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    Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope: Writings of My Faith, #1
    Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope: Writings of My Faith, #1
    Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope: Writings of My Faith, #1
    Ebook165 pages1 hour

    Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope: Writings of My Faith, #1

    By Anne Fons

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    About this ebook

    Messages in today's world bombard us with how we are supposed to feel at the different times of year.  There are messages and advertising about what to buy, where to travel, and what to do with all of that free time and money we don't even have.  In all this busyness, this hectic pace of everyday life, how do we draw closer to the messages of our heart and our God?

    Fiction author, Anne Fons, takes us through some of the prayers she prays, and the self-exploration she does through, and with, them.  She intersperses candid things from her own life with ways that have worked for her of getting past the surface to the profound.  These prayers, set in a non-denominational Christian faith, invite readers to dig deeper into themselves to find their personal places of joy and their peace in the promises of God.

    When words won't come, when things aren't what you hoped, Anne encourages you to find hope in God.  Through all of life, the good, the bad, and the 'just regular' days, she encourages you to live your life with gratitude for everything.  Gratitude and hope are two of her keys for living her best life.  She hopes they are for you, too.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherAnne Fons Readers Group
    Release dateDec 31, 2019
    ISBN9781393216582
    Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope: Writings of My Faith, #1

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      Book preview

      Monthly Prayers of Gratitude and Hope - Anne Fons

      Our God is a God

      of

      Promise.

      Let’s pray...

      Dear GOD,

      It’s a new year.

      Was the path I took last year the one you wanted for me?  Please show me where I succeeded in your will.  I truly hope there was at least one way in which I followed where you wanted me to go.  Please show me my positives.  I need to hear what’s right about me and about my life.  I sometimes dwell on what I did wrong, where I didn’t do my best, or where I may have fallen short of what you wanted me to do.  Please, God, show me something I did right in my past; something that I can take and build on for my future.

      Sometimes, I forget to remember the good stuff.

      You blessed me with so many talents, gifts, and skills.  I don’t always use them to the fullest, God.  I know that.  I want to start this new year with a promise to not only use what you have given me, but to use those things more frequently, better, and with a focus on using those gifts in ways that please you, help others, and give me an inner peace of knowing that I am walking a path in your promise for a greater life.  I am here, God.  Show me at least one way that I can use my gifts from you in a better, or more productive fashion, as I begin this new year.

      I also forget to remember that you put good people along my path.  They might be family members, friends, or acquaintances I’ve made.  They might also be in the form of someone you just brought to me for this one moment, what some people might call a ‘chance interaction.’  I know I don’t always see the people you want me to see.  In the busyness of my daily life, I rush through some of the interactions of my day.  Help me to know when to stop, pause, and listen.  Help me to see not just the face, but the heart, of who is talking to me.  Who needs me today, God?  What can I give them that they need to hear or in some other way receive?  Do they need encouragement?  Do they need someone to just listen to them?  Do they maybe hold a message from you as to how to make my own life better, more productive, more peaceful, or more enjoyable?  Let me see who is good for me, Lord.  I don’t need to only see pretty faces, but pretty hearts.  I need to know if there is a hurting heart that you feel I can help in some way to heal.  Does a child in my life need someone to listen beyond their choice of words?  Does my spouse need my actual attention to what s/he says?  Truly seeing and truly hearing takes so much more than a casual, snap judgment or vague answer.  Let me be fully present in any interaction where you believe I need to be.  Show me the people that are already in my life that are here because you believe they are good for me.  Thank you for them, God.  Also, if I have chosen to follow people who are not bringing me closer to your will for your best life for me, then let me see that, too.  I want to see where I am getting further away from that promise to live my best life, and where I am really surrounded by the kind of people who have my best at heart.  Show me the best path for me to draw even closer to you.  Show me, today, one way I can see and feel the goodness of someone already in my life.  Show me, today, where I can bring a message of caring or presence to someone else.

      As I live this year, I promise to turn to you for guidance on my path.  I promise to turn to your promise to be omnipresent in my life.

