Lynne Taylor

My Pegasus watch

I am working with others on ensuring the establishment of a church in the new Pegasus Town, to be built in North Canterbury.

After an early meeting in the cafe of a shopping mall i decided that a watch-less life was ridiculous and went and chose one from a nearby shop.

I find my new watch serves, not only as a time-piece, but also as a reminder to pray micro-prayers for the establishment of a church in this new town.

I like the reminder and i remember to pray.

A prayer for mothers day

I wrote this pastoral prayer for mothers day (last Sunday)

With loving thoughts of, and prayers for, all the women I know, love, respect who inspired it...

God, it is mothers’ day.
And so we think about mothers and we think about children.
We think about others and we think about ourselves.

God, we pray for new mothers:
women who are today celebrating their first mother’s day.
Be near to new mothers.
May they know the joy of precious moments with their babies
as well as your strength and sustaining
amid the interrupted sleep and constant demands.

God, we pray for mothers who have lost a child.
Through miscarriage or death
Through adoption
Through abortion
Through the breakdown of a relationship.
Be near to those mothers
May they know a growing sense of hope, love, joy and peace
as well as your strength and sustaining amid their sadness and pain.

God,we pray for mothers who long
for a better relationship with their child
May you help them do all they can to heal rifts,
Whilst realising that it is not only their responsibility.
Help them to reach out and to let go appropriately.

We pray for women who parent alone
Thank you for their courage
Sustain them as they seek to be both mother and father
to their precious children.
Place others alongside them to help and encourage them.

We pray for women who long to be mothers
Comfort them, heal them, sustain them, be near them.
We pray for babies for them, in your time.

We pray for all mothers
Give them an ever-growing love for their children.
Help them enable their children to grow and develop
Give them courage and grace as relationships change

God, we thank you for our mothers
For the women who bore us and birthed us
For the women who fed us and cared for us
For the women who loved us and disciplined us.

Some of us find it easy to thank our Mums
for all they have done for us
Some of us wish we could speak words
to mothers we no longer have.

Comfort those who mourn
Give courage and strength to those who need it
Grant us all an appreciation of those who have
“mothered us” appropriately
be they birth mothers, adoptive mothers,
dear friends or others.

In Jesus name
Amen

an autumn prayer

I am leading devotions at our community Craft group tomorrow,
and came across this poem about our current autumn season.

From here

Reproduced below (with one southern hemisphere change):

Prayer for Autumn Days

God of the seasons,
there is a time for everything;

there is a time for dying and a time for rising.
We need courage to enter into the transformation process.

God of autumn,
the trees are saying goodbye to their green,
letting go of what has been.
We, too, have our moments of surrender,
with all their insecurity and risk.
Help us to let go when we need to do so.

God of fallen leaves
lying in colored patterns on the ground,
our lives have their own patterns.
As we see the patterns of our own growth,
may we learn from them.

God of misty days and harvest moon nights,
there is always the dimension
of mystery and wonder in our lives.
We always need to recognize
your power-filled presence.
May we gain strength from this.

God of harvest wagons and fields of ripened grain,
many gifts of growth lie within the season
of our surrender.
We must wait for harvest in faith and hope.
Grant us patience when we do not see the blessings.

God of birds flying north for another season,
your wisdom enables us to know
what needs to be left behind
and what needs to be carried into the future.
We yearn for insight and vision.

God of flowers touched with frost
and windows wearing white designs,
may your love keep our hearts
from growing cold in the empty seasons.

God of life,
you believe in us,
you enrich us,
you entrust us with the freedom to choose life.
For all this, we are grateful.
Amen

Sitting, thinking

I had a lovely lunch with some old
(less of the "old" thanks!)
friends from school the other day.

I hadn't seen them for far too long
and it was great to catch up.

It is too easy to spend time feeling guilty
about not seeing lovely friends often enough.
But then when you do get together,
the time past doesn't actually matter.
It is just good to be together and catch up.

Seems it is also
too easy to spend time feeling guilty
about not spending enough time with God,
when the time-feeling-guilty would be better spent
enjoying God
thanking God for God's goodness.
Breathing deep.

May I be one who does so.