Lord, I have read and heard a lot this week. Many of those stories made me feel like I was traveling through a portal of stupidity. Often I found myself asking the following questions: Lord, is my thinking off track? Or are people now enjoying conflict? And why are they enjoying being hoodwinked? What is making them so gullible? And why can’t they see they are being invalidated?
Lord, as I sat in bewilderment over the troubles of the world, I asked, yet, another question, “Where is common sense?” Has it left the world? Has it found a hiding place? Is it sad because humankind no longer has a need for it? Lord, where is common sense? Because as I see things, who would enjoy heartaches, trials and tribulations?
Nothing I read or heard this week made any sense at all except for: “Something that sounds correct could be incorrect.”
— Prayer —
Lord, please bless the world with common sense. For without it mankind will become void in all their ways. So, again, please Lord bless the world with common sense. Amen
Well, Lord, I have finally gotten up from the couch. Mostly because your spirit has urged me to write a pray.
But, Lord, I feel torn about what I should pray. There are so many life situations that need your help. So, again, I feel torn about what I should pray about. However the situation that seems to be heaviest on my heart is the spiritual and cancerous choice of Americans.
The choice to remove you from our country is drowning this wonderful nation in the pool of political correctness; thus, giving birth to spiritual chaos.
We have taken you out of everything! We have taken you out of our governmental institutions, our business, our schools, our churches, our homes, our children, our families and our daily actions. And because we have taken you out of everything we are now experiencing the following: high unemployment, high divorce rates, high rate of children born out-of-wedlock, high rates of child exploitation’s, extreme amounts of mental illness, and people having disregards for life.
Sadly, Lord, as we the American people bicker over small things such as who should or should not get married. Or should the NRA step in and help make stiffer laws for obtaining firearms! Or if a black man is making good or bad choices up on Capitol Hill! Lord, the country that I love is quickly falling into a perilous state.
Lord the catalyst for what is happening in America is our ease in removing you from our lives! It’s not the black man up on Capitol Hill! He’s just one man! It’s not Joe marrying Johnny or Susan marring Sally! And it’s certainly not mandating tougher gun laws! It was removing you!
Lord, the American people need to hear from you! We need to hear from the God that got this American party started. We’re a young nation. And we’re making our fair share of mistakes. But, Lord, the biggest mistake we have made thus far was removing you!
I’m praying for my country. I’m asking you for your mercy upon me and my country. I’m asking you God to show us how to repair our relationship with you. I’m asking you to forgive the arrogance of the American people. I’m praying that you will do a historical roll call in their minds and in their hearts. I’m asking Lord that they remember the blood that was shade for our freedoms; and how you fought along the men that were fighting for all to be freed men and women. I’m asking you to remind them that our ancestors came here to freely worship you. I’m asking you to remind them this country was born from a divine dream and supported and encouraged by spiritual God.
For George Santayana once wrote, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And in Numbers 14:26-38 people perished and wondered in the wilderness because they had lost faith in you and your abilities to create a new land for a people of promise. Lord, help the country that I love. Heal the heart of this country because America is a land of promise and we are a people of promise.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5
Artist: Henry Lee Battle
Dear Lord:
Your word says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” My prayer today is about what does it mean to trust in you? Or should I pray for answers to the following questions: How does a person trust in you Lord? Does this passage support our free will ? And how does it support common sense?
Lord my questions are not original (although I wish they were). But many before me have asked the same during moments of spiritual isolation. And, sadly, so many after me will pose the same question(s) during moments of uncertainty. So, Lord, again, I ask what does it mean to trust in you? Because sometimes Lord I’m afraid those that believe in you fail to know what it means to truly trust in you.
And for that reason Lord, I am asking that you help us to know what you mean in this passage. Help us to merge the wisdom of God with our instinct to spiritually and physically survive. Help us to refrain from blaming you when things don’t go as planned and according to our interpretation of your words. Help us to accept defeat as well as our victories during moments of spiritual growth. So, Lord, I ask again, help us to truly know what it means to trust in you. Amen.
This is my second cousin, Felicia Hayes, and my grandmother, Queen Hayes.
I wonder how many people have heard the phrase “do not wear out your welcome.” Hum . . . I first heard the expression from my grandmother when I was young.
