We recently completed a six week study on prayer in Bible Study and Church. Yesterday our pastor mentioned that familiarity with the Father tells us we are not sincere with our prayer or are just going through the motions. I’m not so sure I agree with that statement or not because I think God would like us to be as close to Him as we can get throughout our life and to rely on Him for everything. But that got me to thinking about the different phases of life and prayer.
I accepted Jesus as my savior when I was 12, about 59 years ago. I remember praying for just about anything, mostly things I wanted and my list was long. God blessed me with just about everything I asked for and what I didn’t receive, I was shown reasons why. God does know what is best for us.
During my 20’s and 30’s my prayer became less about my wants and needs to more about the needs of my family and the needs of our soldiers and Marines on the battlefield in Vietnam. More to the survival of sick, wounded and to bring us back alive from our missions. God continued to bless me with favorable answers for the most part along with some disappointment about those too hurt to bring home. There were times where I questioned why He chose to take them while leaving some of us here, but over the years I’ve come to see He had other plans for me.
Over the past 30 years or so my prayers have been more of a continuous conversation with God asking for His guidance over each and every step I take. I never have any qualms about where He is leading me and know He will protect me from all harm. It is this closeness to Him that has given me continuous peace and comfort in my daily activities and walk. In the Bible Paul tells us to be in continuous prayer with God, relying solely on Him for all things. To me walking daily with God at my side and been the biggest blessing of my entire life. If this is being too familiar with the Father, He hasn’t stopped answering my prayers, rather He has answered each and everyone of them, not always the way I wanted, but always with my needs in mind.
I think the problem of God answering prayer is more that we fail to listen, rather than Him not answering. That brings me back to my childhood when Grandfather told me that God gave me one mouth and two ears for a reason. I am to listen more and talk less. God hears all our prayers and answers everyone of them according to what is best for us. We all need to look beyond what is me and learn to look to what is Him. We are here to Glorify Him and His word. He blesses us to further His Glory. I am truly blessed!
I normally don’t like to get too involved in politics, but lately I have received about three hate E-mails a day from different ‘friends’ about different parties and candidates. So I decided to write this post.
Democrat and a Republican is the spelling, otherwise there is little difference. Both represent big business and themselves with little regard to the general public. Both give lip service to the people while spending most of their time insuring their respective dynasties and reelection.
discharging military leaders who refuse to shoot at American citizens. What the person fails to see is that our Government is more afraid of us than we are of it. Another is that we are the Government. By the way we are not Germany and our people can’t be led by the nose.
A recent poll showed that when you come South of the Mason/Dixon line at least three households out of five have guns in the house and at least one person in the household could be considered. a sharpshooter, not because of military experience but because they hunt deer, squirrel and rabbit. In my neighborhood every household has at least one gun and everyone is a sharpshooter.
live under a dictatorship and will not stand for one.
enforced. By the way, I am an Independent voter and vote across political lines. I am not particularly enamored by either party. I do take the time to research everyone on the ballot.
be fooled into thinking your security or the needs of the country are being met by any one party, the people of this country are the last thing on their mind. Use a little common sense, our Government sure doesn’t.
Then we have the media, the biggest threat to the security of our country. They all have an agenda, divide america and keep the negative in the forefront. Negative sells and fear is their tool. Fear is the mind killer!
tell America what to believe and how to live. They treat us like puppets and pull our strings to keep us agitated. It might be interesting to know our northern border is more porous than our southern border and there is no fence.
ideas common thoughts come together. It is what has built our country in the past and it is the refusal to discuss these differences that is tearing our country apart today. The refusal to compromise is one of the biggest causes of the dumbing down of America.
Jesus taught us to love God with all our heart and to love our neighbors as He has loved us. That means all of our neighbors, not just the ones who think, act and believe as we do. He also said if you can’t do that, you certainly can’t love Him.
My Grandfather’s goal was to teach me the ways of a healer as I was growing up. To that end, when I graduated out of AYOP school when I was eight, he started training me on the medicine wheel. He taught me how to use my mind and body to help move pain through out my body and how to use my hands to soothe anxiety and resolve pain in others. This training went on for about four years. Grandfather, a Shaman, was pushing hard to have me step into his place as Shaman and had me presented in front of the Tribal Console at the completion of my training. I had just turned twelve and the Console thought I was too young to assume such a responsibility. Grandfather died the following summer and the family moved off the reservation to Ohio.
Over the years I learned more and more techniques from my mother and gained more experience and confidence as I put the knowledge to use. When I turned eighteen she proclaimed me a Shaman. Mom died a few years later.
I never really practiced, other than giving comfort to various family members or a few Marines shot on the front line in Vietnam and for years I just sort of pushed it to the back of my mind. Then one evening, while I was studying for my Masters in Clinical Psychology at UO in Norman, one of my classmates experienced a temper fit with the professor and had a meltdown. Without thinking, I placed my hands on him and calmed his spirit and mind to gently bring him back in control. Needless to say, the professor and the class were astonished to see how I took control of the situation and we spent the rest of the evening discussing my training as a young child on the reservation. Over the next few weeks I taught the class a few techniques on how to calm the spirit and mind. At the request of my professor I wrote my thesis on the various teaching experiences I received while growing up.
I have used my God given blessing, over the years, to calm the storms in many people and cool the fires in the minds of many others. I don’t look at myself as a Shaman or healer, but more as a calming spirit in the mist of the turmoil in our daily life. God has blessed me with this spirit and as a child of God I pass it on to others as needed.