Morning Prayers

God, today is one of those days where I really need your blessings poured down upon me like a torrential rainstorm. God I come to you with open hands and an open heart prepared to receive those blessings, scoop them up and swim in them.

The truth is, really, that I have nothing to complain about.

God, please help me help Eleanor. I love that little girl so much, and I just wish that I could wave a magic wand and make everything better for her. I wish that there could be something about school that she likes. God, I pray that you will help me to better understand and relate to her. I always loved school. Of course, there were things about school I didn’t like. I got picked on and bullied, which was emotionally scarring. But I enjoyed the academic part of school. I liked my binders and my papers and being organized, so I don’t understand her vehement loathing of school. God, you have blessed her with a very intelligent brain; I’m so thankful for this. She has amazing creativity and artistic ability.

God, I am so ready for fourth grade to be over that I can hardly tell You how much I am looking forward to the end of this year and starting fifth grade with a clean slate. Sometimes I get so worn down from the battles with homework and having to go to school. It doesn’t help that there are teachers, like Mrs. ___ , who don’t understand the variety of ways ADHD presents itself and impacts young girls or that there are other children who aren’t always nice to her. I guess I can understand why she doesn’t want to go to school, but life is about doing all sorts of things we don’t want to do and school is one of those things.

God I pray that you will please provide me with the knowledge and the wisdom I need to help Ella work through these difficulties with school, so that she can find happiness and enjoyment in her days, and so that she can be successful, because I know she is more than capable.

God I know that Em isn’t feeling well today. I ask that you will please be with her and help her get through testing this morning until I can leave work to pick her up. I dislike sending her to school when she doesn’t feel well, but she is worried about missing testing and I can’t lose my job because of taking too much sick time.

God I am so thankful for all the blessings in my life. After reading this morning’s devotional which discussed rejoicing in our needs because it draws us closer to You … God I pray that you will help me to do this. I don’t know that I always know how to do this. I know how to ask for things that I need. I know how to worry about things that I need. But I’m not entirely sure that I know how to rejoice in the things that I need. Intellectually I can understand that having a need and praying about that need draws me closer to You, but this week has seemed especially difficult. I find it difficult to rejoice in my need when I feel yucky.

I am fairly certain that I have allergies after my less than extensive research on Google. I’m starting to think that this is not a lingering cold but allergies related to all of the pollen. I have never had allergies before in my life. Growing up in Miami where we had less dramatic seasonal changes, I never had allergies. Apparently we have an extremely high pollen count this spring (God, I don’t really understand how they figure all that out). I went to the Bee Store in Pickens yesterday after friends and co-workers suggested eating a spoon full of local honey every day, but then I read, on WebMD via Google, that the honey remedy doesn’t really work.

The point of all my rambling, God, is that I started out this week in such a positive frame of mind with so many things I wanted to work on, so many things I had intentions of accomplishing, but I have felt so awful that I don’t have the extra energy to do anything beyond going to work every day and coming home to take care of the most minimal of necessities. We’ve had volleyball games on top of that and that eats up huge chunks of time in the evenings, so I feel as though I have gotten nothing accomplished. I feel sluggish and I dislike that feeling immensely.

God, I really need energy and to feel better. I pray that whatever is going on with my sinuses and all this congestion in my head that You will please heal my body so that I can begin feeling like I have some get up and go. I have too much to do to feel yucky.

God, I think I also tend to worry that when things are going well (this is terrible), I worry that when things are going well that something awful must be about to happen because life can’t possibly be going this smoothly for such a consistent period of time. Isn’t that terrible? God, I’m sorry for thinking and feeling this way – for worrying about things that haven’t even happened. God I pray that you will help me learn to relax, for lack of a better word, and to really enjoy the blessings that you have given me and that you continue to give me, without being worried that the other shoe is going to drop.

God, I still have things that need to be worked on – wounded places in my heart that need mending – and I pray that You will help me to do this so that I can thoroughly and completely enjoy this life that You have given me. God, I am truly so thankful and I feel like thanks isn’t even enough to express how grateful I am for everything that You are doing in my life.

God I ask that You will please guide me through this day and make me aware of opportunities where I can serve You, where I can give back, where I can share Your love and blessings with others.

God I thank You so much for my two amazing daughters and I pray that You will help me to be absolutely the best mom I can be for them, so that they always know that they are treasured and valued beyond what they can imagine. God I thank You for treasuring and valuing me in a way that I can’t even comprehend. Thank you for being my guide through this day.

In Jesus’ Name I pray. Amen.