Prayer

Morning by morning he wakens me and opens my understanding to his will.

Prayer is not a task, it is a gift. If we had the opportunity to communicate one-on-one with a celebrity, we would tackle the chance with upmost enthusiasm.. Why can’t we be like that for our God? Why do we avoid prayer, or speed through it like an annoying trip to Wal-Mart; only snatching up the essentials while trying not to waste too much time. Pray without ceasing, and pray about everything, because with God, there are no secrets. He knows our hearts.

The devil does not parade about broadcasting himself to make it easy for us to avoid him. His most powerful tool is our inability to recognize our own carelessness. Satan simply presents us with time wasting obstacles. The busier we are, the more we tend to push God aside. Many of us associate prayer with stillness and quiet reflection in a place removed from the distraction and noise of everyday life. However, as long as we pray earnestly, God hears us, no matter what time of day or where we are.

He wants us to talk to him, and that is why he gave us the ability to pray. He gave us the ability to pray for supplication, adoration, praise, encouragement, contribution, or, if you are like me, you pray for anything and everything. I can specifically remember driving down the road the other day, and I spotted a gorgeous arrangement of wild roses on the median, and I thanked God for those roses.

So we should take prayer off our To Do list, and put it on our Want To Do list. We should look forward to our talks with God. We should actually pray for those people that we promise we will pray for, and then forget about later. Prayer doesn’t have to be fancy; it just has to be honest. God blessed us with open communication. He even threw in free nights and weekends.  ;)

Ahavah Rabbah – with great love..

It is better to inspire than to argue.. 

One Day At A Time

God grant me an open mind and willing heart..

God grant me the

Serenity to accept things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can, and the
Wisdom to know the difference
Patience for the things that take time
Appreciation for all that I have, and
Tolerance for those with different struggles
Freedom to live beyond the limitations of my past ways, the
Ability to feel your love for me and our love for each other and the
Strength to get up and try again even when I feel it is hopeless

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.

Keeping Quiet

  We all have questions. Everyone has questions, however, not everyone always searches for answers. It was not until my freshman year of high school that I learned the consequences of asking questions. For years I sat back quietly, as did everyone else I knew and allowed information to be shoveled into my brain. Information, not knowledge. As I was sitting in my ninth grade trigonometry class, I began to feel frustrated. For some unknown reason, I could not help but feel that my teacher was, in some way, degrading me. Up until this point, all I had ever done in math class was memorize. I memorized formula after formula, equation after equation. I knew all the correct steps to solve a math problem and which formula to use, but I was not completely clear on why I was supposed to use these specific formulas. So, either out of spite or sheer boredom, I raised my hand. I was called on. I asked one question. Why do we have to use this formula and why do I have to go about this way or that to solve this problem and why do we have to only answer this part of this problem.
  My teacher did not answer right away. She simply stared at the board as if awaiting for its reply. Then she turned around and said in the most matter-of-fact sort of way, "That's just the way it is."
Wow. I was shocked at the blandness of this answer, and I was, of course, dissatisfied. I then began to think of my christianity.  I had always gone to church because I raised that way (even though I can distinctly remember a period in my life that my dad had to drag me by my hair). I had believed the stories I was told, and obeyed the rules and guidelines that had been set before me. I believed all these things because that was what I had been told and that's "just the way it is."
  As I got older, I became more and more discontented with just accepting what was told to me. I wanted to know more in depth explanations for why I had to abide by so many rules. I dove head first into this challenge during my senior year of high school and I took a "go big or go home" approach to the whole thing. I have since discovered a vast abundance of questions, answers, more questions, and disturbances that I never knew existed. I had a few conversations with very few people about some of the questions I had cooked up and ascertained that asking too many questions was not always a good thing. So I made myself a promise. A promise to continue on my journey through my faith and study all I can and ask as many questions as I can for as long as my God will allow. However, I will do so quietly, so as not to disturb the balance that a few bigoted and self righteous people maintain. They sprinkle this world and hide behind what others have placed into their minds claiming it as their own opinion.. after all, "that's just the way it is."