Art Journals, Faith and Prayer

 

I created this page in my faith art journal. The next sermon series at College United Methodist Church is on the Lord's Prayer and this is the first installment. It sounds like a soap opera, right? (Installment) The sermon title was "Hallowed Be" which of course made me start musing about just how little I know about a prayer that I have repeated often through most of my life. I remember vividly saying these words on the night that a tornado struck very close to the mobile home we were living in at the time.  My nine months pregnant body was covering my sleeping three year old. The storm passed us unscathed.

 

Not all storms pass us unscathed though. We know that. Yet how is the Lord's Prayer a beacon of hope, a promise, and an avenue for worship.

 

Prayer isn't always about asking for strength and for guidance in times of trouble. It is about conversations with God.  It is one of the most powerful methods for deepening your spiritual connection with God and honestly, with the world also. (more about that in another post)

 

Hallowed Be....

 

Holy be Thy name

 

I was also just reading some other thoughts about the Hallowed Be part of the prayer, in which the author, Nathan Eubanks expounds that the Hallowed Be Thy Name part of the prayer is part of three petitions. (All essentially meaning the same thing)

 

Hallowed be Thy Name (Let your name be sanctified)

Your Kingdom Come (Let Your Kingdom Come)

Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Let Your will be done on earth as in heaven.)

 

How is this different than the basic placement as part of the prayers introduction?  It places the Hallowed Be Thy Name...with the second part of the prayer rather than the first.

 

Essentially, as introduction it reads as follows:

 

Our Father, who art in heaven, Hallow be Thy name (introduction)

 

As part of the three petitions it reads as follows,

 

Our Father, Who art in heaven (introduction)

 

Hallow be thy name (petition 1)

Thy Kingdom Come (petition 2)

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven (petition 3)

 

****Original work: What Does Hallowed Be Thy Name Mean

 

As a petition, the Hallowed Be Thy Name part of the prayer is calling out for God's name to be made known as holy to all in the world.

 

I'm not a Lord's Prayer expert and I certainly don't speak Greek or any other foreign language fluently. But I do like to muse and ponder and think about things. I think I'm going to like this new series.

 

I challenge you to look at your prayer life, how are your conversations with God going?

 

Hugs to each of you, as the storms of life come your way I pray that you will come through unscathed and if not I pray that God provides you with the strength to endure.

 

 

Soul Care 2015 Review and 2016 Plans

I know my blogging has been a little lacking these past few months but even when I wasn't blogging I was still musing. Pictured above you see the first 6 months of Soul Care 2015.  The event was created to help me keep focused and explore my spiritual path during 2015 and even though there have been some ups and downs I am pleased with how it has brightened my life. As you can see I selected a word each month to focus on, to pray about, to explore scripture that relates to the word or concept and to muse and create!

 I now find myself finishing up the month of October and I simply cannot believe how soon 2016 will be ending. As you can see I have two more words to explore in November and December: Blessings and Promises. Each month is like a breath of fresh air as I explore my spiritual relationship with God and seek a joyful life.  I was considering keeping these same 12 words for 2016 and then I came upon this (pictured below) and I decided to do something a little different in 2016.

I found this series of nine little books at Dollar Tree (yes Dollar Tree) and I immediately knew that I would use them in my soul care in 2016. Two of the words are repeats from 2015 (love and faith) but there is still plenty to muse about regarding them.  My store was a little picked over but if you are interested in the books you might be able to get all nine by visiting a couple different Dollar Trees. But, of course, you don't have to have these books to follow along here at Soul Musings and participate in the Soul Care 2016 event.  In fact, perhaps God will lead you to some other words, topics, or concepts to explore.

 

So the general plan is to study the nine fruits of the spirit January 2016-Spetember 2016 and then I'm not sure how October through December will unfold but I am sure something will present itself at just the right time, just as these books did. They are short, simple little books and will simply serve as the foundations of my musings but I felt drawn to them and decided to use them.

 

Hugs to all of you. Please be watching for your Soul Care 2016 event invite which I will publish in December. You can join the event on Facebook so you won't miss out on any posts or information. You don't have to comment, create or share unless you want to but by joining the event you will see all of my posts.  You can still join Soul Care 2015 by clicking on the ling below:

 

Soul Care 2015