The President

I cannot even call him "our" President.  I saw a title of a news article that claimed he "is not your president."  (The Washington Post, June 1, 2018, Greg Sargent)  Unfortunately, I agree.

And I have put off writing in this prayer journal, despite many promptings in my spirit to pray for him.  It is hard to pray for someone that you believe is an idiot, and an evil one at that.  But I am under compulsion, out of obedience to the Word:

"I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving [choke!] be made for all people--for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness."

Oh, my.

I think sometimes he believes he is more king than president.  I *know* that he has little to no idea about law, protocol, even the idea that he represents ALL of the citizens of the United States, and not just the ones called "his base."   

So, dear God, Ruler of everything--truly, and not because of some false belief--please bless him.  Somehow, work Your will through him though he is a faulted, fallible, possibly even corrupt leader.  You have done it before!  Please bring him to repentance.  

...which brings me to another request: Your name is being besmirched.  Because (for reasons that I fail to comprehend) evangelical leaders are embracing this president, Convict them--us--of our hypocrisy and shallowness.  Let Your Spirit loose among us to bring us to our knees in the sadness of conviction.  Include me as well, God.  And don't let me shrink back from speaking truth, but do let me say true things lovingly.

In Jesus's name~~Amen.

Prayer for Grievance

So, Lord, tomorrow I face a giant:  Someone in a position of power and political clout, a bully, a taunter.  I know I don't have a lot of time here to pray, and I want to ask You for ... peace, confidence, eloquence, and justice.  I am not in this for revenge but for justice.  The favoritism at work is destructive and disheartening, and the opposite of it, which is the condemnation and bullying, is also destructive and disheartening.

Please allow me to be calm and fully in Your presence during the hearing.  May I speak only the words that You put in my mouth, and may they be truth and healing.  The purpose is that: truth and healing.

May You be glorified!  In Jesus's name~~Amen.

My Secret Place of Joy

Lord, before I check on that stupid Super Bowl score, I ask You to calm me.  I love YOU.  Nothing else matters.  In Jesus's name~~Amen.

I Hate Anxiety

Week after week during football season, I suffer.  I know, Lord, that it sounds trivial and stupid.  It is.  And yet, I suffer.

Tomorrow will be no different.  Well, on second thought, it might be different.  It might be worse.  The quarterback for "my" team was (slightly) injured during practice a few days ago.  The injury (throwing-hand thumb knuckle) is not, in and of itself, serious, but anything could affect accuracy.  And I have already started to obsess and feel sick in my stomach.

Please, dear Lord, when so many are burdened with far more serious, even life-and-death problems, take this silly anxiety away from me.  I have considered the possibility, maybe even the probability, that this accidental injury was part of Your will for this team this year.  How else to think about this freak event?  Maybe this is not supposed to be "their" year.

Show me, please, how to cope with the anxiety.  Even better, please, take it away from me!

And may Your will be done in everything.  In Jesus's name~~Amen.

"Back By Noon"

Ah, those words, Lord, give me a deadline.  🤣  I do NOT want anyone, including my DH, to have access to this private prayer place. 

So, here I am.  Thank You for the blessing of this "journal" online.  It is more private than a written journal, although I would not mind such a diary of my communications with you (if computers ever become impossible to use).  

There continue to be many things about which to pray.  Sometimes I think, and sometimes I have thought, that there are too many things!  It is impossible for a human--a mere mortal--to pray about "everything" that warrants prayer.  

In my reading so far this year, much of it in the Old Testament, I notice that the patriarchs were just plain "faithful."  They had to take care of their daily affairs in a much more time-cumbersome way than I do!  But that left them little time to "pray" about "everything."  They had to pray differently, and I expect that it came down to 1) worshiping You, and 2) asking for Your help with those daily affairs.

On a slightly different note, since I titled this post after my DH's message, I need to ask You to reduce my irritation at him.  He is such a loving guy.  Sometimes, though, he is not a thinking (not to be confused with thoughtful) guy.  He does not consider the meta-message of his words or actions.  But the heart!  Oh, his heart is good.  Help my irritation, please.  I--not so much he, but I--need to change.

So!  I am racing the clock, and he did say "...by noon."  I love You, God, and I want to be more -- well, as I said earlier in this post, just plain faithful.  

In Jesus's name~~Amen.

