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This morning I read a description of a woman who was having trouble walking across a room with a full cup of coffee——the more she focused her attention on the coffee, the more trouble she had keeping all the coffee in the cup (2007, Daily Guideposts, 2008). I was immediately whisked back in time to about 1966 when I first started working as a waitress. One of the hardest things for me to learn was how to serve coffee without sloshing the coffee over the sides of the cup. Just like the woman I read about this morning, I learned “sloshing coffee” ceased to be a problem if I stopped looking at the coffee and concentrated on another aspect of my task .

I didn’t know it then, but many years later twelve step recovery would also teach me to attend to first things first, one step/day at a time, and “Easy Does It.” What applies to carrying coffee with a steady hand also applies to living life  with a “steady approach”—-that is focusing on one step at a time and  re-directing my attention from worry to faith,  the faith that God is in charge of absolutely everything.

For the past few days I have been teetering on the edge of “non-steady” living—–I’ve been worried about a friend’s welfare, another friend’s job, my sister’s job, health care for our nation, the government shutting down, my  91 year old father’s changing mental status, getting my social security check, and my own health. For the first time I am starting to recognize how the amount of stress and worry I am experiencing can affect  my physical health. I know stress and health are related. Learning to recognize the signs in my own body of operating in “stress and worry mode” has been a bit harder for me because that state has been my “normal.” My efforts to learn to meditate, practice centering prayer, and just to consciously calm myself have slowly been nurturing a new “body awareness” in me. Now it is up to me to “catch it happening early” and to consciously focus on relaxing and turning off the stress/worry mode when I recognize it.

I am proud to report when I started feeling the “stress/worry mode” yesterday after a full day of teaching I came home, let people know I wouldn’t be at my regular Monday night meetings, and just “hung with my dogs”—-which is, most times, a great way for me to relax. I consciously let go of my worries—–it was ridiculously clear, even to me, that I couldn’t fix any of the problems I’ve been worried about. I can work on changing my own attitude and behaviors. I have to acknowledge and accept that what was once “easy” for me in terms of working  and handling stress no longer applies to the person I have become as I “transition into elder hood.” I think all nurses should be required to take a course focused on “Taking Care of Self.” We are taught to focus on caring for others, and we often neglect caring for ourselves. I am slowly learning this new skill.

Today is October 1, 2013. The U.S. government is “closed for business.” Life goes on. After I turned things over to God yesterday evening, my sister called with good news about a new job prospect. The friend I was worried about told me she  is feeling empowered and is able to laugh now—-something she hadn’t been able to do in months. I don’t know why I am always surprised when things work out all on their own without my worry getting in my way—–just like the coffee always did just fine when my worry got out of my way. I am my own worst enemy and my own best friend. The choice is mine, and I hope, being the slow learner that I am, that it is finally getting easier for me to recognize and let go of stress and worry on a one day at a time basis so that I can cultivate a nurturing, caring friendship with myself.

Please comment and share thoughts you have regarding coping with stress and worry. May God bless and keep you.

By Master isolated images, published on 23 May 2013

Today when I stepped out of bed my life “started over.” Actually, every breath I take marks a type of “starting over.” As some of you may have noticed I have spent quite a bit of time these past few weeks focusing on the wisdom found in Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)’s 11th step that suggests employing a daily discipline of prayer and meditation. Through the years, I have, for the most part practiced “intellectual meditation” which is reading something and thinking about the meaning of what I have read and how to apply it to my life. Through the years I’ve “flirted” with the other kind of mediation which is “inner directed” and not as structured. It has always been a bit harder for me because I have trouble getting  my mind to quiet down.

This morning, as I was practicing “intellectual meditation” I found a quote that made me feel a bit better about not being efficient at the inner type of mediation:

“I heard some Buddhists years ago speak of ‘beginner’s mind.’ They said that the best way to approach  meditation was not to focus on how long or how still you could meditate, but just on the simple action of coming back from distraction to the still point again and again. If you could see yourself as always beginning, and never paid attention to how advanced you were, it would be so much more fruitful. This is wonderful, honest humility.”

