FCCR-ACE Prayer Blog

Congregationalists Learning to Pray

Lord for the rainy relaxed way this wet cold grey Sunday brings

I thank you
Amen

God,
Thanks for the safe trip to Keene and back
and for the beautiful day and my ability to
enjoy it with my healthy granddaughter.

Thank you also for the long and fruitful life of
a friend’s Dad who died tonight.
Thank you for the spirit of giving and sharing
and fighting disease that, just yesterday helped
one of his granddaughter’s and her friends raise
over $15,000 to fight the breast cancer that has
stricken her and 4 of her friends under 40 in
Woburn in the last few years.
Thank you for the doctors, nurses, lab researchers
and all others who work with and for patients like
this young woman’s nephew, just 6 and working his way
through treatment for lymphoma and lukemia.

God, I am so fortunate to know thise folks and to see
the love and determination their family shows through
such difficult times. Surround them with your comforting
presence and bring them peace.

Amen

Dear god

I am crabby too

I wasn’t earlier when I was out and about running errands… but it seems whenever there is some household repair or maintenance or some such at my house

the atmosphere gets poisoned with crabbiness
tension
and it is just plain unpleasant
and not a way i want to spend my precious day off…
being in the tension and the crabbinesss
but it seems i get sucked in by the atmosphere
and the feel of the environement
and I become crabby as if by osmosis…

So I try to stay away when a project is underway
and do errands but my timing was off
and even though I went shopping which I don’t really like to do
I returned home 5 hours later to hit the dead middle of the project
to hit the tension and crankiness that goes with it

Help me salvage the remainder of my day off
so that I might not have to write a perfectly beautiful day off
to home improvement…
to crabbiness…

And Lord it was only a light switch for that I should be thankful

amen

Hi God,

I suppose I should be thankful
that we appear to have a nice day outside.
And I certainly am thankful
that my stupid dog ran around the park
much more easily than he did last week.
I am not, however, particularly thankful
that I am so crabby today.
Yet, perhaps I should even be thankful for that.
After all, it means I still have feelings.

Please have mercy on my soul,
crabby sinner though I be.

Amen

Hi God,

I’m thinking about leftovers today.
Sometimes we have the energy,
and the creativity,
to cook up something new.
Sometimes, we just settle
for heating up leftovers
from some previous culinary session.
Even so, leftovers still taste good
and provide adequate nutrition.

So I’m thinking prayer might
be a bit like that.
Somedays we gain new insights
and have interesting things to say to you.
Other days, we just recycle our leftovers.
But can’t those prayer leftovers
also nourish our souls?
I sure hope so.

So my prayer today is that
you help us to focus
on the activity of praying,
and not get hung up on whether or not
we have anything new to say to you.

Also, please have mercy on my soul,
sinner though I continue to be.

Amen