A Prayer for my Days

Jesus, please lead me to the place
Where each day is holy;
Set aside for You and Your kingdom.
I want to know each moment
Infused with Your purpose and vision.
In my empty moments
Please bring to mind those I can pray for.
In my busy moments
May I consciously serve others, my family, my colleagues, my customers, my friends.
Grant me times of godly rest
Enjoying the beauty of your creation and the inspiration of a creative spirit.
Keep my busy times in line with
Your purposes so that they may not consume me.
And lead me beyond my circle of comfort
So that I can bring justice and mercy in Your world.
Amen.

Comments

Can an Egalitarian attend a Complementarian Church?

Definitions: Egalitarians “believe that leadership is not determined by gender but by the gifting and calling of the Holy Spirit, and that God calls all believers to submit to one another.” In contrast , Complementarians “believe the Bible establishes male authority over women, making male leadership the standard.” Carolyn Curtis James. Imagine attending a church where half the congregation is BLACK and half are WHITE. After a while you notice that no BLACK PEOPLE ever take up collection or make announcements; they almost never get called on to pray, they never lead worship and they never preach. On the few odd occasions when they do speak or pray they always pray for THE LEADERS (who are white) and always encourage the other BLACK PEOPLE to submit to the LEADERS. Imagine that when you ask some of the BLACK PEOPLE how they feel about this they say, “Oh, we’re quite happy being behind the scenes we don’t want to preach or pray up front.” Your mind boggles....

Birthday parties and other failures

So yesterday I held the ninth birthday party of my third child, which for the record means it was the 39 th time I was staging some kind of birthday celebration, and by now, you’d think I must be somewhat of a pro at this. (Snorts) But it’s been a very rough month in a very rough year in a fairly rough life and I was feeling, to use a theological term, ‘fucking awful’. (Credit to Annie Lamott for that little gem) So I sent an invitation on Monday via whatsapp for Friday. And what ensued was one of those tiny miracles whereby everything went off quite passably with the help of my two gorgeous older boys. Broken bicycle notwithstanding. My older two had half term so they walked to my youngest’s school and then walked a motley crew of 12 third and fourth graders home. This involved taking on pretty much all their school bags half-way home, which are heavier than you could possibly believe (are these kids carrying dictionaries to school?), and consequently they arr...

Day 7-9: Legalism, Extremism and Common Sense

Okay, this is where I start getting the hate mail. A lot of these extreme health fads are a lot like religion, and the worst kind of religion – the kind that makes people nasty, intolerant and obsessed with rule-keeping. When I started considering Banting, for example, I thought I could use some encouragement and tips so I joined a facebook group called ‘Banting for Beginners’, seemed fair enough. Soon after I posted the question, “ Can someone refer me to an article about whether it is necessary to cut out absolutely all carbohydrates as per the red list or can I just cut down? I don’t quite see how I can manage it with a family of 6” . I was thinking perhaps I could keep rice and pasta for some suppers and oats for breakfast…. Perhaps I expected a couple of links? Maybe a succinct scientific explanation as to the need to be absolute? Some encouragement along the lines of, “That’s a great way to start, Natalie, yes, cut down carbs and increase what ...

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