prayer

Did that scare you? Is this going to be a religious rant or a call to pray? Have you stopped reading this yet? It certainly scares off those callers who ask me to donate to their cause - from the police guilds to pennies for orphans or whoever is asking for money. Stop them mid pitch and say, "I can't offer you a monetary donation but I will pray for your cause" - be sure to affect a southern accent - somehow it makes you sound more sincere. They stop in their tracks and thank you and hang up. A few might say - any small amount of money would help. But stick to your guns and offer to pray right then and there with them - believe me, they can't wait to get off the line. Or be indignant and insist your prayers are as valuable as dollars. (completely off the subject - another way to get them to cross you off their call list...."Paul, (Paula) come home, all is forgiven, you don't have to keep calling like this" - they usually protest once or twice, they are not Paul (Paula) they are from blah-blah organization. But continue to forgive them and urge them to return home. You won't hear from them again)

Prayer confuses even the pray-ers, like me. My Mother had lots of sayings about prayer. "You don't how to pray until you have children" - this certainly covers the first time your kid drives a car on their own. She also said you really shouldn't pray for anything but the health and safety of your family. A favorite phrase - "little lives, Lord, little lives" meaning be happy with what you have - what? What about the big life I've been promised? - as a selfish teenager I wanted to ask that. Okay, not promised but certainly entitled to. Now the prospect of "little lives" for me and my husband is wonderful....each other, our home which we love, our children and their spouses we love as our own, and the light of our lives - our granddaughter. Who needs fame, or millions...we have it all.

My Mother will be quoted here often. She was a homemaker and dedicated her life to her family. But she was smart, well read, witty, and taught her daughters to stand up for themselves. She had a circle of strong women friends who relied on each other - perhaps the best lesson I learned from her. She's been gone 10 years and almost everyday I still think of her.