Posted Prayers - Week 2

I'm still thinking about prayers when we don't do all the talking. This week, I'm looking at prayers where God does pretty much all the talking while we keep silent. I want to give the prayer time a little direction, though, so I'm doing what I'll call a "guided listening prayer," where I will suggest an area of concern, you bring to mind specific persons or things in that category and wordlessly lift them up to the Lord, for Him to touch as He knows best. Listen to what He has to say. Then, after a few moments, you can move on to the next topic.


Heavenly Father,
Today,
I want to listen to You.
To present my concerns
And know Your thoughts.
To share my dreams
And know Your plans.
To hold my life up
Open to Your gaze.
To wait in the silence
And hear Your voice.

First, Father, I bring You my relationships
The people I care for....
....
....

Next, I offer You my fears
The things that hold me back from serving You....
....
....

Here, Papa, are my sorrows
All the tears You collect like gems....
....
....

Here are my dreams
The desires You placed in my heart....
....
....

Here, Father, is my ministry
The purpose for which You created me.
....
....

Here is my life
Show me Your will....
....
....

Amen.

Posted Prayers - Week 1

When we talk about prayer, we usually think of us talking and God listening. But what if we could have an actual conversation with Him? Exodus 33:11 says:

"Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, just as a man speaks to his friend."

Today's prayer is based on that idea, entirely using scripture passages.

*****

THE LORD CAME CALLING

"Where are you?"

“Speak, for your servant is listening.”

“Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

“Who am I, Lord? How can I save them? I am the weakest. I am the least. What if they do not believe me? What if they do not listen?"

 “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” 

"Show me your glory.”

"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished...."

“Woe to me! My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!  I have seen the Lord face to face!”

"The Lord's fire has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 

"Lord, you made the human mouth. Help me speak and teach me what to say."

“Go in the strength you have. Am I not sending you?”

“If your Presence does not go with me, do not send me up from here."

"Be strong and courageous, Be strong and very courageous. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” 

"Here am I. Send me!”

Ch-ch-ch-changes....

As we all know, life is growth. Life is change. I'm sure your life is changing. (I'd love to hear how!) My life is changing, too. The Hubster and I (yep! gonna call him that!) are empty-nesters now. Which gives us a lot more freedom to come and go as we please.. His official engagement with the "world of work" is seen by some to be nearing its end, based on the calendar. On the other hand, after years of having home, family, and children as my main focus, I feel a sense of spreading my wings and preparing to soar.

I'm feeling a need for change, a need to be untethered. Like a falcon.

Do you ever feel like something is about to change? You're not sure what it is, exactly. But there's something—an electricity, maybe—in the air.

Wind's in the east,
Mist comin' in,
Like somethin' is brewin'
About to begin.

Can't put my finger
On what lies in store,
But I feel what's to happen's
All happened before. —Burt the Chimneysweep, in Mary Poppins

So, I'm going to start changing things. Not all at once, but gradually, a little at  time, until it feels like a better fit.

DISCLAIMER: I am NOT going to change to a different husband, family, or faith. And I may take  on some new friends, but I have no plans to get rid of any old ones!

Now, on with the show, as I start by changing a couple little things about my online presence.

1. Beginning Saturday, this blogger will post a written prayer. My inspiration will be taken from my life, the news, and the lives of those around me, as they give me access  to their worlds. That week's prayer may be meaningful only to me, or one other person. but if it resonates with more people, so much the better!

2. Beginning today, instead of having a quotable quote blog, I'll be tweeting a quote (or more) a day on Twitter—@MarGunWoo.

Guess that's all I have to say right now. Got some "stuff" to get done!

Welcome to the C.C.S. Patrol!

Welcome to a new feature of The Learning Curve--the C.C.S. Patrol! What does C.C.S. stand for, you ask? Well, I'll tell you. It stands for Crappy Customer Support! You would think that with the cost of everything going up and up and up, you'd think the quality of service would at least stay the same, wouldn't you? WRONG! More and more, companies want you to leave a voice mail message, or email them, or leave a message on their website.

I can see it now . . . . "Dear Company X, I am finding it impossible to access your website. Therefore, as requested, I am contacting you via your website (which I cannot access) to report the problem."

Well, duh . . .

My latest adventure? I got an email this morning, "from Twitter" telling me that the password to my Twitter account had been compromised and I needed to follow "this link" to reset my password. Pretty sure that's not from Twitter, but I'd still like to contact them to confirm that and give them a heads-up in the process.

So, I call the only Twitter phone number I can find (NOT toll-free, just long distance), only to get a recording informing me that "Twitter does provide customer support by phone at this time . . . ." Then, it tells me to report any problem through my Twitter account!

Well, duh . . . .

Oh! It did tell me that if I knew my party's extension, I could enter it at any time. I suppose I COULD call them back and just start entering extension numbers at random, until I got a person who would listen. Let's see, most extension numbers are combinations of 3 or 4 digits. Hmmm . . . .

I wouldn't be so concerned, except this scammer (if that is indeed what it is) had BOTH my email address and my Twitter username. That smells to me like Twitter may have been hacked!  WORD OF WARNING!

Soooo . . . what experiences would YOU like to report to the C.C.S. Patrol? Post here, and we'll tackle the corporate "Routing System Goliaths" together.

TUNE IN NEXT TIME: When I'll tell you a trick I've discovered for outfoxing the "speak or enter" instructions.

MIA Apology

First things first. I apologize for being MIA for so long. I have a good excuse, though. Several of them, in fact.

1. September 6 was my birthday. (Clue to my age - I'm just getting up to speed.)
2. September 7-8 was my birthday weekend.
3. September 9-12 I was preparing for . . .
4. September 13-15, which was the ACFW (American Christian Fiction Writers) conference. (And I went to it!)
5. September 16 I worked on and sent some of the writing pieces requested by the agents and editors at the ACFW! (And in case you haven't guessed, that's a very good thing!) I also went to my monthly writing group. (Another very good thing.)
6. September 18 I was on a discussion panel in my role as a writer. The topic was how do I get scripture in me, and the that God uses Scripture in my writing to accomplish His work in mine. 
7. September 19 was when I heard back from someone who was a post-conference recipient of my writing samples. She wanted to see more! (I sent it!)
8. September 19-24 I have been working to finish the novel.

And in between has been all the ordinary, day-to-day, important stuff.

SO, that's my excuse. WHAT'S YOURS? If you stopped by my blog and I wasn't home, why didn't you leave a note? I'd love to hear from you.

Anyway, what the majority of that list means is that it looks like I may be taking the first steps toward finding a publisher!

That's all I have time to post right now. I've been thinking, though, and I'll have more to say SOON!