Under my bed is an enormous blue paper bag stuffed with get well cards that I can’t throw away because to me they represent tangible prayers. When I was very ill, people—some I barely knew—were praying for me. They told me so in those cards, and I gained strength from that.
My mom is a first-rate pray-er, but I did not get that gene. The best I can do is writer Anne Lamott’s version of prayer: “Help me, help me, help me!” or “Thank you, thank you, thank you!”
But my mom, she has the power. She wants my travel itinerary before I go anywhere. I used to think it was a control issue, but now I know it’s so she can pray for me. I have no doubt that when I was ill, all her prayers helped pull me through. She’s a bulldog pray-er, or in biblical terms, a persistent widow.
Do you know someone who needs prayer? (Who doesn’t?) Make a list and pray—the world needs more bulldogs.
Today we remember Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, martyr (circa 115). This message was adapted from “Bulldog Prayers” written by Terri Lackey that first appeared in the June 2010 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine.
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