"Could Use a Little Extra Prayer"

Music to my mama-heart!  My YD sent me those words yesterday to ask for prayer support for her classroom observation this week.  I want to be faithful to the request and the promise to pray; thus, this entry.

Dear Heavenly Father, I have poured out my heart to You for my daughters.  I have recently shared with You my (mild) concern about the "unequally-yoked" relationship this daughter has with her boyfriend, an admittedly high-quality, loving, superb man.  (And still seeking You, I hope.)  But I digress.  This prayer is for YD and her performance in the classroom during the evaluation.  I ask confidence for her.  I request clarity and command of the material.  I petition You to intervene in her students' hearts and minds to calm them and to make them receptive to her instruction.  I beseech (what a strong, lovely word!) You to shine Your light through her, Your vessel, for the purpose of declaring Your power and glory.  

"This book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth..." (an old version that I once memorized)  A newer translation is this:

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.  Joshua 1:8

May this be so for her!  In Jesus's name and for the sake of His reputation~~Amen.

One month

Yes, Lord, it has been 4 weeks since I last posted here.  Oy.  To the day.  (I think I took that Wednesday off for my medical appointment--physical.)

When this happens, I don't really know where to begin.  

First, I promised my client (KB) that I would pray for her although I was going to pray during our canceled appointment time.  Father God, she lost her son to an opiate overdose.  I feel really helpless to help her; that grief cannot be traditional or standard in any way, although more and more deaths are occurring because of it.  Before I ask You for help to help her, let me ask You to help her directly.  She mentioned that her husband was in the hospital overnight.  I didn't ask specifically, but it would stand to reason that there was something concerning to warrant admission.  She has a remarkably important job as a SPED director for Webster: "Director of Student Support Services."  AND, in addition to all that, she is allowing her deceased son's girlfriend and their child, a 5-year-old kindergartener, to live with them.

You, of course, know all of this.  Please bless her in a way that only You know will be most "blessing."  To my knowledge, she is a woman of the Catholic faith, and she might not know You in the born-again personal way.  Bless her so that she knows incontrovertibly that it is YOU.  Not only for her sake, but for Yours as well.

Second, then: Would You help me find the Fordham Christmas sweatshirt?  Silly request, of course.  It's sentimental.

Third: the reason it is sentimental is my second daughter.  She is in a relationship with a stellar young man--but by his own confession, he is not (yet) a Christian.  I really like him.  I imagine that You do, too!  In fact, I am quite sure that You love him.  He is a quality guy, a person who loves sacrificially, and a thinker who is not going to take this faith lightly.  For those reasons, I consider him a better Christian than many of my fellow brothers and sisters.  BUT--he is not (yet) a Christian, and I am concerned as my daughter's mother that she is heading toward heartbreak and heartache and frank disobedience.  

There.  I have said it.  I want her to follow Your instructions.  I cannot do that for her, though.  Please intervene in Your wise way.  It is fairly certain <smile> that You want that young man more than I do.  You know whether he is good for my daughter (although, as the cliche goes, no one is good enough for one's daughter).  You will not force my daughter to do the right thing.  I will not pretend to know what the right thing is for her. 

(The furnace maintenance person just arrived.  Thank You for this time.  I guess this is all for today.)

Confessing and Reflecting

Wow.  Has it really been three months since I wrote here?  The last post was dated 8/19/17, I think.  Again, wow.

A little stream of consciousness before I can settle down, I suspect.  I am in a bit of a funk.  Definition of funk: a state of depression; synonyms a bad mood, a low, the dumps, the doldrums.  Yep.  That's about right...or wrong.

I am not entirely sure what started this period of the blues.  I am not sure that knowing the beginning matters.  I just know that I don't like myself very much and that I am crabby and irritable and dissatisfied.  I don't know where to start chronicling the ... I don't know what to call the list of issues.  The one, however, that is most recent and most current is DH.  I guess I will start there.

