Praying Blessings All Around

I was reading the other day about the practice of blessing and it was inspiring! For many years, I have prayed silent blessings over people (especially children). Here are some other ideas...

Bless Strangers Quietly: "Another practice invites us to bless strangers quietly, secretly. Offer it to people you notice on the street, in the market, on the bus. 'May you be happy. May you be at peace.' Feel the blessing move through your body as you offer it. Notice how you both receive some benefit from the blessing. Gently, almost without effort, each and every blessing becomes a Sabbath." by Wayne Muller

Bless food: Pray for blessings that the food you eat nourish you, sustain you, and energize you! Also, "Blessings around food gently remind us that we are fragile, dependent human beings who cannot create our own sustenance." by Howard Cooper

Say Bless You: "Very often now, instead of saying 'Thank you,' I say, 'Bless you,' and people appreciate it much, much more. Last week, for instance, someone responded, 'I could use a blessing.' " by Toinette Lippe

Bless a Child: Mine are never this elaborate but this was beautiful.  "Welcome, dearest child, welcome to your two families, rich heritages converging in you. There never has been, there never will be anyone like you. You are unique! Welcome to this world — so finely formed and fragile yet amazingly tenacious and abundant...Freely and gladly accept the bounty it offers. Welcome to the marvelous era in which you were born. It promises wondrous possibilities. You have before you unimaginable frontiers, great discoveries, and new meanings. Seize your days!" by Edward Searl

Bless Your Job: Pray spiritual blessings, financial responsibility, growth and success to your job (company) and those you work with during the day.

A Poem: Make Me a Blessing
"Lord,
Make me a blessing to those that I meet
Make me a blessing as I walk down the street
Make me a blessing this day, even this hour
Make me a blessing. It lies in your power.
Make me a blessing at work and at home
Make me a blessing wherever I roam
Make me a blessing that people may see
I am a blessing for you are with me."

Bless God: You read right. The KJV has many scriptures with the phrase "bless the Lord." Nowadays newer versions write it as "praise the Lord" but in a scripture like Psalm 115:18 (http://biblos.com/psalms/115-18.htm) the words in Hebrew for these two phrases are different. In a sense, when applied to God, it's like you are saying "may that which is good be given back to You. (adapted from Richard Roper) I've found myself talking to God and giving him praise, telling Him that I hope He has a good day today, and that He's happy.

These are just a few ideas...the options are endless...but please share if you have more ideas! May the rest of the day be full of prayers focused on blessings for others.

Going Barefoot

Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.
~Exodus 3:5

"Elsie is 96 years old. The Band-Aid-pink lipstick defines pencil-thin lips that are upward at the corners when she sees me. She rarely leaves Morningside Retirement Center, but still dresses in handsomely coordinated separates and pearl earrings. Her hair is softly coiffed, unlike the tightly curled and sprayed styles of her peers. She exudes contentment. I try to sit close to her, thinking it might be contagious. Elsie has never been married and has lived all of her life in Nashville. She went to high school barely two miles from where she lives now. And she tells me about what used to be on the corner before Vanderbilt University mowed it down and put up brick buildings on it. It seems funny to me that, at 96, she doesn't tell me about all of her accomplishments or what she did for a living. In fact, after all of the times I've visited with her, I still don't know where she worked or what things made her feel significant. But when I asked her if, upon reflection, she would do anything differently in her life, she says,

'Yes. I would laugh and go barefoot more.'

I'm not 96, only 44. Maybe there is still time for me.

I wonder why I hadn't thought of this myself. But I have been very busy trying to be very busy in pursuit of fulfillment and contentment. Too busy to go barefoot on purpose, I have been busy trying to be a grown-up, doing things and making lists of things to do, hoping that at the end of all this doing there would be a reward of some sort, one that said, 'You are a really good person, and by the way, good job being busy.'