Daniel Simons (2013) in Forward Day by Day, p. 45, May, June, and July.

I love this perspective, and I have learned to apply it in Centering Prayer. The “beginner’s mind” lets me return to the present moment over and over again to start over in my attempts to quiet my thoughts so I can listen to God. It is very empowering to realize it is my intent that matters rather than how effective I am at remaining still and listening without being distracted.

I am learning, too, that I can apply this “starting over again” mentality to almost every aspect of my life. It helps me stay in the moment rather than get caught up in past memories or worries about the future. Twelve step recovery suggests that we strive for achieving “progress rather than perfection.”  My emergent “starting over” perspective aligns easily with the goal of progress rather than perfection, and each day I am given the gift of making progress in my ability to enjoy my journey (present moment) rather than being so focused on my destination that I forget to appreciate living in the now.

Please comment and share your thoughts about this “starting over” idea. Thanks! May God bless and keep you.

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Thomas Keating  (1990, Awakenings, New York: Crossroad Publishing) has described one’s spiritual journey as a walk across stormy water, and he points out  when things get too rough we ask for help and are saved. He emphasizes that this will happen over and over again—–that the “only mistake is to go down and stay down; to sink and not yell for help”(p. 15).  Keating goes on to say, “God is hidden in difficulties. If we can find him there, we will never lose him. Without difficulties, we do not know the power of  God’s mercy and the incredible destiny he has for each  of us” (p. 15).

I find that last quote quite comforting because it gives my questioning mind a purpose for the trials encountered in the course of a lifetime. But, I find it equally discomforting when I view it as a justification for all the difficulties of this world. Then I have to read the quote over again and realize it is not saying the “ends justify the means.” It is saying if we want to survive difficulties we need to ask for help. It is also saying once God’s help saves us we come to know and accept God’s power and love and then it becomes easier to ask for help in the future. In addition, following a spiritual path gives us the gift of an evolving discernment——the ability to recognize  and hopefully avoid our own part in creating difficulties and problems. It is wondrous to be able to ask and receive help for  helping yourself so that you don’t have to start “sinking” before you seek help.

Keating’s discussion is directly applicable to recovery. To begin recovering we have to realize we need help and we need to ask for it. In the beginning we are usually motivated to ask for help because we are “sinking in a frightful way” when we “hit bottom.” As we stop sinking and start to climb the 12 steps out of the abyss with the help of our higher power, we learn to ask our higher power for help on a daily basis and to change our behaviors so that we can stay afloat and not relapse into the abyss again. Sometimes we have to enter the abyss repeatedly before we are ready to truly accept help and start building a strong spiritual recovery.

Please comment and share your thoughts about how difficulties are related to our relationship with God/Higher Power. God bless and keep you.

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“I am free to choose. I can leave my mistakes, my disappointments, my bad attitudes to yesterday. I can rewrite myself as a person of hope. I can get up each morning with an attitude of appreciation and turn every event into an occasion of thankfulness. If my life is too complicated, I have the power to make simpler choices. God has tucked me in with His promise. I wake to a new day; my blackboard is clean; my mistakes have dissipated into the wind.”

Editors, Guideposts (2012-10-01). Daily Guideposts 2013 (Kindle Locations 423-427). Guideposts Books. Kindle Edition.

What a pleasure to greet a new day with this good news! I can start anew today, this moment. Starting now, this moment, the only moment I really have, I can make choices that  reflect God’s love for me and all of creation. I can cultivate what Alcoholics Anonymous calls an “attitude of gratitude” and be thankful and “present” in each gifted moment I am given.

