Prayer is communication, not a recital

You probably pray before your meals. You also probably have a devotions time. Prayer

is direct communication with God. I think we sometimes forget just how big that is. If

we’re being honest, I think we all have to admit that one time or another we prayed out

of habit. Maybe we just said, ‘Dear Jesus, thank you for this food, amen’ and didn’t think

of it anymore. Maybe you have a mental check-list of things to pray for and don’t really

think about the words. When we pray, we are talking with God. We often take this for

granted because for as long as you’ve been a Christian (and for some of you that may

be most of your life) you’ve been praying, maybe even before. I am in no way

whatsoever trying to say that praying before meals is pointless or bad. I’m not saying

you shouldn’t have family devotions. You should most definitely be doing these things,

but you shouldn’t do it ‘just because’. You should do it sincerely. When you pray before

meals, you are thanking God for the food he has given you. It shouldn’t just be

‘ThankyouGodforthisfoodamen’. You should be thinking about it and remembering you

are talking to the God who literally spoke to create the entire universe. So to wrap

things up, don’t just recite words. Remember that you are speaking to the God of the

universe and actually talk to him, not just in front of him, so to speak.

-John

Being Thankful

It’s easy to give thanks to God when life is good, but often during hard times

we forget all that He has given us and neglect to thank Him and be grateful. This

isn’t right though, because while in the moment your situation might be miserable

God’s still taking care of you and working everything out for good. There are many

verses in the Bible that tell us to always be thankful.

Psalms 100:4

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to

him and praise his name.

Psalms 118:29

Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.

Colossians 2:7

Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your

faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with

thankfulness.

Colossians 3:15

And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of

one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

Philippians 4:6

Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you

need, and thank him for all he has done.

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ

Jesus.Ephesians 5:20

And give thanks for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ.

So basically no matter what you’re going through, look around for all the

tiny blessings that God has given you and give thanks to Him.

-Maddy

Bananas!

  Hello everyone! I'm Lily and I'm so happy that I joined this awesome group! I've enjoyed reading your entries and was excited to write my own. So excited in fact I couldn't choose a topic until yesterday, which was a big mistake. Anyways, I decided to multitask by warming up for an English assignment with this. We’re going through a unit where we try to take boring topics and make them interesting. So I chose bananas which weren't very uninteresting to start with but, oh well. Here it is! 

Bananas.

They're a strange yellow fruit with a horrible tasting peel, (don’t ask why I know,) yet they contain a delightfully sweet and soft fruit enclosed within. Bananas are sort of like anything in a Fed-Ex shipping box, they get banged up and often bruised, which in my opinion is really a tragedy. 

These little yellow guys are bred to have no seeds, so they are propagated over and over again, which means that every banana plant of the same type has the exact same genetics as its neighbor. Although this method has perks like really good bananas over and over and over again, this can also cause problems like the tragic loss of the Gros Michel. This variety of banana is fondly remembered as the Big Mike variety went extinct after a soil borne fungal disease known as Panama Disease wiped out the entire species. The malady wouldn't have been as much of a problem if the bananas had some genetic variety. Maybe they could have built up immunity, and Big Mike would still be around. Yet the modern variety, the Cavendish banana, is still bred this way.

Diversity is an important part of God's design for us. When we invite Jesus into our hearts, we become a part of something bigger, something surpassing the individual and creating the church, the body of Christ.

1st corinthians chapter 12 states:

13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body.

Our different gifts make us stronger together, because if we were all the same, what good would that be? I can't imagine the chaos that would ensue if we all had the same gifts.

17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be.

It's really comforting to know that we are just the way God wanted us to be. And although it sometimes can seem like the gift God gave is not very exciting, useful or aPEELing, God gave each one of us that specific gift for a reason. Paul addresses this a few verses later.

-Lily Dummer