The dissatisfaction around DH is confusing and disruptive.  I know that part of my annoyance has to do with his [thoughtless] support of the Religious Right and its support of our current President.  It bothers me that he does not appear to think critically about the issues but automatically, even reflexively, accepts what certain leaders promote.  To be completely honest, I am confused, even befuddled.  I don't want to fall into heresy; and I don't want to be a Pharisee.  I am torn, bemused, and tired of thinking.  But I digress.  I get annoyed, even angry, at DH for what I perceive to be stupid and simplistic generalizations.  I also react strongly, vehemently, vigorously, and automatically to being treated like a second-class citizen, a child, a person who has significant deficits and cannot think for herself.  When I stop--if I stop--to think, I would venture that DH is not a deep enough thinker to recognize the subliminal messages that he is sending.  But "a man speaks from what fills his heart."  Is DH feeling a need to be superior?  Is he feeling a decline in his own cognitive functioning?  He is forgetting a bunch of things, and then remembering the most surprising of other things. 

I have stopped telling him a lot about work and about my medical problems for two significant reasons: one, he forgets them; two, he judges me for having them.  There is not an acceptance of a supportive nature.  In fact, with regard to work, he once said something about "you are always right," and he did not mean it in any way but sarcastically.  The curse.  With due humility, I think I might be right much of the time.  But people in positions above me are not always affirming and are sometimes incompetent.  I grew up believing that the teacher was always right, and the promotions went to the most deserving and the best qualified.  Nope.  I don't think that anymore.

So with DH, I feel disappointed.  The partnership is not so much a partnership.  For example, yesterday he insisted that our daughters are "independent and *should* not need support (such as a bit of financial help or a wake-up call)."  But then he said that he would "have" to wake up at 5:30 a.m. on his day off because he "needed" to wake me up at 6:00 a.m.  So, the impression is that I am not capable at my age of waking myself up.  Or making gifts of a helpful nature to our daughters.  Or reasoning?  I am in a bind with this situation.  Giving feedback or advice seems to contradict him, which then feels like I am disrespecting him.  I know I need to learn how to give feedback better.  (Maybe my next learning adventure?)

Pause.  Another confession.  I am burned out with churches.  I see the same problems of incompetence and hard-heartedness and lack of love in the leadership of so many churches, including the one we just left.  I see that arrogance and NOT-Christ-likeness in much of the Religious Right, including some of the people that I considered my friends.  I am confused and, honestly and frankly, disgusted.  I just want to crawl into a solitary faith and focus just on me and my relationship with God (You!).  I can see why monastic life has an attractiveness to it.  I remember, though, someone who said that we cannot escape from ourselves and our sinful attitudes, even when we are alone.  We are meant to live in community--and it is not easy.

I did not tell DH that I am taking the day off.  He, to my knowledge, does not know about this blog.  I wouldn't be able to dump my honest junk here if he did.  That judgment again....

Help me, Lord.  I am stuck in a deep, deep rut.  I ache, both physically and spiritually.  I want to be thankful during this month of Thanksgiving, and I have fallen WAY behind.  (I am going to stop here and try to catch up a little while I have this lull before my 2 p.m. appointment.)

You know I love You, right?

Continuing in Prayer

In honor of Tue's trip to India and beyond with his father, I have taken to reading Ravi Zacharias's book "Jesus Among Other Gods" as my prayer for Tue's salvation. 


(I am enjoying it and being challenged by it.  My recent favorite quote is stolen, if you will, from G.K. Chesterton:

“Dear Sir: Regarding your article 'What's Wrong with the World?' I am. Yours truly, G.K. Chesterton”)

But there are other parts of the book, of Zacharias's reasoning, that are meaningful to me as well with regard to Tue's salvation.  I want that man for You, Lord.  I respect his thoughtful consideration of Your claims.  I recognize, however, that the pull of his loyalty and love toward his father, a former Buddhist monk, is extremely powerful.

But You are more powerful.  I am counting on that.  And on the (so-called) power of prayer.

The verse that comes to mind with regard to this prayer and its alignment with Your will is 2 Peter 3:9b:

"Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

May it be so, Lord, according to Your will. For the sake of the expansion of the Kingdom of God in Christ Jesus~~Amen and amen.
  

Guy for God

Whew, Lord.  Day after Easter.  You did all the work!  I wonder whether You were "tired" after all that.  :)

I have set a reminder on my phone to pray for Tue every day.  I may not get a chance to post my prayer, but I know that You are aware of my prayerful intent.  When I can, I pause and ask.

I don't know whether there are "twinkles" there, mostly because I have not been able to watch them together for long in the short time that I have been with him.  Julie did not talk a lot about him over this holiday weekend; I wonder whether she talked about him with Ali and Jaime, especially since she spent more time with them than with us (except for sleeping).  (Yeah, slight dig, but I am trying to be gracious.)  