And in those other moments when I am not up somewhere floating on a “spiritual high” or “spiritual cloud” I can still make a choice to live every moment to the best of my ability with the help of Creator. When I am at the university trying to get the high tech equipment to work right, when I am privileged to share knowledge with students and see their minds engage with the topic being discussed, when I am racing to eat lunch in one of two ten minute breaks during the three hour class, when I am driving to and from the university, when I am outside walking to my car enjoying the cool fall air, when I am engaged in centering prayer at church this evening, when I am washing dishes later at home……the list could go on and on describing the “routine of my day.”  What saves it from being a boring list and perhaps a stressful day is the attitude of the one experiencing it. If I am truly present in each of those moments I will not miss the chance to observe, receive and give God’s love.

Although I accept the need to cultivate an attitude of gratitude, I still question exactly how I am supposed to do it. Do I make a list of everything I am thankful for? Do I consciously thank God for something each and every time I walk through a doorway? And, really, how can one “observe, receive and give God’s love “when doing something as mundane as washing dishes?

As an illustration of a suggested way to live an attitude of gratitude, here is  a description of the “perfect mind set” I wish I could carry with me every time I wash dishes rather than putting off and dreading another encounter with a sink full of dirty dishes:

• First, I  run the water until it gets hot, being grateful that I have water and that it “becomes hot.”
• Then, submersing my arthritic hands in the hot water, I am grateful for the pain relief provided by the hot water.
•  Next, I can enjoy the rhythm of  “cleaning, rinsing, and placing dishes  in the dishwasher” as I work.
• While I am caught up in the warm, soothing repeated motions, I can release a prayer to God asking him to help a friend, to help the world find and remain in peace, thanking Him for the gift of today——or simply by looking out my kitchen window and thanking him for the blue sky, green grass, playing squirrels, and singing birds I can see from my kitchen window. My prayers are not fancy things. Hopefully, they are simple, fleeting pleasant and grateful thoughts.

Funny thing about living this way—-grateful and present in the moment—-I feel much less stress and much more serenity. So, today I am grateful I have a choice between serenity and peace or worry, stress, and anxiety. Think I’ll opt for serenity and peace.

How do you cultivate an attitude of gratitude into your daily routine? Please comment and share your thoughts. May God bless and keep you.

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There is an old saying that “it is always darkest before the dawn.” It has taken me a lifetime to begin to understand what this saying truly implies. It is almost as if the only way to experience hope and serenity is to first experience despair. Perhaps we experience serenity at other times, but unless we also experience despair, we may be unaware of and take for granted such serenity.  I used to resent older and wiser individuals telling me “you can’t be happy unless you have been sad because you have no point of comparison.”

I’m still not sure that is right, at least for me. I do know from personal experience that I can be so accustomed to being in a dark place that I am totally unaware that I have been stuck in the dark until a light is turned on. This last statement has meaning for me in two ways. First, quite literally, many is the time a parent or colleague has come upon me happily reading in the growing darkness and turned a light on so that I might more easily see what I was working on or reading. Secondly, “being stuck in the dark” can also mean being so stuck in a miserable routine totally centered on meeting the needs of another (person, place or thing)——-to the point that you have no self-awareness and you neglect  your own needs and well being.  Sometimes, it is not until the “parasite other” (person, place, or thing) we have allowed to suck us dry is gone that we can begin to notice how peaceful things are when that person, place,  or thing is no longer part of our lives, how much more relaxed we can be, and how, for the first time in a long time,  we start to realize we can have “our life” back and enjoy living again.

Richard Rohr has written:

“Until we walk with personal issues of despair, we will never uncover the Real Hope on the other side of that despair. Until we allow the crash and crush of our images, we will never discover the Real Life beyond what only seems like death. Remember  death is an imaginary loss of an imaginary self,  which is going to pass anyway.”

Rohr, R. (2013). “The Heart of the Matter,” p. 307, (adapted from Near Occasions of Grace, p. 100), Yes, and…..Daily Mediations. Cincinnati, OH: Franciscan Media.

