A Prayer for Today

Almighty God, who of Thine infinite wisdom hast ordained that I should live my life within these narrow bounds of time and circumstance, let me now go forth into the world with a brave and trustful heart.
~ John Baillie, A Diary of Private Prayer

This is my prayer today, for each of us- that we will go forth into this world with brave hearts, trusting that the Great God who calls us to our particular set of circumstances and knows the battles that must be fought today, that He will be with us, leading, guiding, protecting, providing.

Because for some of us, just getting out of bed is a full-on war.  Others must conquer foreign lands such as algebra, the minefield of teenage emotions, the war-zone like appearance of a house filled with kids and their friends, hard conversations with spouses, illness, debt, a difficult boss, the editor or critic who insists that you can't possibly say what you know you must (because it is your story after all) ... these and  the myriad other situations that require us to show up, be brave, and trust that God will see us through.

For though there be dragons- sometimes they are friendly...  

like this little dragon who found his way to my desk.  

He seems quite pleasant and encouraging.  

I hope the daughter who created him will let him stay with me a while.   

Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the Lord. Psalm 31:24
Be brave today friend.  He is with us. Always

Quiet Thoughts

It's a rainy, wintry Friday.
Perfect weather for an afternoon nap,
a cup of tea,
and quiet prayer.

Me, being silent, listening; waiting peacefully for that whisper of Grace.
For Spirit seldom shouts ...

... 'in quietness and trust is your strength' ... Isaiah 30:15



Wishing You a weekend filled with quiet, whispered Blessings,

Catherine

Prayer Flags Project and More Winter Fun

Some of you asked about the prayer flags ...

Source: rhythmofthehome.com via Catherine on Pinterest

Yes, Jennifer I will share my completed project, but in the meantime (it may take me a while to finish them), you can see what inspired me!  

I loved this project when I first read about making prayer flags at rhythm of the home.  I pinned it to my Winter Fun board at Pinterest along with some other ideas to occupy hearts and hands during cold weather-

Source: bystephanielynn.com via Catherine on Pinterest

I have my fabrics prepared, supplies gathered, and a few prayerful words chosen:

FREEDOM (FREE is my word for 2012!)
PEACE
JUSTICE
MERCY
FAITH
HOPE
LOVE


I think seeing a string of prayer flags blowing in the breeze outside my window will be a wonderful call to prayer.

If you decide to join in and make your own prayer flags, please let me know!  I'd love to see what words and designs you choose.

 Weekend Blessings kind friends!

Gratitude Journal 3/8/10

Thankful today for ...

nature-
rain
birdsong
robins hunting for their breakfast in the backyard


signs of spring-
geese heading North
daffodils
freshly tilled garden soil
seedlings


comforts of home-
a quiet morning
the gentle rhythm of daily tasks
hum of washing machine
a cup of tea
cuddly quilts
good books

a reminder of whose and what I am-
Yet, O LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand. Isaiah 64:8

For these graces, big and small, thank you Lord.

Giving thanks with the multitudes today. If you'd like to join us, stop by Holy Experience and join the Gratitude Community.

Seek Ye First

He is faithful. He keeps His promises, every single one.

I was bombarded with the scripture passage Matthew 6:25-34 recently. I'm sure you know the theme of it well, Do Not Worry ... Seek ye first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.

We hear that frequently do we not? But to live it, frankly is scary.

I'll be very honest here and tell you that as a little girl, I learned that Catherine has to take care of Catherine, because other people can't or won't. And while that is pretty much true in regard to people, it is completely false when we are dealing with God. He can and will take care of me and mine, if only I am willing to get out of the way and let Him. That's the hard part for me.

The scripture passage I mentioned kept popping up, in my devotional reading, in books, sermons, scripture readings, ... I'm telling you, it was e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e.

Finally, I prayed, "Lord, I know what your word says; but how do I do this? You know our situation, you know the bills we have due, etc., etc." (I'm sure the Lord gets tired of all my talking some days ... Why I feel the need to explain things to Him I don't know; but that's the way it goes with me, I'm afraid.)

Trust Me was the only reply.

"OK Lord, I will trust you. I will seek You first, and trust You to provide what we need, which at the moment is this _______."

And He did.

Did money appear in our mailbox? No.

Did my husband's job situation improve overnight? No.

What did happen is that He spoke to the heart of someone else; someone who listened to what He said, and took their own step of faith to obey Him, because her obeying His voice would also require a sacrifice. Now she had to trust Him to provide for Her, too. And He does, and He will.

He is faithful my friends.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Matthew 6:33

If you would like to share how you have Experienced God recently, please visit Holy Experience today.

How to Pray: For Beginners

Prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life. ~ Jonathan Edwards

I agree, but in the beginning, the discipline of prayer sometimes doesn't come easily.