Sorry for the distraction, dear God.  Amy is late getting back to Messiah--no surprise, lots of traffic.

So back to Tue...

I know that You want him.  I searched for the verse, and 4 of them came up.  This was the first and the one:

The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.  2 Peter 3:9

(There is another Peter verse!  My "endurance of harsh treatment" verse is from 1 Peter.)

So, based on this verse, I am claiming Your promise.  You are not slow to fulfill it; and You made it!  I will also remain patient with You and Tue--harder for me than for You--and I will continue to pray.  Daily.  Either by posting or clicking.

Dear Lord, please rescue Tue.  We don't have enough great guys in the Church for our daughters!  :)  Not only for the women, though, but also for the men and most importantly for You and Your kingdom, we need good guys for God.  For Your sake and in Jesus's name~~Amen!

A Wonderful Vietnamese Buddhist

Even as I wrote the title of this post, Lord, I realized that perhaps Tue Ho is not a Buddhist in the same fashion as not every child of a Christian is a Christian.  In any case, Julie herself has said--in the more distant past, not clearly stated recently--that Tue is still seeking.  She has also told me/us that he is sensitive to the effect that a decision for Christianity may have on his Buddhist monk-father.  I must respect a young man, a son, who cares for his parents.  I know that You have said that

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Luke 14:26

Wow.  This is a dilemma that Tue faces.  He has been raised to be respectful, to honor his father and his mother--which is another of Your commandments--and to consider his actions (I think, on that last point).   To "hate his own father and mother" may not mean exactly that.  I hope not!  I just quickly read a commentary that put that word "hate" in a different context.  English can be harsh when it is used to translate a Biblical word.  Hate is more like loving far less, with far less preference, but NOT to treat badly or disrespectfully.


More on that another time.  However, Lord, for the sake of this post, please hear my heart's cry for Tue's heart.  May he follow You willingly, gladly, appreciatively for all that You have done for him.  And may I be bold enough to ask for the hearts of his parents as well?


In Jesus's redemptive name and nature~~Amen.

Prayer for NJ Relatives

Dear Lord, please bless with peace and harmony my extended family in NJ.  They are going through the decline and impending death of their mother, my aunt (not blood-connected but by marriage).  With 7 children, all of whom have children, there are many people and many hearts and many opinions involved.  Please make Yourself known to them and present with them during these stressful days.  In Jesus's name~~Amen.

PS  Please touch my own mother's heart and spirit in this situation.  This is her sister-in-law, the wife of my mother's only brother (now deceased).  My mother is particularly close to the oldest of their children and will be affected by any strife in the family.  Keep Mom peaceful because she is faith-full.  In Jesus's name (again), Amen.

President in Need of Prayer

It would not be a surprise to you, God, that I do not like the President of the United States.  Still, I want to obey Your Word to pray for those in authority in government.  He needs so much  prayer.  It disturbs me deeply that many of my countrymen and Christian siblings support him.  (I wanted to say, "He's an idiot."  That would not be very loving or consistent with Your character.)

So, for our sake, even more for Your sake, please bless him.  Not with material success--he has quite a lot of that--but with what DH called "a little humility."  I think he needs more than a little.  Please change his heart.  Please soften it toward people and toward You.  He is not giving much evidence of a spiritual maturity (but then, in another place, I just wrote that I am not giving much evidence in my own life at this time, either).  Please do what I would ask You to do for anyone: bring them close to You, whether for salvation or for sanctification.  Me, too.

In Jesus's loving name and in pursuit of His distinctive love in and for the world~~Amen.

Persecution vs. Sinfulness

Good evening, Lord.  Work has been more difficult than it has ever been in my life and career.  So, because I am in a hurry (DH is at the grocery store), please allow me to be brief, even terse.

Help.

I don't want to be proud.  I don't want to ignore my own problems and character flaws.  I do want to see what is happening with spiritually clear eyes--with Your eyes--and respond as You would.

In Jesus's name!  Amen.

I Hate Confrontation

So, Lord, another Sunday in the classroom.  I admit it is tiring me.  This week I served You in the girls' 3rd & 4th grade.  One young lady with whom we have had minor trouble since she was in Kindergarten came to class with a cast on her arm.  She is typically loud and distractible.  She was loud and distractible this week.  No change.

