thoughts & a prayer

Great Sand Dunes National Monument, CO
Copyright (c) 2008 Wendee Holtcamp

"There comes a point in your life when you realize who matters, who never did, who won't anymore... and who always will. So, don't worry about people from your past, there's a reason why they didn't make it to your future."

I got that in one of those email forwards from a friend and boy did it come at the right time. So true! OK and I just came across this quote and found it to be freaking hilarious! OK maybe some people will not appreciate this, but I do.

“Love is like handing someone a gun, having them point it at your heart, and trusting them never to pull the trigger.” - Spongebob

Here is a poem prayer that I wrote in 2000.

My prayer

God give me strength
to run this race you’ve laid before me
to help my children understand the depths of your love
to seek your truth and to do your will
Help me raise them in the way they should go
Not the way I wish but the way you wish
Help them know they always have choices
the power to decide right from wrong
with your divine help
To know that even when they’re alone
they are Not alone
your very real presence can be felt, communed with, spoken to
and you will respond
in the quietness of a still morn
and in the peace of knowing you
Lord help me to grasp your peace
and to give your peace to others
let me not increase bitterness, but to bring joy
Help others to accept your love
through my helping hands, my listening ears, and a peaceful spirit
through my choice of actions and my choice of words
and Lord forgive me when I fail

Let me not be afraid to shout your truth from the mountaintops!
for I have seen your very real presence in my life
in the beauty of your creation
in the small miracles that happen every day
and in the mercy you have shown me in my life
Lord let me not be torn from your presence by the busyness of this world
a world that brings only chaos
Let me not neglect to spend time
in your Word and in your Creation
to refresh my soul in the glory of what your hands crafted
Let the rivers of life fill my soul with your Spirit
wash away the chaos
and replace it with your peace.

a prayer

Butterflies on the San Saba River in the Texas Hill Country
Copyright (c) 2005 Wendee Holtcamp

My dad sent me this the other day and I really liked it.

A General Thanksgiving From the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer:

Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life, and for the mystery of love.

We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for the loving care which surrounds us on every side.

We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy and delight us.

We thank you also for those disappointments and failures that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.

Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying, through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.

Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and make him known; and through him, at all times and in all places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Also this video will make you cry! What an amazing story of a wild lion reunited with people who raised it as a cub.