AND SHE PONDERED: Encountering God in Everyday Life
Joy, Hope, Strength, and Ponderings!
Forgiveness can be so hard. Not only for others, but also for ourselves. Both are so necessary. Scientific research on human brains is showing the disconnections in brains as a result of trauma and shame.
My prayer today is for help in forgiving ourselves and others:
When you grow up in a basketball town, can you keep from jumping all in over March Madness? Maybe. I haven’t even done a bracket this year – yet. But March Madness does get me thinking about the devotion that college athletes must have to put so much discipline into their game.
One of the Lectionary scriptures this week is from Hebrews 5, which talks about the devotion that Jesus had to God which helped him through his suffering and makes him be a priest for all of us.
This line of thinking leads me to think about what I am devoted to, not by my words, but shown through my actions, which can get a little distracted from where I mean to be. How about you?
I invite you to join me in prayer:
When I was growing up, our school mascot was the Greenies, I guess as in mean and Green. The school has since changed their mascot.
No one seem to know what a Greenie was. Now that I think of so many things that are not understood if you are not part of a particular culture, it causes me to wonder if this was a slur against the Irish or maybe a reference to Martians. Prejudice is not new.
My actual Prayer is a reference to how Saint Patrick forgave those who captured him and mistreated him and returned to offer them the good news of God’s love and forgiveness. Yet, now that my pondering has gone down a different road, it reinforces the hope that we will become aware of those we need to forgive and those times we may have hurt others even when we had no idea that we were doing so.
Please join with me in prayer:
A professor at Vanderbilt Divinity school said he had a student who claimed to have been given approval to smoke cigarettes from reading the Bible. The dubious professor asked to see to what scripture he was referring. The student showed him a scripture that read, “And he lit upon a camel.” (Herman Norton, class notes)
As I was running late this morning, I claim similar liberties with the Scriptures for this week: Jeremiah 31:31, John 12:27. I should have included Psalm 51:1.
I hope you can join me in prayer:
Sometimes it is harder to write after a hearing than it is before. It can feel like just a tiny surface is scratched when the wound is down deep and in need of so much more.
May we continue to pray and work to make a difference.
Today, I simply want to just take it in, the Love that is ours. Breathe deep. Savor. Love is our very being and is remembered through this gift of Christ.
I’m heading in to the dentist office for some dental work and I may need some care-giving soon! Don’t we all at some point?
This morning, my grandson had an accident; the same accident he has had now 3 days in a row. With an early morning dental appointment, I didn’t have time to take care of it, and honestly, my care-giving energy was zapped. I thank Our Creator that my daughter was able to step in and very patiently work with him.
It was an important reminder of how much care-givers do need our prayers:
I was in Juvenile Court this morning where I am reminded of just how many different types of families there are in our world, all of varying degrees of functioning. I pray for each family.
I also give thanks that we all belong to a wonderful family – the family of Grace, where we are accepted as who we are, where we are loved unconditionally.
Please join me in prayer:
What are you thankful for during the season of Lent? Are you learning new things about yourself or others? Are you more aware of the beauty all around? Are you looking for Holy Moments?
Today I am thankful for all the beautiful signs of Spring, of new life, for the world around us and for us.
Thank you for joining me in prayer:
Rough start this morning culminating someone who had more red x’s than green stars sneaking dog food into my coffee. Luckily, he tells on himself and I didn’t actually drink it, but I just felt defeated. My whole reason for being here and struggling so much financially has been to help him, to teach him to make better choices, and to realize that we all can choose to get more stars. It just felt like it had all been a waste.
I thought again about the song Foggy Morning Breakdown and how much I would prefer to be listening to a good Bluegrass breakdown rather than having one. That put a smile on my face. Music, Arts, Dance, Prayer, Listening to the sounds of nature around us are all whispering the love song of our Higher Power.
You are invited to join with me in prayer and if you would like to help me finance my dream of an online ministry so that I can be with said child as much as possible, I welcome that and your prayers as well. Thank you.
AND SHE PONDERED: Encountering God in Everyday Life