Showing posts with label Prayers. Show all posts

for You my Lord, this is, for You my Lord.
my voic i lift in song of praise.
You are my strength. You are my life.
You help me see that i need You.
Almighty God, that's who You are
none other can be higher than You.

     i ask You to help me get You back on the trhone
     back into the place You belong,
     back onto the throne of my heart.

i speak of myself too often my Lord.
i brag and put all others down.
for You my Lord, i sing this song
help me to put all others first
but put You, Lord, above the rest
for none other can be higher than You
     i ask You to help me get You back on the trhone
     back into the place You belong,
     back onto the throne of my heart.

(1980)

[Note: since I discovered this wonderful idea of posting a daily thank you column during the month of November the day after it started, I've decided to do a catch-up day. I know that I posted a "thanks" this morning, but I'm doing one this evening as well, and then maybe I'll stay caught up.]

#3: I am thankful for food.

I don't know about you, but we pause before meals to thank God for our food. I'm reminded of the old black and white movie in which the farmer sits down to dinner with the family and they pause for a blessing. The farmer says, "Well, Lord, I tilled the ground, I planted it, I fertilized it, I cultivated it . . . as far as I can tell, You didn't really do anything, but thank You anyway. Amen." He missed the point, but then so do we sometimes.

The conversation goes: "Who'll say grace today? Jimmy?" To which Jimmy bows his head and says, "Grace."

Even so, we pause for thanksgiving before our meals. We do it at home, which I'm sure many of you do as well. We also do it in restaurants. I've been privy to conversations where people suggest that there is a pretension among Christians who make it a point to pause for prayer in restaurants. As if it is simply for show. And I guess that there are those among the number of Christians who would like others to see that they are doing their "Christian duty" even when they are out in public. However, to me it is the natural thing to take a moment to thank the Maker and Provider of all things (including the meal) as we sit down to consume the blessings.

After all, I like food (especially pie), and I like to be healthy and well-fed, so why shouldn't I be thankful? I'm thankful because it tastes good. I'm thankful that even when it doesn't taste good, it's still good for me. I'm thankful because I have the wherewithal to have the food supply on the table and the physical acumen to get it from the table to my face. And so I'm thankful. Most likely not always properly thankful--like the time that my older brother and I were having a nice dinner together (he was paying which made it even nicer) and he asked me to give thanks. I prayed (longer than usual at mealtime which is meant to be thanks for the meal, but I hadn't seen my brother for awhile), thanking God for the fellowship with my brother, for family, and for any number of other things. After "closing" my prayer with a hearty "Amen!" I looked at my brother and said, "oops, I forgot the food." To which he replied, "Well, if God doesn't know what to do with it, I'm sure not going to tell Him."

So when you sit down to your meal--any meal, be it breakfast, lunch or supper, meager or feast, baloney sandwiches or rib-eye steak--give thanks. It's okay. You won't embarrass anyone, and your food might taste better. If you need a little help, start with this one: "Bless the meat, bless the skin," now open the mouth and cram it in.

So we took the time to use the trip to Six Flags that someone anonymously gave to us on our second anniversary in Mulberry Grove. The trip to the park wasn't too bad aside from a five-mile slowdown for overpass construction.

We arrived sometime after the park opened and were blessed with prepaid "preferred" parking. We found a nice spot in row 5!

There are plenty of kid-friendly rides at Six Flags, so we rode and we walked and we walked and we rode. The kiddos seemed to enjoy the water-themed rides the most. We even met some cartoon characters and super heroes. In the "Bugs Bunny" area we found rides that the children could enjoy while the Blushing Bride and I stood outside the fence and watched. This, btw, is as much fun as a roller coaster.

Our gift package included tickets for things called "Daffy's Delight" and "Tweety Tweets". Before departure we searched the website but found nothing to explain these items. So when we got to Six Flags we spent our first twenty minutes waiting at the Guest Relations window. The Host who took my question finally came back with the answers I needed to give me confidence to proceed: "Daffy's Delight" is a funnel cake and a medium soda, and "Tweety Tweets" is a giant pretzel and a medium soda.

Mid-afternoon we decided to indulge in our treasure and found the eating establishment in "Bugs Bunny" Land. "We don't have Tweety Tweets here," they said. "Try Calico's Chicken." So the Bride and little ones stayed at the Character Cafe to get the funnel cake, and Puddin' N Pie and I went to search for the pretzel and bring it back. "We don't even know what that is," was the response at Calico's, "try Colonel Cobb's right around the corner." At Colonel Cobb's we saw the pretzels, but they didn't know anything about "Tweety Tweets" either. Back at the Character Cafe, I asked again explaining that the front gate had told me it was a pretzel--"Oh, we don't have pretzels here, but just across the railroad tracks is the Treehouse. Just tell them what it is and they should serve you." I left the whole family this time to enjoy the already procured snack items and proceeded across the tracks to the Treehouse. Pretzels were there but the boy in the snack shack knew nothing about "Tweety Tweets". "Sorry," was the best he could do.

Back at the Character, I sat down with the fam and sipped a drink-ade while examining my coupon. It was labeled "Tweety Tweets" with a confirmation number and "Six Flags St. Louis" printed clearly on the front (along with the price paid plus tax). The reverse side of the ticket had all the small print which included "No Refunds - No Rainchecks" among other things. So the idea of just getting a refund was out. Our anonymous friends had paid the money though, so we didn't want to waste it. At the counter, I tried to see if we could apply the money spent to something they did have. "Wait," he said, "our food service supervisor is right there." I showed her the coupon and immediately we went back to the Treehouse where I was awarded a giant pretzel and medium Pibb (like Dr Pepper only not-so-much). The explanation as to why know one knew what Tweety Tweets meant: "We do have a coupon for 'Tweety Tweets' but it doesn't look like the plain gift ticket that you have."

But finding the elusive "Tweety Tweets" was not the best part of the day. That came when we were back at home having family devotional time. When Bubba prayed it was along this line, "Thank you for the Batman cape. Thank you that I met Green Lantern and Wonder Woman and Batman. Thank you that I saw Shaggy and Scooby." And then he proceeded to go on to thank God for the family. And this is from the one who usually says grace even at bedtime prayers.

My point--we should be like children thanking God for even the simplest of things: a day out with the family, searching for hidden treasure, meeting superheroes along the way.

Have a great day, my friends.

Earlier today I read of the disappearance of Pastor Forrest Pollock and have been checking here periodically during the day.

I would ask my readers to keep Dawn Pollock and the rest of the family in your prayers. I did not know Forrest, but am certainly praying for his family. Pray also for the Bell Shoals Baptist Church of Brandon, FL.

"Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." (Matthew 5:4, ESV)

Tuesday I had the daunting task of officiating a funeral for a stillborn baby. I'd rather do the funeral for the most heinous reprobate in the country--who had opportunity to make the choices that directed his path--than to try to provide comfort in a comfortless situation. The "why"s continue to come. As I was checking a few of my usual reads I was alerted to this post at Downshore Drift, blogging home of Alan Cross. Caelan has been fighting for his life nearly his entire two and one-half years.

Please click on the link and post a comment assuring Alan and Erika of your support. They are in a place right now that no parent of a small child wants to be.