Many in recovery are familiar with “personal issues of despair”—–and many tell stories of “hitting bottom” before they can start to build a new life in recovery.  In recovery, many discover that their old imagined image was far from the truth—–they were not wonderful and all powerful when drinking or using, and neither were they a shameful disgrace to their maker because of their poor choices. The spiritual journey at the core of recovery teaches them they are actually beloved children of God.

What I get from Rohr’s quote is that despair is often part of the human condition. Period. And, thankfully,  despair can offer each and every one of us a doorway into a new and better way of existing. Please comment and share your thoughts about despair and hope . May God bless and keep you.

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I have spent my entire professional life focused on helping people be aware of and to cope effectively with their emotions. I always believed, and taught, that emotions are feelings. I also believe our holistic selves are comprised of body, mind, and spirit.  This morning I encountered  a “new thought” that challenges my understanding of emotions.

According to Tolle (1999), our minds are comprised of both thoughts and emotions—as well as unconscious material. Additionally, Tolle writes that: “Emotion arises at the place where mind and body meet. It is the body’s reaction to your mind—-or you  might say, a reflection of your mind in the body” (Tolle, E. ,1999, The Power of Now: A Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment, p. 25, Vancouver, B.C., Canada: Namaste Publishing).

I am quite used to studying how emotions influence our bodies and our health—–I just never before thought of emotions as the intersection between our bodies and our minds rather than  “just being feelings.”  I love the simplicity of this new way of looking at emotions, because to me it makes a great deal of sense. It explains many of the “illness manifestations” my body has experienced through the years. Fears, anxieties,  anger and stress not only contribute to depression——they can be communicated or reflected in our bodies as headaches, stomachaches, muscle spasms, chronic pain, cardiac problems, etc. I have always taught students to be aware of what their bodies are telling them they are feeling, but this new “intersection concept” has given me a new perspective of how closely connected and holistic  we actually are.

So, the “take home message” from my blog’s mental meanderings this morning are to keep this intersection consciousness in mind, and the next time you start getting a headache or feeling the muscles start tightening up in your back neck/shoulder area, ask yourself what emotion your body is expressing?  What is in your mind at this moment that is being expressed in your body?  Can you turn around and go back to the intersection and trace your mind’s steps or thought patterns to find what thoughts are triggering your body’s reaction?

I was with a friend last night in St. Louis. It was dark, and we were trying to find our way through a residential area back to the Interstate. We were trying to follow, in reverse, the instructions we’d followed to get there when it was daylight. Re-tracing our “steps” almost got us to the intersection we needed to find to get on the Interstate, but,  just when we were ready to turn around and go back the other way, we wisely stopped and asked directions. Instead of turning around and getting hopelessly lost, we went on the way we had been headed—-and within a couple of minutes we were driving home on the Interstate.

This “retracing and asking for direction” is what I equate with trying to go back to the intersection between body and mind so I can try to work through the thought patterns that are causing my body pain. I can’t do it without help and direction from God. Otherwise, I tend to “drive around in circles” getting more and more frustrated and entrapped in my mind, following all the wrong thoughts in the wrong direction, losing my attention, and experiencing more stress. Once I get to the correct intersection between body and mind, I still need God’s help knowing which way to get on the Interstate, how far to go and what to do when I “get there.”

So, be in touch with what your body is trying to tell you, and don’t be shy about asking God for directions. In my way of thinking, He is the only one that has access to the “Owner’s Manual for the Care and Maintenance of Human Beings.” Our Creator made us, and He/She can help us understand  and change ourselves.  Please comment and share your thoughts about emotions being the intersection between your mind and your body. May God bless and keep you.

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This is another hard one to write. This morning on Facebook there was a cartoon which reminded me of all the times I heard as a very small child comments that shaped how I have viewed myself most of my life. These comments impacted my life even before other societal forces reinforced them——my early years were before Barbie doll, before Twiggy, and before I knew what a television was. The comments were always what a pretty child I would be if only ______________or what a good something or other I could be if__________________________. The “if blanks” were filled in with words that usually had something to do with me being “chunky,” “husky,” or “losing weight.”

