Praying for Blessings

I solemnly swear I won’t get too preachy today. Stick with me a few moments.

As a Christian, I take seriously the instruction to “pray without ceasing”. This means to me that I must, MUST pray all the time and for everyone.

Praying all the time gets easier with practice. As I get up in the morning, I simply thank GOD that I made it through the night and have one more day to try to “get it right”. This is usually followed by my request that I don’t have a reason to skin my children before breakfast. (I am only human, after all.)

As we set out to school, we pass the first crossing guard. I pray for them, as that is a job I DO NOT want and you couldn’t pay me enough to do. GOD bless them for standing outside in nasty weather to keep our kids safe. Next we pass a school bus. I pray for my favorite bus drivers: Sharon and Adric. Don’t forget Donna. We wave at Donna or whomever it is driving that YMCA bus.

Thus goes my day.

I say out loud “GOD bless you!” when someone lets me out in traffic. I ask GOD to bless the police, ambulance, or fire vehicle that passes me and “who ever they are going to try to help.” When I pass a sad, squished remnant of an animal on the side of the road, before I avert my eyes I try to manage to say “bless it”.

Everything and everyone NEEDS a blessing. Even stupid ‘possums.

If I have managed to remember to pray throughout the day, I’ve accomplished praying for a fair-sized group of people.

Have you noticed that I keep it short and sweet and mostly say “bless it/them”? My feeling is that GOD knows best what blessing will most help someone. Don’t get me wrong, I make LOTS of suggestions for the people that I know. “She needs help with X, GOD, can you make sure this works for her?” “Help this boy to be quiet and rest for a few minutes, even if he doesn’t nap.” I’ve found praying for friends is easy. I’m just loaded with ideas for how GOD could bless them.

The hard part is praying for enemies.

If I cannot think of anything else, I just say “bless them”.

Those of you that know something of me, know I have an ex-husband. (Henceforth referred to as “The Jerk”.) It took a lot of emotional and spiritual growth to be able to pray in the positive for him. “Just bless him and keep him far away from me and mine” was the best I could do for years. (I’ll leave this topic now.)

How can you pray for a dead person? What if it is someone you don’t know? MOST, but not all, of the dead people we know are happily existing in HEAVEN right now. Do they really need our prayers? I sincerely doubt they “need” anything from us, so I simply pray “GOD bless their souls and all those that miss them.”

It’s us poor people left behind that need the blessings. Bless you. Be blessed. However you say it, just say it once in awhile for the people you love.