The curriculum talked about following rules and instructions, using Red Light Green Light the game to illustrate and have some fun. I admit it was a stretch, but the girls seemed to enjoy it.  The abovementioned young lady was doing fine until I directed all the girls to stay put for a moment while I debriefed them and tried to press home the point.  Off dashed Miss Casted One.  I sent her back to her mother.

Afterward, Mother came to me defensive and angry.

Points to consider:

• Miss Casted One collected all the extra Thanksgiving activity papers, folded them, and hid them in her coat.  Another student had to demand that she give one back for a student who came to class late.
• Historically as well as today, Miss Casted One has trouble not speaking out impulsively and off topic.   
• Most importantly, the impulsive dashing off in the Gym presents a danger.  Already, she has an injured arm.  Without warning and in the face of clear direction from me to stand with the other girls, she ran to the other side of the room.  This behavior meant that I could not trust that she would accept my authority.

I hate confrontation, dear Lord.  I am asking, begging, You to give me Spirit-directed words and perhaps even more importantly "ears" to hear what Mother needs to say.  Please also guard my mouth so that I do not speak "evil" or any hurtful thing.  To be sure, some of the thoughts that both my DH and I have shared would be hurtful if spoken to Mother.  (I hope none are true.)  But that is a topic for another time; this family has surely suffered and does not need too much confrontation--or maybe they do?  I will leave that to You to decide.

In Jesus's name, by the power of the Holy Spirit, and under the authority of the Father who disciplines us for our own good and His glory~~Amen.

My Own Interpersonal Effectiveness

...isn't very good.

There, I have said it.  Lord God, I look back over most of my life and realize that my relationships have been problematic for decades.  This area of life is not one of my strengths.  I don't really know what to do about this difficulty; of course, if I did, I would probably be doing the right things and I wouldn't be dealing with this weakness.

So, what do I do about my own stubbornness?  I have argued in my own mind several justifications for my behaviors and choices.  What do I value over relationships?  Truth?  Being right?  I want a spiritual adviser...but I am cynical and/or paranoid enough to distrust the motives of such people.

In the most recent situation, totally without meaning to do so, I apparently "offended" a young female patient by calling her out on her yelling at another, more fragile patient.  I pointed out that the young woman's behavior resembled that of someone she dislikes intensely (most people don't like that "someone") and whose words had hurt, even traumatized, her.  For reasons that I have examined over and over, the young woman has chosen to focus on me rather than on her inappropriate, even bullying, behavior. 

I have not backed down or apologized.  I am getting quicker and more willing to apologize when I am wrong--I think.  I am resisting this situation.  I don't believe that I was, or am, wrong.  Am I missing something?  I know this young woman is "traumatized."  (Now, I ask myself, why did I put that word in quotes?  Is this something I doubt is related to her trauma?)

Lord, please make--keep, when it happens--me humble.  Show me the error in my thinking, and help me to do the right thing.  In Jesus's name~~Amen.
 

Strawberry Mansion Tensions

Father God, You are the protector of the orphans.  Why do I start this post like that?  In some ways, I see the students of Strawberry Mansion in Philadelphia as orphaned by the city's school system and by the policies of poverty.  The public transit strike has contributed to their orphanhood; many of their parents cannot get to work without transportation, resulting in lost wages, lost jobs, lost food, lost opportunities for the families and especially for the students.

My daughter is caught up in this suffering as she serves those students.  She is also caught up in the dissatisfaction of the school's principal, who may herself be caught up in the suffering.  So, I said that I would pray for them both.  For my daughter, that she would know that You are BIG.  Bigger than all these problems, bigger than the principal, bigger than the forces of evil that we admit are loose in the world.  For that principal, that she would know the same things.  That she would be encouraged today by something, that she would say an encouraging thing--or two--and that she would (finally?) learn that leadership by intimidation is not as effective as leadership by love and example.

I need to get back to work.  In Jesus's name, and in the encouragement of the Spirit~~Amen.

Prayer for America

Spiritual Warfare Surrounding The Elections

Nothing is achieved in the Kingdom of God without warfare. That includes the election of righteous individuals to the leadership of one of the key nations on the planet. As we pray, we must expect the enemy to attack in many ways. There will be attacks on candidates and their families, on the media, the Church, and perhaps the nation itself. Some will be clearly spiritual, while other attacks may have physical manifestations. Our call is to have great discernment as we pray and stand in the strength of Christ’s victory

Pray today around the spiritual warfare issues involved in the election, such as:

Great awareness and discernment for the Lord’s praying people as they pray over the election.

