A Prayer for Tuesday

Again, O heavenly Father, You have granted me strength to rise to the tasks of the day. I thank You for Your mercy and love. Without Your power upholding me I should be unable to live. Give me a spirit of gratitude for all Your gifts. Above all, dear Father, keep me grateful for the gift of the forgiveness of all my sins through the merits of Jesus Christ, Your Son and my Savior. Grant that whatever need, whatever sorrow may beset my day, my faith in this forgiveness may remain steadfast and firm. Let no grief or pain, no doubt or gloom, come between me and the certainty of Your love. If it is Your purpose to try me this day with difficulties for the body or the heart, grant that I may, by Your Spirit, conquer in this trial and hold fast to Your mercy, knowing that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory You have in store for me. Make Your Word my joy, Your counsel my guide, Your presence my peace; in Jesus Christ. Amen.

~ from Lutheran Book of Prayer

Make your Word my joy.

Amen.

Ten things about me.

Some things about me:

1. I have been collecting house plans since I was in elementary school - about 45 years! I can sit and look at house plans for hours - and imagine.

2. I am the oldest of 6 kids and am the only girl. I miss having a sister.

3. Books are my downfall. I have a hard time leaving a bookstore without a purchase.

4. Maxier, Tripp, Jonah, Ava and Edie are in my prayers tonight.

5. I am a lifelong Lutheran.

6. Attention is not my thing. I prefer to be in the background. If I were to become famous, I'd want to do it anonymously. How impossible is that? ha

7. I was a cheerleader in high school AND college. That was back in the day, of course.

8. Baking needs to be done with real butter - preferably Land O'Lakes. Nothing else even compares.

9. Do what makes your heart sing.

10. If I had to pick someone to be stranded with on a desert island, I'd pick my husband.

Tuesday's progress.

I made a copy of the first six verses of Philippians, and taped the copy to an index card. I wear jeans pretty much every day, and the card fits nicely in my back pocket.

I started memorizing the verses while walking on the treadmill today.

Let's see what I've got.

Philippians 1:1-6

1 Paul and Timothy, servants in Christ Jesus, to all of the saints in Christ Jesus who are at Philippi, with the overseers and deacons:

2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

3 I thank my God in all my remembrance of you,

Okay - let's see how I did.

First verse - oops, that should be servants "of", not "in"

it should be "to all the saints" (delete "of")

Second verse - good

Third verse - good

So far, so good.

See you tomorrow.

A New Year

I came across a challenge yesterday at Paul McCain's Cyberbrethren site - memorizing Scripture, specifically Philippians.

I've always loved Philippians. The verse in the header has always been one of my favorites. I've never attempted to memorize an entire book of the Bible before, though. I'm going to do it. Since yesterday was Monday, I decided to plunge right in.

This week: Philippians 1:1-6

I have Pastor Matthew Harrison's book, A Little Book on Joy: The Secret of Living a Good News Life in a Bad News World, (autographed, BTW), and C.S. Lewis' Surprised by Joy on my bookshelf. That sounds like a good place to start.