SALT Challenge - Prayer

This week it was Ruth's turn to select a challenge for the SALT design team and she choose prayer. Great topic! You can read Ruth's thoughts on her challenge here. Funny that Ruth mentioned prayer as I've been struggling with finding the time to pray as I should. I pray short prayers throughout the day, usually something along the lines of "please Lord, give me patience to deal lovingly with my children!" LOL! With two little ones, work, etc. it's so easy to forget the importance of spending quality time with God, reading His word, and communing with Him through prayer. Yet it is essential to our ongoing walk with God. When looking for a text for my project, I found Romans 12:12, which is part of a larger section titled in my study Bible "behave like a Christian." This is such a timely topic as "spirituality" is such a hot topic in our world today, and many profess to be Christians, yet too few behave like those who really love Christ and want to obey His commandments. Of course, this is a thought-provoking topic for everyone and we should examine ourselves to see if these attitudes are present in our own lives. I know I could use improvement in these areas! The text, Romans 12:9-18, is excellent so I've listed the entire section:

Let love be without hypocrisy. Adhor what is evil. Cling to what is good.

Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor

giving preference to one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord;

rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the

needs of the saints, given to hospitality. Bless those who persecute you; bless and

do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on

high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men.

If it is possible, as much as depend son you, live peaceably with all men.

Wouldn't the world be a better place if we all behaved this way? No one, not even true Christians, can ever attain perfection in this life (although it doesn't hurt to strive for it!) but by trusting in Christ and His power, we have hope that we can achieve some of these lofty goals that Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, recorded for us in Romans. I pray this text would be convicting, pointing our our sin as we fail to live up to our calling, and encouraging, seeing how Christ has changed us from what we used to be! Surely, with steadfast prayer, we can trust that we will be changed into more loving, humble servants of Christ!

Oh yeah...my card! ;-) This is an ATC, created using a new line of patterned paper from SU! the I love! Great Fall colors! My three squares are inchies and are stamped with a long-ago retired SU! set. And my tiny portion of scripture has been attached to two tiny chipboard tags. I think that this could be a very fun bookmark for my prayer journal...Great reminder!

If you're still with me after my long winded intro...There's just so much to say with these challenges...please don't forget to hop on over to the SALT blog to check out all the other beautiful creations!