Thankfully, God knows and understands our frailty to even pray, and sends the Spirit to intercede for us.

In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words;
and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Romans 8:26-27



O God, forgive the poverty and the pettiness of our prayers. Listen not to our words but to the yearnings of our hearts. Hear beneath our petitions the crying of our need. ~ Peter Marshall

Never let the enemy tell you your prayers aren't "good enough" for God. Think how delighted we are when our children utter those first attempts at words. I think our Father feels the same joy when His children first attempt to voice their prayers. Just breathing His name is enough to get His attention, and the blessing of His Presence.

Showing up is the first step. "I'm here, Lord." After all, it is communion and relationship that He wants from us. He already knows our needs ... He wants our time and our hearts!

Call out His name ... Lord Jesus. He will answer!

A Quiet Prayer

This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says:

In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

Isaiah 30:15

Lord,

Today I wait for You in quietness and trust. You know my soul needs, my heart needs, my earthly needs. In You alone are my needs met, so I wait expectantly, joyfully for You to come and meet with me.

Building a House of Prayer

Building a house of prayer is much like building a house of stone or wood. Start with a firm foundation-Jesus; and build stone by stone...moment by moment, day by day, prayer by prayer. Your house of prayer will stand firm and be a refuge and protection for your soul and your family when storms of life come; just as a well-built home will protect you and your family when thunderstorms rage outside its walls.

Prayer flows throughout our house daily. From the first silent prayers offered as I wake each morning..."Thank You, Father for this day... I love You, Lord." Some days it is "Oh, HELP me, Lord!" because, though thankful for another day, I'm not ready just yet to face it.

As I wander into the kitchen and start water for coffee, I lift my husband up to the Lord, "Help him, protect him, bless him this day".

After he leaves for work and the girls resettle in for a little more sleep, I begin my morning time with God. I read from a devotional and the Bible, pray for my family and friends, sometimes I journal, sometimes I just sit and breathe out whatever is heaviest on my heart at the moment, and wait for Him to fill me...

Prayer is exhaling the spirit of man and inhaling the spirit of God. ~ Edwin Keith

We pray together during the day. At breakfast, lunch, and dinner, we give thanks for our food, and lift up other concerns, prayer needs we are aware of...not always, some days, a very quick, "Thank You for this food, Amen." is all you will hear.

I often get calls or emails throughout the day requesting prayer, and we lift those up as they come...
We pray with family and friends who visit our home, and have hosted cottage prayer meetings for our church family.

We pray together as a family before bed, a ritual started years ago, and one that the children will not allow to be skipped, ever. Gathered round on the living room floor, my husband reads a Bible passage or missionary story, and then we pray; each taking a turn if we feel like verbalizing our prayers. Some nights all pray aloud, some evenings one person or more chooses to keep their prayers between them and the Lord. But we pray together as a family, every night.

One room of our house of prayer still requires work...My husband and I struggle with praying together, just the two of us. I don't know why, we certainly communicate well enough any other time...but there is always this...tension there. It is something we must work through and get over; as more than ever, we need to pray together. I've read other posts today that tell a similiar story of the struggle to pray with a spouse... Join me in prayer that this struggle be put to rest, and prayer, pure and genuine, would flow freely for those who have this problem?


This is the cry of my heart today:

Psalm 86
Hear, O LORD, and answer me,
for I am poor and needy.
Guard my life, for I am devoted to you.
You are my God; save your servant who trusts in you.
Have mercy on me, O Lord, for I call to you all day long.

Lord, your child is poor and needy...in need of You and Your help, even in prayer. Help me to continue building this house of prayer, one that trusts in and honors You in all things. I pray as I call to You all day long, You will be blessed by the outpouring of your child's heart to You.

Lord, I pray for myself and my sisters who struggle with praying with our husbands...help us, heal this rift Lord, break the strongholds that keep our mouths closed, and our hearts afraid to open up and reveal the cry in them. Lord, help our husbands also open up and pray freely with us.
Lord, as you have joined us together, husband and wife, one flesh; join our hearts in one cry to You. Amen

For more on Building a House of Prayer, visit Holy Experience today. Ann's grace-filled words will bless and encourage you.

Pilgrimage into Prayer ~ When Plans Fail

Pilgrimage into Prayer...

I read a passage in For The Family's Sake recently, in which Susan Schaeffer Macaulay described her frustration at finding a good time to spend in prayer, Bible reading and meditation during the years when her children were young. While reading the biography of Charlotte Mason, she learned how Miss Mason set aside "the best time of each day" for these practices. For Charlotte Mason, it was following her afternoon walk, when she felt "quite fresh".

