Prayer for an Unbelieving Child

May 23, 2013

Today’s Reflection

Father God, thank you for your unconditional love
for each of your children.
I pray today especially for my child
who says he doesn’t believe in you.

Lord, help my child struggling with cynicism and despair.
I believe that doubt is part of the faith journey.
Please send a sensitive soul to encourage my child–
someone who will say words to gently point
this one I love so much toward you.

Loving God, I lift up __________ to you.
Though it is difficult, I release my child to you,
trusting you to continue to work in his life.
Help me to let go and trust
that the seeds of faith I helped to plant will take root
and that my child will grow in the sunlight of your love.

Thank you, dear God, for hearing and acting.
I am grateful that you love this child
much more than I ever could,
and that though I must let go, you never will. Amen.

- Mary Lou Redding
Prayers for Life’s Ordinary & Extraordinary Moments

From page 17 of Prayers for Life’s Ordinary and Extraordinary Moments,, compiled and edited by Mary Lou Redding. Copyright © 2012 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. Used by permission. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

Pray today’s prayer. Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture

Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand; and we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.
Romans 5:1-2, NRSV

This Week: pray for those recovering from addiction. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

Did You Know?

Need a Spiritual Retreat? Join us at SOULfeast, the Upper Room’s spiritual retreat at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in the beautiful Smoky Mountains, July 14-18, 2013. Come discover how, as the Holy Spirit washes over us, this powerful presence brings us alive to God, community, transformation, and missions in the here and now. For more information, visit soulfeast.upperroom.org.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember:
Bernardino of Siena (May 20).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2013, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

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The Art of Obedience

May 22, 2013

Today’s Reflection

In her book Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art, Madeleine L’Engle writes about Mary, the mother of Jesus – a woman who, like Harriet Powers [an emancipated slave and quiltmaker], knew what it meant to proclaim the good news with the creative means she had at hand. For Mary, proclamation came not only in the form of a song that we have come to know as the Magnificat; it also came in her own being, in giving her own self, her own body, to bear God into the world. …

In the creative process, being obedient to the work, as L’Engle describes, calls us to trust that the work knows more than we ourselves know. Exerting too much control over the process can damage the work and us as well. Artful obedience requires intention and discernment. It requires attention to the demands of the work, to its rhythms and needs, and to the mystery that lies at its heart.

-Jan L. Richardson
In the Sanctuary of Women

From pages 252-253 of In the Sanctuary of Women: A Companion for Reflection & Prayer by Jan L. Richardson. Copyright © 2010 by Jan L. Richardson. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Upper Room Books. http://bookstore.upperroom.org/ Learn more about or purchase this book.

Today’s Question

What role does obedience play in your faith formation? Share your thoughts.

Today’s Scripture

Out of the mouths of babes and infants you have founded a bulwark because of your foes, to silence the enemy and the avenger.
Psalm 8:2, NRSV

This Week: pray for those recovering from addiction. Submit your prayer to The Upper Room Living Prayer Center or share it in the comment section below.

Did You Know?

Need a Spiritual Retreat? Join us at SOULfeast, the Upper Room’s spiritual retreat at Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center in the beautiful Smoky Mountains, July 14-18, 2013. Come discover how, as the Holy Spirit washes over us, this powerful presence brings us alive to God, community, transformation, and missions in the here and now. For more information, visit soulfeast.upperroom.org.

Saints, Inc.:

This week we remember:
Bernardino of Siena (May 20).

Lectionary Readings

(Courtesy of Vanderbilt Divinity Library)

Sponsored by Upper Room Ministries ®. Copyright © 2013, a ministry of GBOD | PO Box 340004 | Nashville, TN 37203-0004 | USA

Share

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Never-Ending Circles

May 21, 2013

Today’s Reflection SOMETIMES, these years, I dream:Let the stitchers piece a million quiltsfor all the children of the earth,who can watch the patterned magic from beneath a wooden frame.Sweeps of simple muslinwould become golden canopieswhere a child from any land could seea galaxy of buttercups

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A Holy Calling

May 20, 2013

Today’s Reflection OUR HOLY CALLING [asks us] to live with an open-handed, open-hearted generosity and abandon, holding tightly to that which comes from God and willingly letting everything else go. –Martha Highsmith, Disciplines 2012 From The Upper Room Disciplines 2012: A Book of Daily Devotions. Copyright © 2011 by Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. [...]

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The Gift of Each Day

May 19, 2013

Today’s Reflection OUR LEFT-BRAIN DOMINANT culture, always in a hurry, perpetuates the modern perception of insufficient time. Instead of living in sync with nature’s slower rhythms, we measure time in minutes and seconds, burning the midnight oil rather than sleeping under the light of the moon. We worry things will fall apart should we slow [...]

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Waiting

May 18, 2013

Today’s Reflection WAITING HAS YET another rhythm. This is the rhythm of the duration of the process, a journey which has a beginning, middle, and end. In each of our lives, God is gestated and born over and over again. And each time there is a birthing, there has been a journeying process, an inner [...]

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Lord, Make Us Like the Wind

May 17, 2013

Today’s Reflection MAKE US LIKE THE WIND – ever-moving and ever moving others. And with joy we will dance with the leaves. In submission we will linger in the shade, cooling the skin of those scorched by the sun’s heat. In awe we will pause and be still enough to hover over creation, admiring your [...]

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Love God and Neighbor

May 16, 2013

Today’s Reflection JESUS COMMANDS US to love God and love our neighbors as ourselves. I understand now the best way to do that is by listening. When we stop talking, arguing, and judging, we begin to hear. We hear God’s voice of love for us, and can only respond in love. It has become clear [...]

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A Blessing

May 15, 2013

Today’s Reflection MAY YOU SEE the glory of God in sun and sky;may you hear the Creator’s song in bird and breeze;and may the grace of Christ’s Spirit course through you,body and soul.—Sam Hamilton-Poore, Earth Gospel – Sam Hamilton-Poore Earth Gospel From page 33 of Earth Gospel: A Guide to Prayer for God’s Creation by [...]

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The Spiritual Life

May 14, 2013

Today’s Reflection JESUS’ LIFE didn’t go well. He didn’t reach his earning potential. He didn’t have the respect of his colleagues. His friends weren’t loyal. His life wasn’t long. He didn’t meet his soul mate. And he wasn’t understood by his mother. Yet I think I deserve all those things because I am spiritual.—Hugh Prather, [...]

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