The Power of Prayer
Genuine | March 3
Have you ever prayed for something really hard? No gentlemen I don’t mean to tout the virtues of the little blue pill. I’m talking about that begging and pleading we do, the “I will never drink again” type of praying, and the “if you get me out of this mess, I promise I’ll go to church every Sunday” kind of praying.
Those of you that don’t know me, read my blog, or know of my situation, I have a daughter that is 6, a son 5, a son who will be 2 in July and another son that is 8 months old. To say the least, we have our hands full at the moment. Every time a child screams for something and pierces my ear drums, every night that one of them makes me cling to the ceiling like Sylvester the cat when they wake me, and those times when the poop explodes up the back of their shirt, I wonder what I was possibly thinking when I decided to become a father.
Our last child was born in the first part of August, and before my wife had her first labor pain, she had made the appointment with the “specialist” to make sure these labor pains would be her last. Before the end of August I was lying on my back making jokes with the urologist about taking me to dinner since he was already giving me a hand job on our first date. I realize that you might think that I have digressed some and I am losing the gist of this post, but I’m not.
I was talking about the power of prayer! See? I remembered, and believe me when I say I have been having a heart-to-heart with the man upstairs for the last few days. In fact, I have made deals with the Goddess, Buddha, Zues and even Tony Soprano. I have them all on the prayer list. My prayer? Let me just ask the question, have you ever prayed for someone to get their period? I feel like I’m playing Russian Roulette with a six shooter that has 5 bullets. I have got to be getting close to that empty chamber!
UPDATE: I guess the good Lord only gives us what we can handle. Apparently, after last weekend, the good Lord figured I was in over my head! Whew!
Not since high school have I prayed that prayer.
Good luck!
Our two are a mere 19 months apart - I discovered that I was pregnant with my son two weeks before my daughter’s first birthday. I burst into tears and absolutely panicked for 5 minutes (my husband wasn’t home when I took the test). After 5 minutes, I gathered myself up and started planning. We’re doing all right, and I think that God had more to do with it than any of us realized at the time (insert long family drama here). I wouldn’t trade my wonderful baby boy for anything. However, we are using multiple forms of contraception to make sure there are no more “surprises” around here.
A family I know at church had three girls, and then got pregnant with twin girls. Determined that this would be it, the mother (an OB nurse) had the father “snipped”. Eighteen months later, they were pregnant again - with a boy!
Regardless of what happens, I hope you can hang on to the sanity you’ve got. I know that mine is in shreds most of the time.
Every month between six weeks after my twins were born until the doctor said we could no longer make babies.
Yep, prayed that prayer. My daughter was four months old, and hadn’t stopped crying since birth. I took the test praying as fervently as possible. I was humble, I was sincere. I was, well, pregnant. My hubs got home that night to be serenaded by a chorus of curse words the likes he has never heard before or since. I even tossed the used pregnancy test stick at his head. Don’t worry, it missed. My beautiful son was born 13 months and one day apart from his older sister. We survived. Sort of.
hahaha God is up there saying “I’m sick to death of this prayer! I’ve given you condoms, pills, surgeries. I’ve enabled you with effective rates between 99.7 and 100 percent. Will you people GET YOUR ACT TOGETHER, PLEASE?”
I’ve prayed that prayer a few times. And I’m an atheist. Go figure.
so…1 line or 2?
My third is eight months old my oldest turned 4 on Thursday, I haven’t started to pray for the red pony yet because she is still breast feeding. Should I be concerned?
Uhm… the other way round, actually, while praying for number 2 to finally get underway. Now with three, I can’t believe that I ever said, “Oh no, do we have to do this every day?”
Dude, I can sympathise. I have 3 kids, and at the moment I’m in part thanking him because he’s letting the baby get away with having ChickenPox without causing too much grief, but this also causes Abstinence, which maybe you needed to consider! And what happened to Condoms?!?!
to forecast stake you should be very black: http://www.moviecitynews.com/ , tremendous, industrious, universal nothing comparative to big
Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.
An alternate translation is found in Chapter 11 (Page 99) of the “Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions”, a book published by Alcoholics Anonymous* World Services, Inc.
Lord, make me a channel of thy peace;
that where there is hatred, I may bring love;
that where there is wrong, I may bring the spirit of forgiveness;
that where there is discord, I may bring harmony;
that where there is error, I may bring truth;
that where there is doubt, I may bring faith;
that where there is despair, I may bring hope;
that where there are shadows, I may bring light;
that where there is sadness, I may bring joy.
Lord, grant that I may seek rather to comfort than to be comforted;
to understand, than to be understood;
to love, than to be loved.
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds.
It is by forgiving that one is forgiven.
It is by dying that one awakens to eternal life.
Amen.
The hymn version of Make Me A Channel of Your Peace is an anthem of the Royal British Legion and is usually sung every year at the Service of Remembrance in November at the Royal Albert Hall, London. It goes as follows:
Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.
Lord grant that I may never seek,
So much to be consoled as to console,
To be understood; as to understand,
To be loved as to love with all my soul.
Make me a channel of your peace,
Where there is hatred let me bring your love,
Where there is injury your pardon Lord,
And where there’s doubt true faith in you.