For me, the best time of day is early morning. By afternoon, I'm often feeling anything but "fresh"! I usually spend the hour our so after my husband has gone off to work in prayer, meditation, journal keeping, and Bible reading. Those few moments of quiet allow me to spend time at the feet of Jesus, in order to prepare my heart and mind to face the day.

Life being what it is, some days just don't work out the way I plan for them to. Take this morning for instance... For some unknown reason, all of my girls tumbled out of bed as soon as the kitchen light flickered on at 4: 15 a.m., and were ready to start the day. I, on the other hand, was not! They always wander down the hall to give Daddy a hug and kiss goodbye as he is leaving; but normally all head right back to their beds for a few more hours of sleep allowing me to settle on the loveseat with a cup of tea and meet with the Lord. Not today...no, no, not happening, and of course, this was one of those "need quiet" mornings for me. Sometimes noise is just too much...noise.

At 6:00 a.m., they wanted to go sit outside and wait for Auntie to arrive with little cousin Emma, who spends her days with us now. From 4:45 when my husband left until 6:00, they were mostly in their bedroom...talking, jumping, making all sorts of odd noises, turning on the radio to the station that was anything but "positive and encouraging" for me so early in the morning. There was not a bit of much needed quiet to be found this morning.

I tried to pray, really I did. Yet, not only was the hum of activity from the children distracting, my mind was racing, thinking all sorts of disconnected thoughts; it was every bit as noisy inside my head as it was outside. Not a good way to start the morning, not at all.

What do I do on days like this, when despite my best planning and efforts, I fail?

On those days, I return to the age old prayers that have been repeated countless times over the years. Prayers that are not commonly prayed in the church realm I grew up in. Oh, yes, we all learned the Lord's Prayer in Sunday school...but I do not remember it being prayed in church...ever. I do wonder why?

(photo of church windows snapped during our weekend wandering)

The Our Father or The Lord's Prayer

Our Father which art in heaven,

Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come,

Thy will be done

in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts,

as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil:

For thine is the kingdom,

and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

And the others, the Glory Be and the Jesus Prayer; those I discovered in my own spiritual searchings as, with a group of friends, I studied the Spiritual Disciplines and read much on prayer.

I have come to love the simple beauty of these prayers, and return to them often...especially on days like today, when I am distracted and quickly becoming distraught!

Glory Be to the Father or Gloria Patri

Glory be to the Father,

And to the Son,

And to the Holy Spirit.

As it was in the beginning,

is now,

And ever shall be,

World without end.

Amen.

And the one I feel the to pray most often-

the Jesus Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,

Have mercy on me, a sinner.

Some days I just repeat just 3 words....Jesus have mercy, Jesus have mercy, Jesus have mercy...for as long as I need to.

It is amazing how a few moments spent breathing out one of these prayers stills the soul and centers the mind. And they aren't just words, these prayers...not at all. Read them, pray them...they are powerful, beautiful prayers...ones that touch the heart of God, and change the heart of man.

For more on a Pilgrimage into Prayer, stop by Holy Experience today.

Continuing On in The Pilgrimage of Prayer

I continue on in the Pilgrimage of Prayer....in the power of Christ alone.

For in my own strength, and of my own will,
I know I will stumble and stray.
And when the day's over,
And I pause and be still...
I'll find I've neglected to pray.

But, He who lives to make intercession (Hebrews 7:25), He who dwells in me, draws me into prayer, into communion with Him...by the power of His Spirit. Only by abiding in Him (John 15:5) can I continue this important pilgrimage, this blessed privelege...prayer.

For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. Acts 17:28

Yes, Christ teaches us to pray by showing how He does it, by doing it in us, by leading us to do it in Him and like Him. Christ is all, the life and the strength too for a never-ceasing prayer-life. ~ Andrew Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer


In Christ alone, and because of Christ alone, I continue my pilgrimage into Prayer.

To share your own story of your pilgrimage into prayer, or to read other's, stop by Holy Experience today. You will be blessed by what you find there!

Note: I will be posting my Walk with Him Wednesday thoughts here now for ease of reading and commenting, both for myself and for others. To read my other posts in this series, click here.

If you've ventured here from Seeds of Love... Thanks for dropping by, and I hope you'll visit me here often, too!

A Simple Shell

Pilgrimage into Prayer...

(Girls dancing on the beach as the sun rose...3 years have passed, but they still greet each day with singing and often dancing!)

Pondering these words from Gift from the Sea...

I mean to lead a simple life, to choose a simple shell I can carry easily- like a hermit crab. But I do not. I find that my frame of life does not foster simplicity.

I find that sometimes I take on more than I can carry easily...it is not hard to do in today's world, is it? There are so many good, worthwhile things to do.

When I notice myself (and my family) struggling under the weight of my "shell" it is time to do some unloading of excess baggage and simplify life a little.

