It’s Here!!!!!

“Prayer moves the arm that moves the universe … Prayer is the greatest privilege man can have.”

This a quote cited in the book, “Soldiers of the Cross” by Kent D. Dollar. Dollar found this quote in a hand-written journal from a soldier in the civil war by the name of Edward Owings Guerrant. I don’t know whether this was Guerrant’s original thought or if he had heard someone else say it.

I found the book by Dollar about ten years ago in the gift shop of a civil war battle site just outside of Washington D. C. while visiting my son who lived in D. C. at the time. The book in general and this quote in specific grabbed me. I could just picture a soldier in the throes of war, sitting by himself contemplating prayer and writing about it in his journal.

I can relate. I may not have ever fought in a physical war but I have been in spiritual wars contemplating and journaling about prayer.

For four years, in fact, I did just that.

At the end of those four years I had a manuscript written on the topic of prayer. Then, it took another almost eight years working on turning that manuscript into a book. It garnered a special recognition along the way when it finaled in the 20011 Women of Faith” unpublished manuscript competition. But until now it had not made it into book form.

Today, at last, I am thrilled to announce that the book is finally out! It can be purchased in paperback and will be available in e-book form in a few more days.

Here’s the link: Prayer: It's Not About You 

A Cheery Countenance

This little story may not seem as funny to my readers as it was to me when it happened. But at the time, it was one of the funniest things that had ever happened in my entire life. December of 2003 was a difficult period for my family. We had some family issues and at the same time my husband was having a total hip replacement. My sweet parents came to spend a few weeks with us, to help me out during this difficult time. 

My mother is no animal lover but my husband is. We had three dogs. My poor mother was sweetly putting up with the dogs while also trying to keep my house cleaned, my laundry done, and meals for the family cooked so I could be at the hospital with my husband. One particular day, one of our dogs spent the day eating grass, when she let him out, and then proceeded to throw up on the family room carpet. My mother patiently cleaned it up.

By late afternoon that day, my husband came home from the hospital. As we sat around the dining room table preparing to eat the meal my mother had cooked, we all bowed our heads to ask the Lord’s blessings on the food. It is my parent’s custom to hold hands as they pray so when they visit, my family does this as well. That night, we all bowed our heads, closed our eyes, and reached our hands out for the hand of the person next to us. Then, my father led us in prayer. When the prayer was over; my mother, with hand still stretched out, looked at my youngest child and asked why his hand was wet. He explained that she was not holding his hand. She looked in the direction of her hand, let out a scream, and jumped up from her seat. 

As it turned out, when my mother reached out to hold the hand of my youngest child, one of our dogs stuck his nose in my mother’s open palm.

My son said he reached his hand out but no one took it so he put it in his pocket. My mother, on the other hand, put her hand out with her eyes closed and thought she had taken hold of her grandchild’s hand when she actually had taken hold of the dog’s nose. The dog sat very obediently and let my mother hold his nose throughout the entire blessing.