Grace at Woodland Lake Park



Woodland Lake Park, Lakeside, Arizona



A few weeks ago, when I was first starting to research blog sites, I decided to go to Woodland Lake Park, where there is a one-mile path around the lake.  My walks there are always spiritually oriented and give me inspiration.  As I began my walk, I realized someone had placed bright-colored envelopes on some of the park benches – each envelope had a number on it and invited a passerby to take a peek.  There were messages inside the envelopes – spiritual messages!  I soon realized there was a prayer walk happening and I was walking “backwards” numerically from the messages, so I turned around and started where the messages began.  It was a great experience – Grace at Woodland Lake Park!

As it turned out, it was a “Girlfriend Get-a-way Prayer Walk” provided by church members in Surprise, Arizona, from Reveal – A Vineyard Community Church.  Each of the messages offered suggestions for utilizing scriptures and/or for how the scriptures support one’s life.  The idea of the prayer walk was to meditate on the specific scripture reading until you received the next scripture reading.  I’ll share some of their chosen scriptures:

Love – Psalm 100:5 – For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generations.

Isn’t it typical, when life is going well, we do not often think of God’s presence; more often, when life is at its most difficult, we bring God into our lives – too often to chastise Him for what we believe is a lack of His presence.  Because of His love, His presence and mercy are everlasting, as is His truth.  This Psalm is one of recognition, thanksgiving and gratitude for His love and faithfulness.

Joy – Nehemiah 8:10 – “…Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Isn’t it strange, it’s so hard to realize or to believe that God wants us to have joy in our lives.  We are often our own worst enemies, punishing ourselves and thinking we are undeserving of joy.  I read something yesterday that relates to this:

“Ego: That part of us that continues to worry, lives in doubt, is afraid, judges other people, is afraid to trust, needs proof, believes only when it is convenient, fails to follow up, refuses to practice what it preaches, needs to be rescued, wants to be a victim, beats up on ‘self,’ needs to be right all of the time, and continues to hold on to what does not work.” (Iyanla Vanzant)

Because it is so easy to stay in Ego as a human, we often forget or never learn one of God’s most precious passages: “He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:39) 

Peace – John 14:27 – “Peace I leave with you.  My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.  Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.”

This is one of my favorites because I often pray for peace.  On the third anniversary of 911, I held a peace walk at Woodland Lake Park.  I do believe that all the peace we extend each day ripples out to the universe – each of us has a part in this.  In this verse, however, it’s more personal; it’s hard to Let Go and Let God; we are often too fearful and untrusting to not stay in control.  It takes courage!  Recently, on American Idol, Stephen Tyler, told one of the contestants: “Courage is fear that said its prayers.”  You just never know where or when you’re going to get a message – I consider that a touch of Grace.

Patience – 2 Peter 3:9 – The Lord is not slack [slow] concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.

Patience – phew!  This is a tough one – all in due time – but that is so very hard to understand.  Waiting often seems like forever as we wait upon a sign from God, with impatience.  He actually gives us a lot of signs but we too often swat them away like a mosquito, like I said in my first blog, or we miss it altogether.  This is where intuition comes in.  When we feel most disconnected, we are not listening to our intuition.  I heard that message many years ago and have tried to remind myself of it.

Kindness – Titus 3:3-5 – For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another.  But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

I really love the word kindness – I feel it requires humility to be genuinely kind.  One of my favorite words in The Bible is Lovingkindness, which is very often used in Psalms.  I don’t know that there is a more beautiful word.  As humans, we have done so much to disappoint God and yet His lovingkindness still shines through – I guess we’d call that unconditional love today:  How precious is Your lovingkindness, Oh God!  Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.  (Psalm 36:7)

Kindness – Collossians 3:12 – Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.

I think this passage creates a nice metaphor, if we remember each day, to clothe ourselves with tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering (patience) and forgiveness, our world would be a much more peaceful and accepting place.

Good – Exodus 18:9 – Then Jethro rejoiced for all the good which the Lord had done for Israel, whom He had delivered out of the hand of the Egyptians.

The word good is used in The Bible many, many times – often used in Genesis, when God saw the “good” in all His creations.  Of course, there is the distinction between good and evil; but, I think in the scripture passage above, it’s one to remind us of how many times the Lord has done good for us and has “delivered” us out of many predicaments during our lives, which is another opportunity for gratitude.

Gentleness – Philippians 4:5-7 – Let your gentleness be known to all men.  The Lord is at hand.  Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Gentleness – not very easy to find theses days – in our high-tech, fast-paced world, a gentle soul is a gift.  A number of years ago, I ran across a Holy Cross Priest from Notre Dame, who was the person in charge of the André House, a ministry to the homeless and poor populations of Phoenix.  The moment I met him, I knew I was in the presence of the “gentleness” of Jesus – it was an amazing experience.  This was during a time when I worked with persons with a serious mental illness; I learned the most important gift I could offer each person was the gift of gentleness: But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.  Against such there is no law.  (Galatians 5:22-23)

Faithfulness – Psalm 36:5 – Your mercy, O Lord, is in the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.

Faithfulness – Hebrews 13:5 – Let your conduct be without covetousness; be content with such things as you have.  For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.”