....God modeled rest for us. Genesis chapter two tells us that he laboured for six days, and on the seventh he rested. God balanced work with rest in a healthy rhythm. He created for six days, then guiltlessly ceased from his labor. He stepped back from all of it and enjoyed, or feasted, on what he had done. It wasn't that God was so exhausted that he needed a nap. He is not vulnerable to a tiring body. But he did model for us a pattern, called Sabbath, of ceasing from our labors in order to rest.

...God spoke to Moses through a bush that was burning. 'Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is hold ground.' ...Let's remember that Sabbath was the first thing God declared to be holy. He declared his work of the first six days 'good,' but he named the day of rest 'holy.' In sabbath moments, when we take the time to catch our breath, God reveals himself. And these moments are holy. So we must take off our sandals. It seems that Elsie is right - we must go barefoot more often. Make no mistake, learning to practice sabbath is a discipline. It requires a reordering of priorities to achieve rest...So I am learning to reorder priorities and schedule in sabbath time...I am taking permission to pause and rest. I am laughing more easily, and now I only buy shoes I can slip out of quickly."

I highly recommend this book by Kim Thomas called, "Even God Rested." In this book, she provides her personal story of learning about sabbath rest and also gives great 'bite-sized' tips on what to 'cease' from and what to 'feast' on.

I've literally read the book about 10 times over. In fact, I read it so much that I had to purchase two new copies! (one to lend out) The above quotes are an excerpt from the introduction.

Dearest reader, if you can relate at all to these words of Bilbo Baggins from Tolkien's Lord of the Rings..."Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread..." ...then it's time for some sabbath rest.

Journal Ideas

This is a simple subject but since there are so many invigorating benefits to using a journal it seems appropriate to give this topic its own little post. Do you have a journal? Do you have tons? HA. There are so many different kinds of journals you can keep. Some ideas are:

• one of lessons you've heard or bible studies you have done
• a journal about all the things you are grateful for from day to day
• one with just your prayers for others (I knew a woman once who did this and would write the date next to answered prayers. She'd look back on it when her faith was a little low)
• a journal of your thoughts and recording the day
• a journal without words; if you are extremely visual, have a journal of pictures, articles you've cut out of magazines, or drawings to inspire you

Personally, mine tend to be words with pictures thrown in them and some doodles. I purchase small ones so they fit in my purse and I can write or paste in a picture whenever inspiration strikes. Mostly, I journal and talk to God...sometimes to spice things up I read a psalm and rewrite it in my own words and situations. Options are bountiful! For me, the best aspect of keeping a journal has been to be able to pick one up when times are hard and get refreshed.

I did research and found other approaches for getting your mind flowing when using a journal:

1. Summarize your day in 20 words or less.
2. Write out, print, or paste the lyrics to your favorite songs into your journal. (maybe see if you can find any scriptures that might match that theme)
3. Every day write the best thing that happened that day.
4. Write one thing you should really stop doing then find motivating quotes, scriptures, or write prayers about it. On other days write about all the positive changes you've made and how far you've come!
5. Include quotations by your favorite famous person, or someone you admire.
6. Record important news from the day and journal prayers about it.
7. Write down 3 things that you’re thankful for each day and why.
8. Record ideas for a bible subject you'd like to teach about and then study it out.
9. Going through a rough time? Every once and awhile, go ahead and journal about it. Be real! King David was when writing his psalms. Just try to get back to the positive when you can.
10. Look at something around you and describe it thoroughly. Don't just talk about the way it looks. How does it smell, taste and feel?
11. Make lists of people that have inspired you and pray for them.
12. If you could tell your younger self positive things, what would they be? Journal about it.

Want more thoughts on how journaling helps? Check this out: 100 Benefits of Journaling written by: John Robson and Patrice Steen

The Word that Changed Me

Many things happened in 1998 that changed my life. I said "yes" to going to church for the first time in a long time and "yes" to letting Christian women into my life to teach me the bible. I would say "hit the road" to my boyfriend of two years who decided not to follow God and "goodbye" to my old way of living. It was a whirlwind of change...and though the above descriptions sound simple it was HARD change.

