This year my family is going through some changes. I have a new job that isn’t flexible hours and isn’t close to home, so I’m not going to be as available to do things like I have been. My son is attending UCI upper level classes and is finding homework a little bit more challenging, so he is studying more than I have ever seen him study. My middle daughter is getting married in June, just a few short months away, while still attending upper level classes at CSLB. Plans are moving forward, I hope, as she plans to marry her best friend. My youngest daughter is in her second semester of college, learning new things, making plans to get a job soon. My husband is in a career where everything changes with each new project. He seems to be coping just fine with the rest of our changes?
So as I pray for my family I always pray for myself too, that God will give me a wise mind and spirit attuned to his will, to acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. Because, seriously, I would not have imagined this year quite this way!
Let’s pray for our church staff, our students and children, the volunteers, the parents and ourselves together.
Colossians 1:9-12 (Anna’s Paraphrase)
Be assured that from the first day we heard of you, we haven’t stopped praying for you and us, asking God to give us all wise minds and spirits attuned to his will, and so acquire a thorough understanding of the ways in which God works. We pray that we will all live well for the Master, making him proud of us as we work hard in his orchard. As we all learn more and more how God works, we all will learn how to do our work. We pray that we will all have the strength to stick it out over the long haul—not the grim strength of gritting our teeth but the glory-strength God gives. It is strength that endures the unendurable and spills over into joy, thanking the Father who makes us strong enough to take part in everything bright and beautiful that he has for us all.
