Yesterday a friend posted on Facebook she had to cut her long beautiful hair. Apparently this has been a year that has tried her soul. Medically she has opted for chemo and feels she is hanging onto life as she knows it.
Within her personal message she wrote she didn’t want us to feel sorry for her; but it is hard to be joyful when your friend is fighting to live. It is even harder to be joyful when the illnesses of others make you question your own mortality. So today I wrote a prayer for her and it is called “A Kiss from Heaven.”
A Kiss from Heaven
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
I wanted you to know that God will see you through.
He knew you would lose your hair,
But a kiss from Heaven will show His care.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
I asked for God to kiss you at half-passed two.
God said He has already kissed you
And I know His kiss will heal you too.
A kiss from Heaven is what I ask for God to do,
So you will see His love shining through.
I asked that He give your skin a glow
So you will know He still runs the show.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
When I felt you might become a tad thin too.
I want God to let you know you are going to win,
Because He gives you courage from within.
A kiss from Heaven is what I prayed for you.
So when you feel down with sorrow
I want God to let you know He holds your tomorrows.
A kiss from Heaven is what I’m praying for you.
Become my friend God that I will hope for today and have a promise for tomorrow.
Become my friend God that I will have a shoulder to lean on in my times of sorrow.
Become my friend God that I will have a life supply of happiness to always borrow.
Become my friend God so my days and nights are never lonely.
Become my friend God so I will learn to serve you only.
Become my friend God so I will never be a Christian phony.
Become my friend God so in my daily walk with you I can see life as you do.
Become my friend God so I can learn how to make a healthy pot of spiritual stew.
Become my friend God so I will learn to feed your people like you too!
A few years after my mother died, I remembered more vividly the times in childhood when she had made gloomy days seem cheerful. When something special to do inside, such as new paper dolls or a coloring book. Later, when I was in school, I always knew that on a rainy day I would come home to the smell of cookies baking in the oven . . .
I remembered, too, that in my childhood my mother had always balanced grief with comfort, pain with joy . . . To compensate for my childhood illnesses, for example, she used to read me stories which made the afternoon fly, or she would show me how to knit doll clothes out of the scraps of yarn which she had saved in a worn, brocade knitting bag . . .
Whatever the specific method used, my mother had learned, long before I knew her, how to balance pain with pleasure.
Elizabeth Skoglund
Today’s Prayer:
Lord somewhere in the world there are people in mental anguish over life’s trials and tribulations. Often such pain is psychologically unbearable. During these moments sometimes people don’t have the ability to hold their heads high with the assurance of knowing God’s powers to set things right. Because of their inability to see your spiritual support most times every breath taken produce questions of their existence. Lord to be honest it is during these times when emotional pain makes a person feel every so often they do not have much use for others. And everything accomplished is tarnished with the shadow of sorrow; as it seems to their misfortune they were not given loved ones to uplift them during moments of afflictions. Hum . . . Lord, it is within our moments of tribulations that we see the hand prints of God on our lives. Therefore, I’m asking for your Holy presence among those who have yet to learn how to balance pain with pleasure. Lord I’m asking that you teach them that sorrow only last for a moment. Lord, I’m also praying they learn how to allow thoughts of joy to diminish their temporary gloomy day(s). So, again, Lord, I’m asking that you turn on your spiritual lights for these people that they might see how to truly balance pain with pleasure; and in turn they will enjoy living once again. Amen.
A week ago I was in a conversation with a friend. Immediately, I found myself praying silently. His words were upsetting. His confidence was frightening. And most noteworthy was his self-proclaim spiritual position as an ambassador for Christ. Scary! His words were without a doubt bloodcurdling.
If he had not came across as an insufferable know-it-all I could have drummed up some sympathy and informed him that his words were discouraging to his listeners, as they stopped him from making a difference. With retrospect I must write, arrogant know-it-alls most often do more mental damage than the person that is doing the abusing. There are effective ways to counsel a person in crisis and using tough love must be implemented at the correct time, or else nothing said or being done will help hurting people move forward with living their lives.
My friend was conversing with me loudly. He spoke fast. And with the combination of speaking loud and speaking fast he held the floor. There was no room to exit the conversation, therefore, I found myself being victimized by his bitter words that held no comfort. Again!
To my dismay I am realizing that my friend set me up. He knows my present dilemmas. He knew I could easily discuss them. Therefore, he asked conversation starter type questions that would lure me in and prompt me to begin discussing my personal life. Honestly, he was looking for a conversation that made him feel good about himself. As why the first question out of his deceitful mouth was “Are you at a drive thru?” When I answered with a hearty “No” then he proceeded with “What’s going on?” After I began to tell him of my husband’s legal problems he became immediately argumentative.
He said things to this effect: What good is your husband to you? Why don’t you just get rid of him? I thought you were going to get rid of him? You sound like my momma. She is forever complaining about daddy. We the kids have told her to leave him. I finally told her stop complaining about daddy. I told her I was sick of hearing it.
Wow! Right! After hearing the bitter words he and his siblings have said and are saying to their aged mom, I didn’t feel sad for me any longer. I came to his mother’s defense with stating “It is not that easy to leave a person when your lives are webbed together.” He said, “Yes it is!”
Really! Personally, I feel a marriage should never be easy to end unless a person’s life or mental wellbeing is being threatened.
I feel people with nomadic character traits can easily leave their spouses quickly without just cause. But a person that has been married for over 50 plus years just can’t jump up and leave a perceivably abusive spouse. It is not that easy! So today I would like to pray for couples that are having marital problems and have been married for more years than they can remember.
Lord in your Holy word you say in Genesis 2:18b, “It is not good that the man should be alone:”
Lord there is numerous things that can be considered as marital problems; therefore, today, I would like to pray for those that are unhappily married. Can you please spend your vacation with these couples for as long as they need you to stay? Can you please take your Spirit of Comfort to bandage wounds sustained by marital conflict. Can you collect their many tears and dry their eyes with promises of a brighter tomorrow. Can you fill their hearts with love, unconditional love for the spouse they find unlovable. Can you give those they consort with a spirit of understanding? Can you give each spouse your spirit of truth on love, marriage, commitment, and divorce? Can you give them joy where there is sorrow? And most of all Lord, can you give them peace that surpasses all mankind’s understanding where there is conflict? So all that loves them will not be affected by their marital woes.
Lord your word in John 6:12 say’s, “Gather the pieces that are leftover. Let nothing be wasted.” Please allow these couples to gather up their fragmented marital lives and bring the broken pieces to you so nothing from their marriage will be wasted.
Yesterday a friend posted on Facebook she had to cut her long beautiful hair. Apparently this has been a year that has tried her soul. Medically she has opted for chemo and feels she is hanging onto life as she knows it.
Black Women Have It Going On 