The Miracle of the Loaves and Fish except with apples and pasta

This morning I was trying to figure out what to make for breakfast. We are out of milk so choices were a little limited. I opted to make Apple Oatmeal Muffins as we have a bag of apples that was given to us after helping out at the crop walk (note: I know it takes milk, fortunately dry milk saves practically forever). As I was cooking away, it dawned on me that in the past two week’s several of our meal had come by the grace of God. I’m sure like many of you out there; we are starting to feel a pinch in this economic time and have been downscaling and being careful. One of the few discretionary expenses is food. The question becomes how far can you stretch a dollar.

Lately, especially after my car died this week, I have been feeling very depressed about the situation. I’ll be honest. I was losing hope. This morning though as I was stirring the muffin mix I realized that I was in the middle of my own loaves and fishes story. In the past week and a half or so, God had truly provided. Whenever we have done something for others or for the church, we have been rewarded. DH helped a friend at a Spaghetti dinner. He came home with extra ziti, sauce, apple cider, bread, and parmesan cheese. DH helped with our church auction, he and the kids were fed and we received a very helpful gift which allowed he and DS to get breakfast and lunch. We all partook in the Church pot luck for which DH made Chili using some of the meat sauce that we got from the spaghetti dinner. Then as I said from the crop walk DD and I received a bag of apples which have now served us apple crisp and now apple oatmeal muffins. Thanks be to God.

Sometimes you just need a reality check. As I worry, in my warm house with tv and internet, there are so many in worse shape. I could be serving my children mud pies like in Haiti to quell their hunger.

God, Thank you for all that you provide for me and my family. I am truly grateful. I am sorry for those times that I seem like an ungrateful, selfish child. Please forgive me. Thank you for reminding me of your presence today when I needed it. Please show my family how we can best use our talents to help in your service.
Amen

A Prayer - - -

I’m asking for a small prayer for a small child. Our friend’s daughter was placed in the hospital to help her fight off an infection. She has Cystic Fibrosis. I encourage you to go to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s website to learn more about this disease. In the meantime, please send a prayer for a small child who is not sleeping her own bed tonight but in a hospital and for her parents and brother, who are watching over her.

Prayer Cards

As another portion of DH’s Woodbadge, he has created prayer cards for the Boy Scout patrol boxes. Each grouping has 9 or 10 different prayers for the scouts to choose from when they are counting. Often Scouts and people in general are hesitant to lead grace because they are unsure of exactly what to say. So DH found a couple quick prayers and printed them off on a business card templet. We cut them apart and laminated them. I was so taken by his idea, I asked for a set for our house and a couple extras for Christmas gifts.

If you are interested in his templet, just email me and I will have him forward it.

Dear God, Please Show Mercy

There is twice in my life that I have prayed to God for death. I know that we are supposed to cherish life and I do, but there is a point that the question becomes what is life. I also however have learned that I don’t have it in me to be God and instead rely on Him to be merciful.

The first time I remember praying for death was when my mother was diagnosed with stage 3 / 4 esophageal cancer. She had contracted pneumonia and had thrown blot clots in her body. She was in surgery and my father and I were sitting on the bench outside the hospital. I sat and began to pray, but I realized that I wasn’t sure what I wanted. Certainly, it would make sense to pray for her recovery. I paused and looked to heaven. Was that indeed the best course? Should she recover to die a painful prolonged death? I prayed to God for Him to do what was best even if that brought sadness to those of us left behind. I asked him to keep her from suffering as much as possible. She did come out of that surgery, and unfortunately went through many more surgeries before dying a few months later.

I am faced with this same thought now, but this time for a dog. Our dear dog, James, is 12 years old and decaying practically before our eyes. We have had him to the vet several times and we are told that it is just age. He has lost much of his fur and his ribs ripple through his skin. When he was laying down the other day, I thought there was a growth coming from his side, but it turned out to be his shoulder blade. He is having accidents around the house and is taking medicine for that. A sweet nurse there keeps telling me that I’ll know when I need to take the next step, but I don’t have it in me. He is having a hard time getting up and often needs help, but he also nuzzles up to those he loves. He is eating and drinking. The term puppy eyes can even apply to geriatric cataract clouded eyes. How can I let go of this dog that has been a part of the family for so long? He would guard the kids and I when my husband traveled and curl up on my feet when I was reading. In the yard, we have never had to leash him as he always stays around. So again I find myself praying to God for mercy. The God of Life and Birth, I am calling to for mercy in death, to assuage suffering, and to call our James home. Amen