Physical protection for all candidates and their families throughout this campaign season.

A strong hedge of protection around the nation itself during this time of decision.

The unleashing of the sword of the Spirit throughout the nation, judging the thoughts and intents of the heart (Hebrews 4:12).

Election 2016

Good evening, Lord.  I have tried to put prayer on my daily schedule, and I am pretty good at reading the devotional from Ecclesiastes--which is, incidentally, just perfect for this election season--but I am not good at documenting my prayer here.  Of course, that is not what matters.  It just helps me to be consistent and to prove, if only to myself, that I have prayed.

So, here I am, Lord.  The biggest thing on my mind may be this nation's upcoming election.  The choices we have are terrible.  If there were only a respectable candidate who held the values that I hold, I would surely choose that one.  There is not.  How do I make a decision?

I liked Max Lucado's suggestion.  Maybe it was less a suggestion than his personal accommodation to this dilemma.  

On November 7, I'm going to look at the platforms of both parties. I'm going to think hard about the character of both candidates. I'm going to get on my knees. And then when I wake up on November the 8, I'm just going to cast what I'm considering to be a informed vote.

Max also talked about "failing the decency test."  Yikes.  He has not disclosed his choice, but this comment was said about Donald Trump.  Hillary Clinton may not be "decent" either; however, she is consistent and predictable, if wrong.  I get the wrong part.  :)  It is possible for me to disagree with someone (they would be the wrong ones) and still work with them, praying for a correct decision.

So, Father God, show me something.  Ecclesiastes is a wonderful reflection on this all being "vanity...meaningless."  Keep me in that mindset.  It is all about You, Jesus.

Max put this from Lamentations on one of his posts:
 

This I recall to my mind,
Therefore I have hope.
The LORD’s lovingkindnesses indeed never cease,
For His compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
Great is Your faithfulness.
(Lam. 3:21-23)

You are always faithful!  In Jesus's name~~Amen.

Unity and Division

"Is there disunity among believers anywhere that brings reproach on Christ?"  From John Piper's Desiring God, 30 Prompts to Pray.


Oh, Lord, I felt in my heart the direction to seek a prayer prompt for my time with You today.  This is the one that grabbed my attention.  Unity is such a wonderful, lofty concept, and perhaps only a concept as an ideal.

Of course, the first instance and example of this prompt is our church.  How my heart and mind churn with concern and even anger at the divisiveness that I ... what? ... perceive, discern!  But that is no good.  That makes me complicit in the enemy's scheme to divide.  The balance is a difficult one to achieve; to see truth, to see beyond the surface and into people's intentions and hearts, is to see sin.  It may also be filtered through my own sinfulness.  What a quandary.

A second instance is my marriage.  A good one, by almost all standards!  Sometimes, though, I get annoyed at the simplistic, judgmental attitude of my dear husband, even though he presents it in fairly loving ways.  He does not see beneath the surface much.  What he sees...is.  He rarely sees the spiritual battle that takes advantage of ignorance and innocence and lack of awareness.  And that frustrates me, causing me to hold my tongue and to refrain from sharing my deepest thoughts, observations, conclusions, and worries.  He trivializes them and then I feel very misunderstood.  Consequently, I don't open up a lot.  Tim Keller's The Meaning of Marriage touches on this issue a bit--but he is Tim Keller, not my husband.  Tim thinks deeply.  Tim's job is to see spiritual truths and untruths and to call them out.  My husband prefers superficiality, I think.  It is, after all, easier.
 
So, today my prayer is to hold my tongue and to refrain from judgment.  To choose love and understanding and sweetness.  To dwell in the secure knowledge that YOU understand me, and know even more than I do about this spiritual battle the world is in and the church is in and even my marriage is in. 


I rather think it humorous that my devotions are currently in Ecclesiastes, where "all is vanity."  All.  This election is meaningless; the conflict in the church is meaningless; any tension in relationships is, on the surface, meaningless.  "Do not let your mouth lead you into sin." Ecclesiastes 5:6  Great advice.  In Jesus's great and all-meaningful name~~Amen.