I was slow moving, clumsy and awkward even as a child. It was all blamed on weight. It wasn’t until I was 12 that they had my eyes tested,  I was given bifocals, and I found out there were separate leaves on trees. The point I am trying to make is my problems have not always been about weight. I have always been a beloved child of God even if I don’t fit society’s judgmental standards. To be honest, some of my major problems have been about weight, the kind that endangers health. But no one ever told me when I was little  that I would “be healthier and have a better quality of life when you are older if you’d just lose weight.” They just said, “Eat everything on your plate.”

I know now that skinny people and “right-sized” people have just as many every-day problems and even health-related problems.  I know now what is meant by the saying that my body is God’s temple  and I need to treat it like one. At ages 4-10 I didn’t. The first diet they put me on at age four was a “buttermilk diet.” The doctor told my mother I’d lose weight if they made me drink buttermilk. To this day, I cannot drink buttermilk—–and I couldn’t then.

The whole point of all this is to emphasize how the words spoken to us have tremendous influence on the life we create for ourselves. I am, I know, lucky I wasn’t told as a child that I was “not worth anything” because I would have believed them.  I was taught never to ask questions or speak my opinion because it was considered disrespectful “talking back.” It is still a battle at times for me to be assertive and speak my opinion; I never stopped asking questions in my mind. But I was also loved, read to, played with, bathed, put to bed, etc. I was told in a lot of different ways that I was worthwhile and loved by my parents even if they couldn’t say the words.

I am God’s child. I am God’s adult. I am God’s temple. I choose today to take care of myself and God’s temple in loving and respectful ways. I will treat those I meet with the love and respect due them as they are also temples of God.  It took over forty years for me to overcome the “weight tapes” and to lose and work at keeping off  over 150 pounds. I’d lost over 100 pounds at least a couple of times before, but those pounds always found their way back on because food, not God, was my comfort. I am also working on self-acceptance just as I am. I no longer have to excel scholastically, publish articles, write books, impress others, attain tenure. I am retired, and God has finally given me time and wisdom to learn to know and love myself for what and who I am—-and to enjoy the gifts He has given me. I pray that I will always remember that God’s gifts are accompanied by the responsibility to share His love and generosity.

Please comment and share your thoughts about how you experience self-acceptance. May God bless and keep you.

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Well, this one is hard to write about. It hits home a little bit too accurately. My Higher Power led me to a story this morning about someone who’s friend helped her learn to put things in their proper place at the time she was done using them them rather than just setting  them down anywhere . The author reported practicing this advice helped her combat clutter in her house. Her friend’s specific advice was ‘”Don’t put it down; put it away”'(Neukrug, L.,  2012-10-01. Daily Guideposts 2013, Editors, Guideposts 2012-10-01, Kindle Locations 505-506, Guideposts Books. Kindle Edition).

That wasn’t all this daily meditation had to share. The author’s friend taught her to carry this bit of advice into her daily life in terms of not holding resentments or “grudges”  against anyone—–that resentments were “brain clutter” that needed to be put away in its proper place rather than allowed to clutter up one’s brain (Neukrug, L.,  ,2012-10-01. Daily Guideposts 2013, Editors, Guideposts 2012-10-01, Kindle Locations 514, Guideposts Books. Kindle Edition)  .

I must admit, trying to visualize an image of myself cleaning out my brain with a dust rag in one hand and ta dust mop in the other just doesn’t work for me…..traditional cleaning methods do not routinely work for me in my real life, and  they won’t in my imagined reality either.  Willingness is the essential missing ingredient for me when it comes to the concept of routinely cleaning up clutter.