As the hermit crab seeks out a new shell when his no longer fits, I may have to remove things and rearrange my life so that it almost seems that I have a "new shell", too. A life that fits my frame (and my family's)...a frame that can only handle so much, since I am (we are), after all... "just dust"! For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust. Psalm 103:14

It takes time...this soul searching and prayer that I must do in order to adjust my life to align with His Will. I may find it needful to retreat into my own shell for a little while...and just sit at His feet and listen. But, when I pray and wait, seek His counsel and His path for me...my life, my shell, becomes easy to carry...for His yoke is easy and His burden light (Matthew 11:30).

Then, there will be time for the important things...like greeting the sunrise with a dance on the beach.

I always come back to these words:

But the Lord answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42

The ability to simplify means to eliminate the unnecessary so that the necessary may speak. ~Hans Hofmann

What is the necessary saying today?

(4 year-old Cana, offering Mommy a shell...She still collects shells for me, even though she's 7 now!)

Lord, give me ears to hear and eyes to see You today...in the little things, like a sunrise dance on the beach, or the gift of a shell from the hands of my child. As I spend time with You in prayer...sitting at Your feet; show me what is necessary this day. Help me create a shell that fits...for their sake as much as mine.

More on Courage

Courage does not always roar. It is sometimes a quiet voice at the end of the day saying, "I will try again tomorrow." ~ Mary Anne Radmacher

This quote has been on my sidebar for quite some time; not sure where I found it, but it immediately spoke to me, so I posted it there as a reminder...for myself.

I am not an outspoken, roaring-type person, in most cases...Well, unless you are "family" (which includes those dear friends who have become the "family of my heart"), then watch out! But, for the most part, I tend to be peaceful and quiet.

Roaring will only be heard on those rare days that the children have driven me to complete distraction, and made this home educating Mom just a tad bit crazy! One roar from Mom will shock us all into reality, and send me to the Father's throne for forgiveness and a new attitude.

I believe it takes courage to say, "I'm sorry, please forgive me." to those you've roared at; and then determine in your heart to try again. It takes courage, because this Mom business is hard. It is a blessing, a joy, and so many other good and wonderful things...but some days it is just hard. It is hard to guide wayward souls who are in an "independent frame of mind" at the moment, hard to keep little hands and minds occupied with worthwhile tasks and thoughts; hard to cook, and clean, and do all of the little tasks that are necessary to keep a home functioning properly...hard to even think about tackling that mountain of laundry known around here as Mt. Washmore!

On those days that I find it all simply "too hard" and end up sounding like an angry lioness, rather than a woman with the teaching of kindness on her tongue (Prov. 31:26), I find myself turning to the Bible for encouragement. One of my favorite passages of scripture is Matthew 11:28-30, and I love what it says in the Amplified version:
Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy-laden and overburdened, and I will cause you to rest. [I will ease and relieve and refresh your souls.]
Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for I am gentle (meek) and humble (lowly) in heart, and you will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls.
For My yoke is wholesome (useful, good--not harsh, hard, sharp, or pressing, but comfortable, gracious, and pleasant), and My burden is light and easy to be borne.

After a time of prayer and a few minutes of soaking in the refreshing, life-giving Word of Life, I am (in)couraged. I am ready to get back to the business (busyness) and blessing of being a Mom, knowing I can face the hard times without roaring, because He has given me the courage to try again!

On Solitude

It is in deep solitude that I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. The more solitary I am the more affection I have for them… Solitude and silence teach me to love my brothers for what they are, not for what they say. ~ Thomas Merton

Pondering this as I prepare for an evening of solitude, a rare occurrence for me. Most of my times of solitude come in the early morning hours after my husband leaves for work and before the little Loves tumble out of bed. But, tonight I will have several hours to myself...hours to spend in silence, in prayer, in Bible reading and meditation. Time to again find the gentleness I need to truly love those around me...something that I am very much in need of these days.

He knows what we must have, and meets every need...Thank You, Father!

The LORD is compassionate and gracious,

Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.

He will not always strive with us,

Nor will He keep His anger forever.

He has not dealt with us according to our sins,

Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.

As far as the east is from the west,

So far has He removed our transgressions from us.

Just as a father has compassion on his children,

So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.

For He Himself knows our frame;

He is mindful that we are but dust.

Psalm 103:8-14

Lord, I pray that as I spend time in silence and solitude this evening, Your Spirit will fill me and change this one who is very dusty today...

As the cool of the evening brings new blossoms and a sweet fragrance to the Four O'Clock...

I pray that You will bring freshness, newness, the fragrance of Christ into my life. More grace Father, I am always in need of further grace...Fill me so that I may once again gently pour out Your Love to the dusty souls You bring to me.