I have deep convictions now about God's word. Looking back over my years as a Christian, the bible has been the BEST foundation. A lovely woman named Simone studied the bible with me and during our first bible study she shared scriptures about the Word of God. At the end, she asked me a question, "If you read scriptures in the bible that tell you to live your life differently than how you are now, will you try to change and follow what God says?"

My simple answer of "yes" to that question was the first step toward a brand new life. For example, during a following study we read 1 Cor. 13: 4-8a and I was challenged on if my boyfriend really loved me. How could I say that he did when it was so obvious that nothing in our immoral relationship reflected what God says love is?  But how dare anyone say he didn't love me? In fact I was so mad, I contemplated throwing her out of my house! But as we sat there together silently, I came to realize that the fact was she wasn't saying it...God was saying it and she was only showing me the scriptures. So God brought me back in that very moment to my own spoken word. Would I change my life if I saw it didn't match the bible? Was I going to be a woman of my word? I had to be! I had to change! Dear reader, this continues to make all the difference - no matter what has come up in my life.

Clinging to God's word is what has helped me come to convictions about all kinds of things from: what a true follower of Jesus is, or why we must get baptized and understand what we are doing, to how powerfully God brings us near him through Jesus' death on the cross and what a true church of believers looks like in God's eyes.

In a world full of pride and religious confusion, only clinging to what God's word says, (ALL of his word and not just picking or choosing scriptures that make me feel good) has kept me faithful and grounded. So I have a few verses below for you to read and consider, no matter where you are in your walk with God. I pray your heart will be open to soaking them all in deeply. :)

Luke 11:27-29: As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd called out, “Blessed is the mother who gave you birth and nursed you.” He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

Word of God Study

1.    2 Tim 3:16-17 Usefulness even today.

2.    Hebrews 4:12-13 (2 Peter 1:20-21) Relevant to your life.

3.    James 1: 19-25 "Do what it says!"

4.    Mark 7:1-13 Human traditions vs. obeying God's word.

5.    1 Tim 4:16 We must have both right life & doctrine.

6.    John 12: 44-48 God's word will be our judge in the last day.

Jeremiah 9:23-24 (NIV84)

This is what the LORD says: “Let not the wise man boast of his wisdom
or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boasts boast about this: that he understands and knows me,
that I am the LORD, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth,
for in these I delight,” declares the LORD.

God's Proud of His Children

Far too often, LIFE can just beat us down! We can end the week feeling physically worn out, emotionally exhausted and spiritually drained. At least I can be. My thoughts began racing during a recent meeting at work. One of my coworkers was giving a quarterly report of all the projects she'd been working on and at the end of sharing both the successful outcomes as well as the unsuccessful ones she simply stated, "And I'm proud of me." 

Let that sink in.

When was the last time you sat within a group of friends, gave a run down of your week stating both the positive and negative outcomes but finished by stating you were proud of all the strides you made? Because of the balance, this isn't prideful.

If we battle with giving ourselves a little pat on the back, then how much more must we endeavor to remember that God is proud of us too? Currently, I'm reading through the book of Isaiah. In the beginning it's full of woe, then all of a sudden God throws 3:10 in:

"Tell the righteous it will be well with them, for they will enjoy the fruit of their deeds."

Then he goes back to his warnings to the wicked. As a woman in general, it can be easy to listen to the world and let it beat me down. Even as a baptized daughter into Christ, it also can be easy to read verses of warnings and think somehow I only disappoint God. But God is happy about his children!!

May these verses below comfort you into the weekend. Maybe afterwards you might do the desktop high-five above (if you have already who says you don't deserve it twice - ha), then state out loud, "God's proud of me and I'm proud of me too."

Psalm 35:27
May those who delight in my vindication shout for joy and gladness; may they always say, “The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant.”

Psalm 147:11
the LORD delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

Isaiah 66:2
Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. “This is the one I esteem: he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and trembles at my word.

Psalm 117:2
For great is his love toward us, and the faithfulness of the LORD endures forever.

Psalm 146:8
the LORD gives sight to the blind, the LORD lifts up those who are bowed down, the LORD loves the righteous.