Fortunately, for me, my participation in recovery groups has taught me I don’t have to use a broom, mop, dust rag, soap, wax, or polish to effectively remove “resentment clutter”.  I don’t even have to buy special cleaning agents for cleaning marble or stainless steel——which, I suppose, could symbolize the “stinkin’ thinkin'” or “hard-headed stubbornness” often encountered in the brains of recovering people. The tools I have been taught to use are very effective, and I have had to use them less and less over the years.

Most of what I have been taught has come from Alcoholics Anonymous’ “Big Book.” I have been taught to let go of resentments by daily praying for whomever I resent to be given the same things I ask God to give me. If I follow this advice, I have to determine what is really essential (what I need rather than what I want), ask it for myself, and then ask it for the person(s) I resent. I have learned to do this over and over again.  It sounds hypocritical, but once I make myself do this, by about the fourth or fifth day into praying this way I start to sincerely mean what I am asking. By the time I’ve done it for 2-6 weeks (longer for the really “tough” resentments) I find the resentment is gone and I have forgiven the person(s) I had resented.  I will remember the situation, but the strong resentment will be gone. Also, it is important during this “resentment clutter cleaning process” to examine my role in whatever situation is associated with the resentment so I can make amends if need be and try to not repeat similar mistakes in the future.

For those of you who are interested in searching this method,  I refer you to this quote: ‘ “If you have a resentment you want to be free of, if you will pray for the person or the thing that you resent, you will be free. If you will ask in prayer for everything you want for yourself to be given to them, you will be free. Ask for their health, their prosperity, their happiness, and you will be free. Even when you don’t really want it for them, and your prayers are only words and you don’t mean it, go ahead and do it anyway. Do it every day for two weeks and you will find you have come to mean it and to want it for them, and you will realize that where you used to feel bitterness and resentment and hatred, you now feel compassionate understanding and love”’ (Wilson, B., Dr. Bob, ,2011-07-21, The Big Book of Alcoholics Anonymous (Kindle Locations 8574-8579),Kindle Edition).

My brain can get cluttered with resentments and/or worry that  can be effectively handled by carrying them in prayer to God. I am learning to recognize these problems sooner and, therefore,  to let go of them sooner in prayer. I am grateful that my spiritual path calls for progress and improvement rather than perfection!

Please comment and share your thoughts on how you deal with your own “brain clutter.” May God bless and keep you.

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God seems to be telling me over and over again to stop trying to do things all by myself and to accept His help. I do not know why I am so stubborn that I repeatedly drive myself to the point of absolute frustration before I remember to surrender doing things my way and asking God for help. Why is my ego or false-pride so important to me that I hold on to it even when it endangers my spiritual and physical well-being? In the language of technology, my answer today is:  Forget the “cloud”—-my computers, tablet, and smart phone all need a “God button.” So do my mind, soul, and heart.

I caught myself screaming in frustration just the night before last. I scared my two rescue dogs half to death with the unearthly screeches that came forth from my lungs. I had been working almost 11 hours trying to merge several old documents into two new ones—-of course, one document was formatted in tables and the other was in narrative format, so nothing fit together as it should when I cut and pasted. In the midst of all this Microsoft Word stopped responding on my desktop computer, and when I rebooted I got that dreaded message which reads something like this: “Your computer will not start. Microsoft will try to repair the issue but you may lose some material in the process. Your computer will start and restart multiple times during this procedure, so please do not cancel this procedure when that happens.  If you are willing for this to happen, please press the ‘OK’ button.”

I took a gamble and punched “OK.” I kept working on my laptop doing what I could. Then my printer wouldn’t work.  Microsoft kept working on repairing my desktop computer for about 6 or 7 hours. I was afraid to try to use it even when it started again because I didn’t want to “cancel the procedure.” I spent from approximately 10:00 AM until 9:00 PM trying to control technology to no avail. After screaming twice and continually experiencing the same repeated problems, I finally bowed my head and said, “Okay God, I give up. I can’t do this. Please help me.” It is ironic that I write about doing this sort of thing all the time in my blogs and yet it took eleven hours for me to give up and “practice what I preach.”  After praying, I tried my desktop computer and it worked. Within 30 minutes all documents were completed and sent to their respective recipients. Things work when I ask and let God help me, even with mundane tasks like formatting and creating typed and printed documents on schedule.

