Please take a moment to relax your mind and humble your heart to focus on Christ. Allow God to be the only person on your mind while you read this prayer. If you pray this prayer,change the number in the subject box before forwarding the message so people can SEE how many people have done so.

Dear Lord, I thank you for this day. I thank You for my being able to see and to hear this morning. I'm blessed because You are a forgiving God and an understanding God. You have done so much for me and You keep on blessing me. Forgive me this day for everything I have done, said or thought that was not pleasing to you. I ask now for Your forgiveness.

Please keep me safe from all danger and harm. Help me to start this day with a new attitude and plenty of gratitude. Let me make the best of each and every day to clear my mind so that I can hear from You.

Please broaden my mind that I can accept all things that are from you. Please give me discernment to know what your will is for me today. Give me discernment to hear your still small voice, and to know that you are the who is speaking to my heart.

Let me not whine and whimper over things I have no control over. Let me continue to see sin through God's eyes and acknowledge it as evil. And when I sin, let me repent, and confess with my mouth my wrongdoing, and receive the forgiveness of God.

And when this world closes in on me, let me remember Jesus' example -- to slip away and find a quiet place to pray. It's the best response when I'm pushed beyond my limits. I know that when I can't pray, You listen to my heart. Continue to use me to do Your will.

Continue to bless me that I may be a blessing to others. Keep me strong that I may help the weak. Keep me uplifted that I may have words of encouragement for others. I pray for those who are lost and can't find their way. I pray for those who are misjudged and misunderstood. I pray for those who don't know You intimately. I pray for those who will delete this without sharing it with others. I pray for those who don't believe as I take the time to thank you that I believe that you love me far beyond my capibility to comprehend the deepness of your love. The love that would allow and send your son so that I may have eternal life.

I believe that God changes people and God changes things. I pray for all my sisters and brothers. For each and every family member in their households. I pray for peace, love and joy in their homes that they are out of debt and all their needs are met.

I pray that every eye that reads this knows there is no problem, circumstance, or situation greater than God. Every battle is in Your hands for You to fight. I pray that these words be received into the hearts of every eye that sees them and every mouth that confesses them willingly..

This is my prayer.
In Jesus' Name, Amen.

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Please could I ask for all my friends to remember my eldest son in their prayers today, as he undergoes his second operation on his left should. They intend to 'borrow' a bit of bone from inside the shoulder joint and make the cup part of his shoulder joint larger, so, God willing, his shoulder will stop 'popping' out. He had his 10th dislocation last Friday.

“Can we play in the attic” came the cry from upstairs, “why” I said, “we just want to play hide and go seek”

Well, I can think of better places to play it, but if they really wanted to, just for a peaceful life, “okay, but don’t make a mess”.

Thinking of what the four youngsters could find up there got me thinking, of the ‘mess’ which desperately needed ‘sorting out’. The fear, also, that the odd foot might suddenly poke its way through to a bedroom ceiling below, did not make me feel any easier about my decision.

The attic which holds onto all our past memories, was about to be invaded. Boxes with labels on such as “Dad’s rubbish”, “Conservatory odds ‘n’ ends”, “Emily’s Bedroom”, could reveal all sorts of stories. My wife will always ask me to bring down the black sack with ‘x’ in it, and as I turn around in the attic, twenty or so, black refuse sacks, seem to turn and shout at me “it’s me, it’s me”.

So, it’s confusing all the “stuff” we keep in our attic’s, I liken it a bit like my own mind, where there are so many important things to remember, and store carefully away, to be retrieved at a moments notice. Birthday’s, anniversaries, where did I put Ashley’s homework, when I tied up etc, have to be all easily accessible, to be able to give a prompt answer.

Many of you will know that I have a little problem when it comes to my short term memory, that just trying to add a name to a face can cause so many problems, but ask me where my grandmother kept her ’wash day’ boiler, I can, in my minds eye, pin point it in her kitchen.

I need a mind-map to try and retrieve these answers, or perhaps one of those satellite navigation systems, with their strange Anglo-American voices, calmly telling you which turn to take. Then it struck me, God is my calm voice, guiding me with instructions, on my daily journeys, only sometimes, I like to think that I’m better than the voice, and try to make a decision without him, so my mind has become cluttered with black sacks full of wrong trips and bad memories. Time for a clean-up.

paul.akerman@surf.co.nz