Praying into 2016: a Christian prayer thread for the New Year

[Tuo]

Happy New Year friends.

This thread is a safe space where anyone - regular, occasional visitor, lurker, committed Christian or waverer - is welcome to come and leave their prayers in the knowledge that they will be prayed for. No problem is too big or small to share here, and if you just want to come and say 'hi', that's fine too.

Looking back through our previous thread, we pray in particular for:

ALittleFaith - for good treatment for her anxiety; for better understanding from her boss; for the lovely Faithlet.

amberlight - for her work supporting people with autism, and for her and her family.

Anjelica27 - for her DS, who has mental health problems, and for Anjelica and her family.

BlackEyedSusan - for all that she has to juggle as a single mum, for her DC, and for her mum. Praying for a peaceful and happy 2016.

Dontbesilly - for her dad, who has been diagnosed with cancer, and for all who love and care for him; also for the medical team looking after him; for her DH's work situation; and for Don't's DDog who has a heart condition.

DutchOma - with gratitude for all she does to support people on this thread and elsewhere. Thinking of her especially as the anniversary of the loss of her beloved Bob approaches, in particular after the recent death of her brother as well. May she know God's closeness to her in her grief.

EdithSimcox - for her to be able to find ways to support and nurture her faith; and for understanding from her DP.

FaithLoveandHope - for clarity about what she wants (and what God wants) for her future.

HardyLeodicean - especially for her FIL.

IHopeYouStepOnALegoPiece - for her to find comfort and joy in exploring her faith; also for a good recovery from heart surgery for her best friend's dad.

JugglingFromHereToThere - for her search for rewarding work, for health, and for comfort and strength for her and the rest of her family following the tragic death of her nephew.

Kaykat - following her divorce from an abusive ex; for happiness for her and for her DS.

legohurtswhenyoustandonit - for her to feel more at home and accepted by her church.

LifeofBriony - for her relationship with her DH; also for her DS going back to university after Christmas.

LightnessofBeing - for her new church, and for energy to cope with her punishing work schedule.

MadHairDay - for her health, especially in the cold, wet winter months which are always so hard on her lungs.

Pandora97 - as she starts a new job in a new town for the new year following difficult and stressful times relating to a court case in recent months.

passportmess (formerly known as QuietIsland) - for a colleague whose husband is very ill, and for a university friend who has been diagnosed with cancer.

PatchworkTurtle - for healing in her relationship.

PositiveAttitude - for her DD1, who is depressed, to get the support she needs; for her DD3 and her DH to work through their relationship issues; for PA's DH to find work that makes him happier, for PA's DMum to continue to be happy in her (relatively) new care home and for PA's DDad to cope with her being there. Above all, we pray for PA herself, who is always there for others when they need her, to be happy and fulfilled in 2016.

QoF - for courage when she is feeling anxious.

ScouseQueen - for a full recovery from recent illness.

SESthebrave - for her DH, who has been working abroad, and for SES, juggling everything at home; for her DS to find ways of communicating, rather than lashing out, when he is frustrated; and for her to feel appreciated for the work she does at her church.

TheRealGracePoole - for her ministry to women in her area.

weegiemum - giving thanks for an improvement in her DD1's (borderline) anorexia; praying for weegiemum's own health and for the Master's course which she has undertaken.

And, as always, prayers for anyone I've forgotten (with apologies), for all who lurk but don't post, for 'old-timers' who haven't posted recently, and for newbies who may not have posted yet.

A prayer of St Teresa of Avila

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Those who have God
Find they lack nothing;
God alone suffices. Amen

Have heard from ds now. He made plans to see friends here after he'd helped me sort the errands, so is not keen to go off to the birthday party and
will still come tomorrow.
I hope you have a good day with your mum, Edith.

Have been reading, and praying as I read, that God will be with us all in all these situations, in our sorrows and joys, in the big things and the small, in the dark and the light, and that he will never leave us.

I've decided not to go back to my thread as it just made an upsetting situation worse. I am feeling more at peace with taking a little break from our church, I think DH may take DS again soon and I had been feeling guilty at taking DS away as he loves it. I'm also having a nice morning with DS, we baked and planted some window boxes, DC2 is in childcare as I'd been finding it difficult to do anything beneficial to DS with DC2 around so have booked the odd session for just one DC.
But must go and pick up DC2!

oo window boxes.. sounds lovely. I planted out the pot of daffodils that went over. I have liberated the non flowering daffodil pots and put them in the garden too. (ones I bought in previous years) the bulbs were piddly and small so never going to keep going in a pot where only an inch or two of compost remains. dd helped.

definitely do not go back to the thread. it is seriously not worth it. though MHD did make some nice comments, it would be difficult not to read the others.

dds and dms arguing?

oh, ermm... someone on this thread may have been subjected to some ranting about my mother.

all is quiet. dd and dm are organising the food cupboard in the bedroom. oh and dm has still asked about throwing out food, but only once and organised herself a box to put the out of date stuff in. ( the usual procedure for the shopping list is I ask her to write it, which she startts then she asks how many bananas I think she will need and how many, this, that or the other and whether she should have cheese sandwiches for lunch a week on thursday or something else...I banned her from coming to asda with me as every item I picked up caused her to ask three questions most of which were bloody obvious. there is also the crying abnd worrying about the price of food, but the list of expensive branded options and the refusal to at least try the cheaper ones.)

before they started emptying the cupboard, there was already food in bags on the floor, food in an old bedside table, food on the ottoman.

I went through her freezer yesterday to organise it. written on the drawers with a sharpie. (given my mother has written on all sorts of things in the house to remind herslef stuff)

oma, did you get the car for dd?