Psalm 149:4
For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

Deuteronomy 23:5
However, the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam but turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loves you.

Desktop high-five from: http://www.wallpaperzzz.com/desktop-high-five-download/

Simple living.

"I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society."

~ Henry David Thoreau

I have enjoyed in recent years the minimalist movement. I like reading about 'Tiny homes' and 'Low Density Living.' Being inspired by a cable channel focused on green living, I remember a time when I began simplifying. I began giving things away, donating items, and even setting things by the dumpster for people to pick up. I found life to be simpler - cleaning was easier because I didn't have so many things to dust (ha), my times with God became more deep since there weren't all those items or projects to distract me and my stress decreased. Yet even over my last vacation I saw how I should eat simpler meals and, trust me, I still continually look around my house at objects and say, "Why do I have this?" :)  

I'm not the only one trying to have a more simple life in American. My mom tries to practice cleaning out one drawer a week in her house. I have a friend that purges clothes during the seasons changing from hot to cold. There are websites to help us get organized, people to help us simplify, tv shows like 'Hoarders' to warn us to change. Why do we then still gather 'things' to us only to be overwhelmed by them?! Now that is a deep question. Simply put, I think it's like Thoreau is quoted as writing, "Men have become a tool of their tools." I find this to be profoundly true as I look around the world today and funny enough he wrote that way back in the 1800's!

Here's some other quotes for thought...

"Enough is as good as a feast" ~ not sure who originally said it but I heard Mary Poppins say it first. *grin*

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius - and a lot of courage - to move in the opposite direction." ~E.F. Schumacher

"But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that." ~1 Timothy 6:6-8

I really enjoy Thoreau's quotes on this subject. Some make me laugh while some pierce my heart... so I'll share a few more.

"A lady once offered me a mat, but as I had no room to spare within the house, nor time to spare within or without to shake it, I declined it, preferring to wipe my feet on the sod before my door. It is best to avoid the beginnings of evil."

"A man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone."

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion."

"One farmer says to me, "You cannot live on vegetable food solely, for it furnishes nothing to make bones with"; and so he religiously devotes a part of his day to supplying his system with the raw material of bones; walking all the while he talks behind his oxen, which, with vegetable-made bones, jerk him and his lumbering plow along in spite of every obstacle."

Simple living. May we each explore ways to have a more simple life and the benefits it can bring! Especially, when one benefit can be more peace and more time with God. :)

You Have a Protector

SHADOW

"There was a shadow at my bedroom door. I turn my eyes away…as girls are taught…

But his presence overwhelms me. I switch the light on, glance, but he’s gone.

'Of course he is,' I think, turning off the lamp. Again embalmed in darkness.

Yet he is there. I feel him. Fear stands as a shadow at my door.

A night stalker of my own creation."

It’s a difficult thing not to live in fear. Especially, when there is a threat to your peace of mind or physical security. Understatement. Personally, I’ve had my own battles with fear and anxiousness. These battles have reminded me that danger can be very real. Unfortunately, all of us have a stalker. However, he’s not out to destroy our bodies but what is most precious, our soul. But don't get discouraged...We have a Protector! Here are some verses I searched for that reminded me that my true enemy may lurk BUT ultimately, God is victor! (and so are we)

Problem:

1 Peter 5:8 “Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Response:

James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Problem:

2 Corinthians 11:14-15 “…Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. It is not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.”

Response:

Ephesians 6:11 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes.

Problem:

Zechariah 3:1-2 “Then he showed me Jeshua the high priest standing before the angel of the LORD, and Satan standing at his right side to accuse him. “

Response:

Revelation 12:10-11 Then I heard a loud voice in heaven say: "Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before our God day and night, has been hurled down. They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.

Our true enemy prowls around and accuses us daily BUT we don't have to be fearful because we can submit to God and resist the devil, we can put on the full armor of God and remember with confidence that our Saviour has overcome!

For another post related to this topic, please read: "When Satan Attacks"