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Long Thanksgiving Prayers

Give Thanks

I’m looking forward to Thanksgiving this year. My son, David, wife Sarah, Jackson, Adelaide, and Charlotte will walk over to our house for dinner. My brother, Robert, wife, Marcia, from Springfield, Missouri, our niece, Heidi from Oklahoma City and nephew Kurt, from Chicago, will also be there.  My son, John, who many of you met in Albuquerque, will fly in from LA with his girlfriend, Rita. And my husband, Bill, will tell the same jokes and make the same remarks he always does at a big family gathering! What fun! We may actually get everyone together for a family Christmas photo! My Thanksgiving prayer is pretty long!

I’m also thankful for the opportunity to visit and hear from our mission grant recipients—current and past—who express their thankfulness to me for the support the LWML has given them in their mission outreach ministries. I wish you could hear each one. We have a page in the Mission section of our website called “Your Mite Offerings Have Made a Difference” where we carry updates, thank you letters, and photos from grants current and past. These recipients have long Thanksgiving prayers for you all who faithfully fill your Mite Boxes in order to help them spread the Word of God around the world.

I know you all have much to be thankful for. As we attend church this Thanksgiving we will thank God for all the material things we have been blessed with as well as the most wonderful thing of all, faith in Jesus Christ and the gift of everlasting life. We thank God for loving us and sending His only son to die on the cross in payment for our sins. We thank God for making us heirs of His heavenly home. It’s almost too much to include in a single prayer of thanksgiving. Just so much! Amazing love, amazing Grace, amazing God!

I’m wishing all of you a Happy Thanksgiving and very long Thanksgiving prayers!

Patti

Oh give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; for his steadfast love endures forever! (Psalm 118:1)

Lutheran Women in Mission

Learning How to Let Go

Sometimes you have to let go! We’ve all faced time of letting go. Letting go of our children as they go to school, from grade school to college and beyond. We have to let go of our family traditions as our families move far away geographically—think of Thanksgiving and Christmas. We have to let go of the idea that our children will want our china and crystal someday! You can add your own.

What does this have to do with my thinking about LWML this week? I have to tell you, if a woman in my congregation came up to me and said she wanted to start an additional LWML group in my church, after I picked myself up off the floor, I would be so excited! If they wanted to meet once a quarter, or have Bible study and collect mites only, or do activities with their small children, I would be so excited! If they wanted to have an LWML as a service group alongside a women’s ministry group already in existence in their church, I would be so excited!

Yet I received two inquiries from women interested in starting LWML groups who met opposition because they are proposing an alternative look for an LWML group. Isn’t that sad. When we “mentor” women in LWML that doesn’t mean we make them do exactly what we have been doing in our LWML group over the years. If we are comfortable in our group and how it operates and when it meets, and don’t want to change, why not encourage formation of another LWML group? They, too, want a group that they are “comfortable” in. Why not try letting go?

I hope you will take it as a mentoring opportunity should some women in your church want something different in their LWML group and are proposing to start one with a different look. Teaching with love and encouragement can be a great example of “serving the Lord with gladness.”

Believing that God has molded each of us individually with love should help us let go. Individual molds means no two are exactly alike. Can’t we let go and let God guide the women to celebrate LWML as it meets their needs? Be a positive mentor. Just think how exciting it would be to have more than one LWML group in all our congregations!

I [Paul] therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ’s gift (Ephesians 4:1-7).

Love to you!
Patti

Me and the LWML office staff at a session on, “Effective Mentor-ship”.

Missions for God

Diving into His Word

Imagine slightly claustrophobic me when my husband asked if I would consider taking scuba diving lessons along with our three children! Not a rousing “let’s go” from me, but sounded like an adventure. So began a family sport and 26 years later we are still diving! God has always used my husband, Bill, to push me, encourage me and love me.

So I find myself on a heaving dive boat, strapping on at least 25 pounds of gear, trying to balance on a slippery deck and making my way to the jump off area with fins on! Are we having fun yet? Jump in, try airing up the vest, adjusting mask, salt water in your mouth, fighting wind and sometimes rain, waiting to go down.

Going down takes some effort. Do I have enough weights on, are my ears equalizing, is my mask fogging up? Then at about 35 feet, all is adjusting and it’s clear descent from there on down. Now I am surrounded by the peace and beauty of God’s creation underwater. I focus on the tiny creatures with unique colors, shapes and hideouts. The beautiful shapes and colors of the corals serve as background for turtles and barracuda, while the sandy bottom hides rays and flounder and eels.

At times life feels like being on that rocking boat and being swamped by salty waves, doesn’t it! And working on LWML business can feel like that at times, too! But getting through those times is like being on the dive boat. If you keep going, heavy load and all, and get in, just 35 feet down things are going to be calm and peaceful. The only place you’ll find peace in the midst of life’s storms, is through the in-depth experience with God—a deeper relationship. Diving into His Word, going deeper into your prayer life, can bring peace that “passes understanding”.

Has someone urged you to take on something that puts you in a rocking boat? Feeling unsteady? Keep going and dive deeper into God’s peace that He wants you to enjoy! Experience it and then share it!

Calling on all LWML scuba divers! Let me hear from you!