Not yet BES. They're not here yet as the car she needed to come in 'shuddered'. She phoned the Skoda garage where we are going to buy it, they said they would phone her back but when they didn't she decided to ask the boyfriend to bring her in his car. This was at 1 o'clock. They are not here yet.

And yes, I have been praying.

did they ever arrive Oma?

They got there at twenty to four.

Praying for all, but especially, it seems, for mothers and daughters tonight. Praying for those mothers who have turned from care-givers into people who need to be cared-for; praying for mothers and daughters whose relationships are prickly or rendered challenging by difficulties with communication or difficulties in finding common ground; praying for mothers who are worried about their daughters' health, happiness, education or work, and for daughters worried about their mothers. Thanking God for all our mothers and for all our daughters.

Thanks TUO

thanks.

definitely needed it. oh yes.

Thank you niminy and tuo, those are lovely heart-warming prayers. Feeling so sad for my Mum today. And very tired.

Thanks Tuo I am very much in need of that prayer on many fronts. I have been lurking and praying, but feeling a bit overwhelmed and I just don't know where to start with the prayers right now.

We aren't going to church tomorrow morning, we quite often don't for various reasons but it will be weird to deliberately not go.

On the plus side I had a nice night at the cinema with an old friend, impromptu as something else was cancelled, we haven't done it in ages (forever maybe!) and it was as we both said "Not as bad a film as we thought" (we both had DH sorted to stay home so thought we'd better take advantage but there wasn't much on!)

Glad you've had a good night, drspouse. Can you take a little time tomorrow morning (together or separately) to have a bit of quiet time to pray or just think and be at peace. Haven't seen your other thread, but praying for a resolution to your church worries.

PA - it's lovely to see you. I'm sorry that things are tough. You don't need to know where to start: God knows what you need and what you would say if you could get the words straight; and we don't need to know - we are praying anyway, for you, for your parents, for your DH, your DC and your DGS. May God lift you out of that overwhelmed feeling and into his love and light.

Praying, too, for Edith and her mum, for Oma and her DD, and for BES and her mum, as well as her DC.

A prayer of St Augustine

O thou, who art the light of the minds that know thee, the life of the souls that love thee, and the strength of the wills that serve thee; help us so to know thee that we may truly love thee; so to love thee that we may fully serve thee, whom to serve is perfect freedom. Amen

hallelujah we are home.

we had the big food row after she followed me round for ages looking at food. (ie she is worried that I will take all her food, but given I spent about five hours on shopping, list takes about an hour. shopping with two children one of whom needed a sit down half way round, unloading it from the car and packing it away )
she worries she has too little food.
she fixates on the one thing she forgot to put on the list.
she does not know what to do with all the food. (put it this way it could support half of mn in a zombie apocalyse.)
she was upset when I took awy a lot of out of date food. (we will eat it. it is only just out of date but she is never going to eat it until sometime next year.)

I went through the cupboard and moved everything about into date order.

I went and attacked the garden shovelling mud from one side of the garden to the other to try and level it up for grass. after

I also planted new plants and tidied up the front garden. it was looking good in places. (which quite frankly it has never looked good at this time of year so we have come a long way)

shattered.

I was listening to PAYG just now and praying for my Mum, asking Jesus to lift her distress and depression, and He replied 'you do it'. No pressure then. Shit.

You made me think of Teresa of Avila's words, Edith:

Christ has no body now on earth but yours,
no hands but yours,
no feet but yours,
Yours are the eyes through which to look out
Christ's compassion to the world
Yours are the feet with which he is to go about
doing good;
Yours are the hands with which he is to bless men now.

But when you hold her hand, Jesus holds her hand and when she hears your voice, she hears his voice - and he will be there with you.

Praying now for you both.

Thank you so much.

edith so sorry to hear about your Mum. Have you decided what you are going to do re speaking to her or not about it? And remember that while you are being told that you have to be the one to help it doesn't mean you will be doing it off your own back and on your own strength and wisdom. You will get that as you need it I am sure.
oma hope you had a good time in the end with dd and ds?
bes you must be exhausted but sounds like you made some progress.
drspouse how did today go without church? Saw your other thread and blood was boiling re judgeyness! You are very welcome here.
dont how are things?
pa praying for you.

ds did not want to leave church. he was enjoying playing after the service too much.

oh and exhausted. frozen microwave dinners for all. homecooked for dcs.

Thank you for that prayer niminy.

Thanks QofF I did mildly broach the subject... Small steps. Feeling better for having committed to taking some responsibility at least.

Prayers for you all.

I did sit down with a Compline service at bedtime yesterday which helped I think. We had a nice day with no church but the church is such a big part of DS' life and he points it out as we go past it in the car etc. etc. I can't just take him away from that.

But then it appears in our current state we ARE unwelcome. Sorry for copy and paste from Goose and Carrot but apparently the large chapel that we were using to let the children wander around safely was NOT what we were supposed to be using as a children's area, it has a "hard floor" and "hard pews" (rather like the hard floors and hard chairs at their nursery then) and they were supposed to be sitting on a carpet (provided) and playing with a (large, and varied, and yes they like it) box of toys all through the service. They are 4 and 1 in case you haven't been keeping up.

DC2 is not supposed to climb onto pews without a parent helping (rather like getting onto a chair at home without help, then). They are supposed to make no noise because it bothers people with hearing aids. I think the vicar may be thinking of non-walking babies here.

I was going to say wish me luck with a trip to town to exchange shoes, I hope. except I have just had a trip up the stairs to rescue and prop up a wardrobe door against the wall. it seems to have parted company from the wardrobe. got a couple of screws loose, which seems to obligatory in this house. oh and remind me not to buy rubber topped pencils again. the ones with the scratchy metal bits. they scratch and gouge quite deeply. someone has tested this ability on various bits of furniture and walls.

afterschool club after town.. except there is no school today.