Southern Ohio District Church of the Brethren

Reflections from our District Executive

We come before you in prayer, loving Creator, and ask that you would help us to create with you. As we humble ourselves before you, we thank you for the seeds of faith you have planted in us when we were yet little children. We thank you for the Sunday school teachers, preachers, choir directors and parents who encouraged the growth of your word in us. Grant us the courage, we pray, to release the things in our lives which choke us and prevent us from growth. You know what hinders us, loving God; make us aware of the detritus of our lives and help us to clear a pathway for you. In those now uncluttered spaces, help us to fill up with your strength. Nourish us with your gifts of bread and wine that we might be able to give to others your patience, your hope and your love, that others, too, might grow and be freed from the weeds that stifle their lives. We offer our gratitude that, out of the gift of your grace, you have allowed us to flourish in spite of ourselves and granted us a place always at your table, regardless of the loads we carry and our own feelings of unworthiness. In this, the middle of summer, some of us are ready to give up because it is too hot, too windy or too uncomfortable, and we confess we would rather stop growing and giving and just rest in the shade. Keep us mindful, O God, that you did not call us to be cool and comfortable but rather hot and bothered by the needs of a weary world. How grateful we are that you are always present to us; let us now be present to you that we might be fed and nourished and therefore able to be present to others. We pray all this in the name of the one who came that we might know what a life of love looks like, Jesus, the Christ, Amen.

-- A prayer from the Homilectics website.. 

 Blessings for the journey!