It takes strong life experiences to truly understand the expanse of God’s love and mercy and His faithfulness toward us.  It is our own faithfulness toward Him that is a very strong and tough lesson to learn.  I will do a separate blog on The Lord’s statement because it is so powerful.

Self Control – Proverbs 25:28 – Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.

Just my opinion, but we’re way out of control in our society today.  I expressed to the prayer walk women that I was particularly glad they chose and included this passage.  It is so important.  We’ve lost so much human decency, self respect and common courtesy in such a short span of time; I worry how far we’re going to spin this cycle.

So, by way of this blog, I thank the “Girlfriend Get-A-Way Prayer Walk” for taking the steps to come to Pinetop-Lakeside to bring light to our community.  It was a special gift to me.  I’m typically so grateful for the abounding nature that’s ever-present at Woodland Lake Park; this experience offered a special gift of Grace.  I hope the women enjoyed their weekend stay in the cool pines.

National Day of Prayer - 2012

Dearest Lord,

It is with an open heart that we come to You today on this event, the National Day of Prayer.  But, where do we begin?  There is so much conflict in our world today.  We ask ourselves how we might possibly make the tiniest impact on such a long-standing fight in the Middle East.  It is so overwhelming, Lord.  To pray for world peace is a very large order; and, as humans, we feel helpless in the process.

Yet, somehow Lord, You graciously come to us each day—the sun rises and sets, the rains come, the rivers flow and the plants flourish and feed us—and for that, Lord, we are filled with gratitude.  In our efforts to give something in return on this special day, please help us to be that mindful, that individual.  Help us to think beyond ourselves to others’ needs today—even if for just one person.

As we go about our day on this National Day of Prayer, please give us a watchful eye—help us to notice a sad face, a tired gait, an empty heart.  Please help us to know that even the smiling faces have frustrations, financial woes, or worries on their mind.  Please help us today, Lord, to extend our hand to another person—to open a door, say a kind word, express a smiling face or a cheerful hello!  And, as we go through our day, please help us to pray.  For we know, Lord, that prayer works miracles and all of life is a miracle!

Lord, it is through You that we learn peace and love—it is through You that we learn forgiveness.  Please help us to be more compassionate, to extend understanding to those who are most misunderstood.  Please help us to open our hearts and share the love that is inside everyone’s heart.  Please help us to step outside ourselves to ask for Your love and healing to be given to those who have chosen a path of evil and wickedness.

Lord, please show us the way to turn this ship around from a warring world to a peaceful one.  Please help us to realize we are all vulnerable souls, trying to do our best in a hectic, sometimes scary, society.  We, in America, have had our fears peaked recently; other nations suffer from this type of fear daily.  We need to be cognizant of their lives as our fellow human beings.

As Mother Teresa said:  “The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow; but, do good anyway!”  Lord, help us to glean from her undying spirit.  Help us to see beyond the angry face, the tattered clothes, the aged stance, or the crippled walk.  Help us to know that there is a beautiful heart in every human—a heart that with the slightest, most gentle, touch, may open and flourish.

Dear Lord, lastly, I ask that You teach us to pray and to love one another.  For every moment of love that we extend, please help that to multiply abundantly toward peace in our world.  Please help us to go to our own hearts to find Your peace.

With gratefulness and thankfulness, I ask Your blessing on humanity, Lord.  Amen.

Recognition of Grace

During the aftermath of 911, I was moved to write.  I found I was writing more poetry and I was also creating prayers, which was something new for me.  This writing brought me to the subject of Grace, so  I began to research the subject.  Grace is an unmerited favor and love of God toward humanity in Christ.  The more I researched, the more I wrote, and the more powerful the subject became.  I reached a point where I wasn't sure if I had the "right" to write about Grace.  Who was I to speak of such a subject.  I literally prayed and prayed that God would tell me if I was doing the right thing - was I being sacrilegious, was I being pompous?  I asked that if this topic was "above and beyond me," that God would let me know.  Within a few days, as I was making my bed one morning, a thought came into my head - it came in the form of a soft, still voice.  You might recognize that when these thoughts come, especially in this form, we often swat them away like a mosquito.  I didn't pay any attention to it.  It instantly came a second time and almost subconciously, I thought, hmmm, that's a good thought.  My next thought was, I should write that down - I'm going through menopause and I'll never remember it!  It then came a third time - each time, while it was a soft, still voice, it came to me more firmly.  By the third time, I wrote it down on a little sticky note and it's been sitting on my computer monitor ever since.  The message was: Our creativity speaks with God's Voice.  I knew this was my answer.  So, I continued to write.  My writing turned into a small manuscript that I've called With Gratitude for Grace.  Since that time, I got away from my writing, however, because I went back to school, moved away, completed my education, changed jobs and have now retired.   I decided I'd like to start a blog in retirement - one that makes us think of God's impact on us each and every day and therefore our impact on humanity.  I believe gratitude comes from recognizing the Grace in our lives, makes us realize how much more Grace comes into our lives than we were ever aware, brings about more gratitude, and, with more gratitude, comes more peace of mind and contentment.