The quote God led me to this morning in my search for spiritual guidance was this one:

“All cat owners know that we have to deal with cats on their own terms, not ours. But as a friend of mine said when I told her exactly what kind of job I wanted God to find for me, ‘Sounds like you’re willing to serve God, but only as an adviser! Why don’t you listen to God more than instruct him?'”

Linda Neukrug (2012). Daily Guideposts 2012, pp. 206-207.

I think this author meant that if we relate to cats on their own terms, why can’t we relate to God on His own terms? More specifically, after my computer fiasco, the message that “hit home” with me from this quote is I need to listen to God—–and not just advise him on how to answer my prayers. I admit I prayed several times during my eleven hour stress-filled technology fiasco, but those prayers were more centered on asking God to do things my way rather than surrendering and accepting whatever help He would give me. When I did get still and quiet, I was able to surrender. Only then were my problems solved—–probably because we were working in a God-led partnership rather than me trying to do things my way or by my “advising” God how to help ME solve the problem.

Please comment and share your thoughts about how you experience the difference between telling God how to help you and asking God for help. God bless and keep you.

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One of AA’s biggest messages is to go to a Power greater than ourselves; doing so is addressed in five of the twelve steps AA suggests following to attain and maintain recovery. Those of you who have been reading my blogs are aware that seeking my Higher Power’s help is a common theme.

Almost everything I’ve ever read about prayer is lengthy, intellectual, and, at times, somewhat confusing.  But today, my Higher Power, whom I choose to call God,  led me to a new insight about prayer that makes it easier. I encountered it in reading a story about a child who was learning to read and proudly pointed to a word in a church bulletin as he told his grandmother he had learned to read the word “Go.” The grandmother discovered her grandchild was pointing at the word “God,” and she was able to teach him adding a “d” to “go” spelled God. The insight the grandmother learned from this was what jumped out at me when I read this devotional reading this morning : “Go is the first word in the word God” (Carney,  M., 2012, “Daily Guideposts 2012, p. 138, New York: Guideposts).

Prayer is as simple as that. Just go to God. That is even simpler than Christ’s “Ask and it shall be given to you.” Just go. That means my prayer does not have to be a fancy written or spoken prayer. It can, and often is, as simple  turning my thoughts to God when I view His beautiful creation or am grateful for something. I don’t have to be scared or in trouble. A thought can take me directly to God. Thinking about going directly to God reminds me of a  Monopoly game when a chance card tells you to  “Go directly to jail , do not pass Go.” However, in life going directly to God is not a game; it is spiritual reality, and the “chance” that God gives me over and over again is to “go directly to God and don’t pass over ‘go’.”

So, I am going to “go to God” with the joy and thanksgiving in my heart and soul all this morning because of reading and then hearing the CNN news report that Syria had accepted Russia’s chemical weapons proposal. Now the world has a chance to collectively handle this serious situation in a peaceful manner. Actually, my thoughts have been “going”  to God all morning thanking Him for giving us this chance at peace. This feels like the answer to prayers for peace I and many others have released to God these past couple of weeks.

I couldn’t find a formal prayer in my church’s  Book of Common Prayer this morning that directly addressed saying “thank you for answering prayer.”  That doesn’t mean it is not there; it just means I didn’t find it. That was okay, because God is just as happy when I go directly to Him with my heartfelt prayers of gratitude for having answered our prayers.

So, this morning’s simple topic is “Add the D, and go to God.” Please comment and share your thoughts about going to God in prayer. May God bless and keep you.