divine Creator is worked into something good.

Click here to access the list of all participants and read their thoughts.

Welcome!

Education

Erica Douglas shares Glasgow Science Centre: The Three Bears published at LittleMummy.Com.

cate3 shares The secret to success - learn to work, when you are young published at Why Homeschool.

Matthew Paulson shares More Options for Working Moms published at American Consumer News.

Bettina shares Choosing What’s Best for Your Family published at Life Without School.

Family Cooking and Recipes

Cyndi Lavin shares Apple dumplings for the fall published at Busy Family Meal Planning. She says, “Nothing says autumn like a warm apple dessert!”

Carrie shares Quinoa - The Little Seed That Could published at Carrie’s Creative Cookery.

HowToMe shares How To Bake An Elegant Persimmon Pudding published at HowToMe.

Sharee shares A good dip published at A bit of flour.

Family Crafts and Activities

Jennifer shares October Exploring published at Diary of 1.

Shamelle shares 13 Ideas To Make Boring Jobs Bearable And A Little More Interesting published at Enhance Life.

Stephanie shares Make Your Own Ball and Cup Game published at Make It From Scratch.

Family Finance

Kelly shares Nine More Uses for Used Cloth Diapers published at Almost Frugal.

Debt Freedom Fighter shares 4 Financial Pitfalls That Drive You Deeper Into Debt published at Discover Debt Freedom!.

Money Answer Guy shares An Affordable Family Entertainment for Tougher Times published at The Money Answer Guy.

Amy shares 13 Ways to Save on Gas published at The Q Family Adventure, suggesting ways to save on gasoline.

freefrombroke shares Before You Buy That Halloween Costume published at Free From Broke, offering some money-saving tips that you should consider before purchasing your kids’ Halloween costumes.

Raymond shares The Top 5 Online Banks For High Interest Savings and Checking published at Money Blue Book.

Silicon Valley Blogger shares Replaced Our Old Car: Found The Best Deal On A Volvo Sports Wagon! published at The Digerati Life, describing how they purchased a “car from my brother. It was such a good deal because we got it from a family member.”

The Smarter Wallet shares Why Work At Home? Top Reasons For Staying Home To Work published at The Smarter Wallet.

Family Health and Wellness

Mama Bear shares Our Hospital Stay published at I’ve Got a Little Space to Fill.

Julee Huy shares Morning Supplements published at Discovering Nathan.

Aparna shares Whiten your teeth with these home-remedies published at Beauty and Personality Grooming.

Pregnancy Hut shares 1 Week Pregnant published at Pregnancy Calendar, describing what you should do during your first week of pregnancy.

Stephanie shares A Clean Attitude published at Stop the Ride!

Super Saver shares Miraculous Weight Loss published at My Wealth Builder. “Our family camping trip helped me discover how I can eat a lot and still lose weight,” Super Saver writes.

Family Humor

Toni shares Husby Funnies published at Wifely Steps, describing how “my husband’s silliness keeps me young.”

Jenna Hooker shares Triplets + Twins = Quintuplets! published at Newlyweds!

Family Pets

Carole Gold shares Life and Death published at McKay Today, relating how a cat taught a lesson about life and death.

Matt M shares Pet Costume Giveaway published at The Pet Haven.

Family Relationships and Self-Improvement

Erica Douglas shares Generations published at British Parent Bloggers.

Doug Boude shares On Being Sorry published at Doug Boude, sharing insight he has gleaned over the years.

Family Spirituality/Belief/Worship

Minister Mamie L. Pack shares Is he on the roof? published at The Life I Now Live.

Joe Mueller shares Haiku #3 published at Random Haiku, a haiku about the pain of miscarriage.

Family Travel

Matthew Paulson shares Theme Park Travels: Trick or Treat published at The Travel Advocate.

Parenting Tips and Advice

Joe shares GPS Kids Watch published at GPS Tracking Watches, explaining that “GPS tracking devices can do much more than keep your children safe — they can also enliven their imagination and bring their play experiences to a whole new level.”

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