About Prayer

Those of you that know me well know that I am not a religious person in the regular sense of the word. I consider myself more of a spiritual person with a universal love for all and the religions that they follow. I usually do not talk religion or politics, but I've been finding a lot of articles and such lately on Prayer. Whether you believe in God or a higher power or nothing at all, I do believe we all have to have faith in something to keep us going and it does not have to revolve around religion, although this is where is customarily comes into play.
One thing I do believe in is the power of prayer (no matter who you are praying to). There is something about a group of people actually putting their thoughts & good intentions into your well-being that enacts a positive, peaceful energy flow that you can actually feel at times of despair. I know that people pray for me & I pray for a lot of people, hoping that whatever troubles or ails them will somehow be alleviated and they can feel the love & peace that I am sending their way.
My mom has this book, well it's actually in my possession now, called Moments Of Meditation by Paul S. McElroy, copyright 1961. I use this in a lot of my blog entries and when friends need special comfort. The entries in this book are still so relevant in 2010.
Here is an entry called About Prayer, which is really aimed at praying to God, but can easily be interpreted to meet your sense of worship and/or your higher power.

About Prayer

Prayer is not an attempt to get what we want but an endeavor to give God an opportunity to do what he wants through us. Prayer is not begging from God but cooperating with Him. The thing to be sought is not how to get our way, but how to accept the will of God. The intent is not to change God's mind, but to change our attitudes. Prayer is really thinking in God's presence. As the level of our conscience is raised toward the level of God's thoughts, the happenings of life are seen in truer perspective. Effective prayer involves a deep yearning to know God, an eagerness to trust God all the way, an ability to relinquish our hold, and a willingness to let go and let God.

Our Big Scare

Well we had a bit of a scare at our house this past week. Wednesday morning John woke up and started having some chest pains that went all the way up his neck into his jaw and to his head. Th episode only last about 3-4 minutes and then he felt fine. I told him we should go to the hospital but he thought it was just anxiety. He ended up having several more of these throughout the day. At around 7pm he had a stronger one and couldn't move so we immediately went to the hospital in Pineville near us where he had another one. They determined, due to abnormal EKG results and a very high enzyme level in his blood, that these were in fact mild heart attacks that he had suffered and that he at least had one artery with more than 80% blockage. He was then transferred to CMC Mercy where they discovered 3 large blockages-2 in the circumflex and one in the right coronary artery (see picture above). They where able to put 3 stents in to repair these. He was very lucky to not have suffered much damage to the heart.
It is so amazing what they can do these days. We were very fortunate to have caught this in time. He is going to have to make a lot of lifestyle changes which he seems to be all for- and I am so thankful for that. He is usually very stubborn about these things but this time he is really taking it seriously and I am supporting him 100%.
He is home now, resting & recovering, and I am thankful for the thoughts and prayers of so many friends that helped us both trough this. The funny thing is my friends kept telling me that I seemed too calm- Well I think that God kept me calm so that I could be strong for John. After I knew everything was going to be ok I did actually lose it completely and bawled for about an hour to release that build up inside of me. It is amazing how someone like me who suffers from panic disorder, can be that strong when I need to be- there is definitely a higher power involved and the power of prayers is definitely effective!!!!