A Word about Faith

"Finally, my brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things." Philippians 4:8 NIV

I was following this verse and thinking on all things good as I came up with the following:

First
Act,
Incline
Toward
Him

Forever
Accept Him
In
Thy
Heart

Focus
Attention
Intently
Toward
Heaven

Finally
Admit
Internally
Thy need for
Help

Father
Almighty,
I
Thank You and
Honor You.

Amen

Can you create a faith statement? Or find another way to live the Philippians’ commandment. Share it with us.

Praying for Other People

When you attend other churches, sometimes you are introduced to doing things a little differently than you currently do. One of those things which I found different last month at the church we had switched with is that when the prayed for others, they only used their first name. At our church, we normally use the whole name. I found this odd. I thought maybe the HIPPA privacy laws had even reached the church. I felt strangely disconnected from the prayer. Certainly, I don’t know all the people we pray for, but at least John Doe seemed like a specific person. Who was Sam? Cindy? Frank? Or Rob?

A friend had once mentioned that he thought the whole concept of naming people in prayers was odd. Although he might know someone in need, he would hesitate to mention their name as perhaps they preferred to be private in their need. Certainly if that was their wish, perhaps that is a time to use just a first name, but the specificity of a whole name seems so powerful to me.

What do you think?

Confess our Sins

O God, you teach us compassion, and yet we practice bigotry. You implore us to trust you while we create idols. You send Christ as a witness that you will not forsake us; yet we fret over matter as though you cared not at all. Forgive our compulsion to control our own destiny. Look kindly upon us when we fear for our future. Have mercy upon us when we mismanage your grace. We are your people; help us to dwell in your promise, through Christ our Lord. Amen

Tears welled in my eyes as we read this Prayer of Confession. I tried to wipe them away at first but then they flowed freely from my eyes. I never think of confession as a big part of my relationship to the church. As a Congregationalist, we don’t have confessionals or a requirement to confess our sins to our priest. Confession is left between you and God, except for during the once a month communion where a joint prayer of confession is read. This one hit me hard. . .”Control our own destiny”, “fear for our future”, “mismanage your grace”. Here lay my greatest faults.

We often think of sin as murder, adultery, lying, cheating, but sin also lies in these much simpler faults: putting our needs before God’s, believing that we are in control of our destiny, silence. It is easier to think of ourselves as good people when we think of the first list and equate sinners with “bad guys”. It is much more difficult to realize that we are all sinners that need forgiveness. We are all sinners that can walk a straighter path. We need prayers of confession and supplication. Step one according to www.allaboutprayer.org is to “recognize that we are all sinners in need of forgiveness.”

Fortunately, after the “prayer of confession” comes the “words of assurance” and then the “invitation of the Lord’s Table”. Sinners as we are, Jesus loved us. God sent him to this earth to wipe away our sin. We do not have to be perfect to come to his table. We just have to believe.

A PATH for Prayer

Praying is not always an easy thing. We worry about what we should say. We worry that we are in proper stance. Are we being selfish in our requests? Bothering God with minor issues? What exactly do you say to the most powerful entity in existence? Do you recite a prayer written by someone else that has received acclaim? Do you just speak your mind? What if you start to babel? Should you just cut and run – a quick amen? If you don’t say amen, is the prayer over? If you get interrupted, by the phone or the kids are you in essence putting God on hold?

One of my favorite hints for praying, which I came across when I was teaching Sunday school, is the word PATH.

P – Praise
A - Apologize
T – Thank
H - Ask for Help

In the BibleQuest curriculum that we were using, this idea was presented in a game. I don’t remember the whole game, but I remember putting out pieces of paper on the floor. Each piece was marked with one of the PATH letters. When a contestant rolled the die and ended up on one of the letters they had to give a prayer line that would be applicable to the letter. I thought that this was a great idea to help children become comfortable praying and useful for adults too.

How do you decide what to say to God? Do you have a favorite prayer? Have you come across a prayer that has touched you? Share with us and let us know.