Back when I was once a kid, and a know-it-all, it seemed my late maternal grandmother would always say those words to my cousins, my siblings and me. I’m not sure how my family members took her wisdom; but back when I was a child I thought my grandmother was old, uncaring, uneducated, mean-spirited, and truly out of touch with the mental and emotional needs of the young. [chuckle]
I can remember as if it was yesterday sassing her for this or that. But nothing stands out more than the time she would not let me go over to my cousin’s house as often as I wanted. And, sadly, it was late into my adult years before I understood the meaning ‘do not wear out your welcome.’
As I’m looking back on things and reflecting upon how I dismissed her words of caution, I now understand why my life was filled with heartaches.
I hate to admit to myself but I deserved all the bumps I got from being hardheaded; and my self enlightenment really makes me feel foolish about things I had blame on others.
Well, any-who-how . . . It was by divine revelation I found the phrase in the Bible one day. I was shocked! It was amazing to read that God gives his children the same warning!
Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house– too much of you, and they will hate you. Proverbs 25:17
The message I get from this passage is: don’t be so darn clingy! Get a life! Explore parts of your life without others. Enjoy family when can. And remember a bit of you goes a long ways.
I’m coming to terms with my granny’s wisdom. My grandmother has passed but her words live on. And each day that I live I think about her abrasive and unharness wisdom. I’m learning she was indeed the smartest woman I will ever know and most of all she loved me.
Recently, I purchased a new Amish love story by Kelly Long. She’s a new author for me. But I needed something to read and enjoy during moments of downtime. And the title Lilly’s Wedding Quilt intrigued me. So it was plucked off the shelf and placed into my basket with great anticipation for a romantic adventure. But my limited vocabulary has made it hard for me to enjoy the book. As I reflect upon my frustrations in having to stop reading to look for the meanings of words I probably will never use I find my behavior childish. Honesty, I feel my juvenile outlook during reading this book keeps me stagnant in building my vocabulary. So to keep me interested in reading what seems to be a great novel I have decided to use the words I do not know on Vocabulary Mondays.
obtained,done,made,etc.,bystealth;secretorunauthorized; clandestine: a surreptitious glance.
actinginastealthyway.
obtainedbysubreption;subreptitious.
Word usage in “Lilly’s Wedding Quilt”: “She blinked her eyes, licking surreptitiously at a splat of rain that dripped past her mouth, then spoke the first thing that came to her mind.”
So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate. ~Matthew 19:6
Artist: Henry Lee Battle
Whisper your heavenly love to the wounded soul oh Lord. Heal broken hearts with your divine touch.
For again someone feels they have fallen short of your glory by not guarding their heart. Lord replace their sorrow with joy. Because in all sincerity they thought they were doing what you expected of them as spouses; and as a result of truly trusting their loved ones their hearts were broken by infidelity.
Their spouses silence, without complaint, lead them to believe all was well with the their lives as a couple and as a family. But as infidelity deeds are and were being uncovered the illusion of perfect relationships and family units are being destroyed.
Lord, please help the victims of infidelity in this delicate moment; as you spiritually work on their companions moral values by cutting away relationship deceptions and replacing spiritual corruption with Fruit of the Holy Spirit.
Strengthen these victims Lord with your words, presence and unconditional love. Give them the ability to forgive quickly. As you sustain their marriage with the bonds of holy commitment. So that both will continue nurturing a lasting matrimony. Lord quiet inner turmoil of shame, anger, deception, hopelessness, selfishness, disappointment, lack of trust, and the feelings of loss by replacing each emotion with love and understanding. Amen
As I reflect on heart-felt thoughts in celebration about motherhood, this is a painful memory of a barren woman I understood.
There’s no prescription that can help her out.
There’s no one who can hear her inward painful shouts.
She suffers alone the shameful thoughts of being barren
And feel there is no one who really is truly caring.
She can never see rays from morning sunshine’s.
In the deepest of her barren womb despair
Her companions love can never compare
To a little one that is not there.
So as she looks upon baby bumps you see
All she understands is there no child within me.
She feels she’s to blame for being barren you see,
As she continues to recite there is no child within me.
She questions the universe as to what she has done
To deserve the unbearable fate of having no little one.
Her womb will not give birth to little Samantha or Nate
She feels she will never hear the patter of little feet herself proclaim fate.
As a mother and a woman with total compassion
I would like to express to the woman with a barren womb
Please don’t bury yourself in an unnamed tomb.
For I feel you are more special than I
Because the creator walks by your mournful side.
So in celebration of motherhood everywhere
Let us take time to remember the barren woman in despair.
For the burden of being barren make her special you see,
Because she has taught us to cherish the children given unto thee.
Black Women Have It Going On 