      During this first month of the year, let me take those first steps in making my life fuller in your direction for it, fuller in the presence and love I give to others.  Let me see both where I have fallen short and can improve and where I am currently showing your love and the gifts you have given me.

      Also, do not let my resolve dissolve as I move throughout this year.  Let me begin with hope in the promises you have given me, and to live in the promises I make today to you, so that I may know the fullness of your life for me.  Let me continue on this year’s journey in gratitude for your promises given and fulfilled, as well as the hope that the future can be even better.

      Amen

      Let’s Just Talk for a Minute

      WITH THE NEW YEAR COMES much talk about ‘resolutions.’  The words ‘promise’ and ‘resolution’ can be interchangeable.  Both words are supposed to suggest positive, will-not-waiver intention.  They are supposed to mean that we will not fall short or turn back to ways that are in opposition to what we promised.

      Yet, New Year’s resolutions, or even some people’s promises, have become watered-down.

      I’m going to lose weight! becomes, I’m going to go full force with a diet for the first week of January, and then I’m going to get bored, frustrated, or sick of not eating my favorite foods and exercising.  The resolve dissolves as soon as the short-term results are not commensurate in our minds with the effort we think we are putting into it.

      I’m going to get out of debt! becomes, I’m going to pay off my bills unless I find that TV, car, or computer I think I need, or I am presented with the opportunity to take a trip I’ve wanted to take.  It could also mean, I’m going to pay off my bills so I can run them up again.  The resolve dissolves with the prospect of doing something far more fun than scrimping or using the long-term self-discipline to make the true-life changes needed to sustain a financially healthy lifestyle.

      I’m going to get my paperwork done to completion every day! becomes, I’m going to get my paperwork done unless it takes until after quitting time, or I am too tired because I came home later than I planned.  The resolve dissolves when faced with the realities of how long things take or that I might have to make additional phone calls to figure out the next steps on those correspondences.

      I’ve used these examples for a reason.  I’ve done all of them.

      I am not pointing my finger at you.  I am pointing the finger in my own mirror.  If these happen to resonate with you, welcome to my world.  Unfortunately, I understand those things quite well.

      You may have experienced some of these same challenges, or yours may be different.  We all experience some type of challenge - of one sort or many.

      I also understand how ‘life’ happens.  We can be moving along, doing our very best to try to manage our food choices better, and we wind up hungry and in a place where the best option we can find is a small order of fries.  We can be maintaining a sustainable level of personal exercise when we throw our back out and can’t even stand upright, much less exercise, for a while.  We may be doing our best to pay off those bills when the furnace in the house breaks in the middle of winter.  We may be getting through our mail and other paperwork with a great attitude and follow-through when all of a sudden, we need to leave the office or our house on an emergency.  Yes, life happens.

      The real questions in all of this are these:

      Are you really trying to make your best choices?  If so, bravo.  If I know that, and you know that, God certainly knows that.

      Also, will you let any previously mediocre efforts, or any happenings that knocked out your progress on your goals be temporary, or are you going to let them actually derail you?  Are you going to use those as an excuse to go back to the way you used to do things?  Backsliding is easy.  It’s a comfortable sort of uncomfortable.  We might not be thrilled with what we weigh or owe.  Yet, we know how to be that weight, and doggone, cheesecake tastes good.  We know how to be in debt.  It’s just the way life is these days, right?  Everybody’s in debt, or so we tell ourselves.  We might even get a secret satisfaction out of seeing a full inbox.  (See how busy I am?  I’m very important around here.)  The point is that whether or not you accept this as a temporary setback and vow to try again with a stronger resolve or with a different approach; or whether you let yourself wave it off as just another New Year’s resolution at the stroke of midnight that you really didn’t mean anyway, is up to you.

      How good is your word?  Can your employer depend on you to be on time, to get your work done, or to actually focus on your work when you are on the clock?  Can your family and friends depend on you to see through the obligations and promises that you’ve made to them?  Can you count on yourself?  (Remember, a promise made to yourself is also worth keeping.  It’s not only others that you are letting down.)

      As you read this, I encourage you to take out a pen and paper or to

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