On being unpopular

I am unpopular today.
We've had to cancel our hopes of another Disney World vacation this fall. It just isn't going to happen unless we win the "lottery for those who haven't bought tickets" , and I haven't even heard of such a thing HaHa.
Yesterday I came home and my sister came down and we all had a good time. She left and Matthew mowed the lawn and I weed-eated the dog lot, it looks so nice!
After that I was pooped out and rather useless, thank goodness I had came home and done the dishes, laundry, and vacuuming before everything started happening.

Toodles has been very well behaved and I have no reports or good stories to tell right now about him.

I've been praying a lot more recently. Not that I don't normally, but I've been doing some reading on praying for little things, as well as the "normal" prayers I usually have. Being financially tight has actually helped me benefit from this exercise.
If I want something and can't afford it, I pray to not need it so badly. If my bills are going to be late, I pray that it won't make me a nervous wreck and get me in a depressed mood. It has really helped me from being caught up in my emotions and feeling completely helpless. Although I am not praying for more money, I am praying for better coping strategies and emotional happiness.. and a more even temper with it all!

I found these helpful:
http://www.st-elizabeth-seton.org/PrayWithUs.html


Prayer Before Work

Eternal Lord, you have created work so that we can value our lives.
Through work you give each one of us the opportunity to learn to overcome obstacles and to feel the taste of accomplishment.
Work has become a sentinel to virtue, making it possible to have peace, health, abundance, and ease.
We are privileged because you stand by, Lord, with your positive and encouraging inspiration.
With the good disposition you offer us, we discover through our work the joy of living.
Lord, you gave us this spice of life and the opportunity to serve your purposes.
Without work, we do not experience satisfaction nor receive valuable rewards.
Thanks to you, Lord, we know how to work and to put our imprint on the world for useful changes.
Without work, life seems to be ship adrift at sea.
With work, we are leaders and captains of our lives.
Thank you, Lord, for the grace of being able to begin and to accomplish, as well as we can, all our tasks.


Prayer to Calm the Spirit

Calm me down, Lord, with your presence.
Open my heart to the smooth flowing of your serene spirit.
I am grateful to find this calm moment in your presence.
For I have been too excited, too busy with many activities.
I want to rest, Lord, in the shade of your power and love.
Restore my strength as only you know how.
Lord, I entered the battle with all my heart, and did not shrink from helping others who needed me.
Your kindness now rests on me like the pacifying blessing I have been yearning for.
No disquiet stirs in me, because you lead me to the sweet repose of a clear and quiet conscience.
I try to fulfill my part in creation and in the harmony of life.
Lord, overshadow me with your blessing.
Working side by side with my brothers and sisters for a better world, I find the meaning of my life.
Give me the opportunity to soothe my spirit.
I take refuge in you, Lord.


Prayer During Loneliness

Lord, I feel like a traveler in the desert, utterly alone.
I know that there are people close by, but it seems as if I live on an island without inhabitants.
You know that I cannot endure it any more; that is why I speak to you with all my heart's strength.
Already I feel, Lord--from the moment I uttered the first words to you--that I am coming out of my solitude.
How good it is to escape the trap of a sick and heavy solitude and meet with you.
Lord, you reassure me that I am never alone.
You are always with me, my sure companion in hours of insecurity.
Lord, your silence does not mean that you are distant.
Your invisible company never leaves my side.
I need only be more attentive to your presence.


Prayer for Peace

Blessed are you, King of the Universe, who has created this world.
Generation after generation, human beings praise your deeds.
Your powerful actions proclaim love to all.
Through the words of prophets and psalmists, you have announced to all the world the value, importance, and the need for peace.
Show and teach us, Lord, your paths that lead all peoples to understand the value of peace.
You listen with love and protect the weak and downtrodden; you teach the value of freedom, justice, and fellowship.
We witness your endless dedication to humanity and your eternal love.
We proclaim your glory and we sing your praises, aware of your kindness and the miracles you perform.
We beg you, Lord our God, for the miracle of true peace.
Light our way so that we may find it.
Grant us this peace, which is your most precious gift.
Plant virtue in all our souls and turn us into pioneers of true peace.


Prayer for Patience

Eternal God, it is not easy to continue praying and waiting when time flees by so fast and nothing of what I ask for happens.
Do not become cross at me if I lack patience.
You know well, Eternal God, that there are innumerable aspects of this world that I do not understand, that I find absurd.
Help me to persevere and not to lose faith; help me to be patient with all that surrounds me--with time, with others, and with myself.
Eternal God, you know that I do not intend to impose on anyone.
At times, though, I am too hasty, too demanding.
Teach me, Eternal God, to be as patient with others and myself as you are with me.


Prayer for Happiness

We all search for happiness.
What road should I take to find it, God?
Immersed in life, I am sometimes blind, sometimes deaf.
I come to you, Lord, to find the road.
Is it true, Lord, that happiness blossoms from the thorns of struggle and achievements?
That is a distant horizon and as soon as I come close to it, it disappears?
That it depends on our soul's serenity?
Does happiness lie in the search for happiness?
In this uncertainty, in this darkness, help me, Lord.
Allow me to find it nearby, perhaps within me!
Let me live harmoniously with myself and with others.
God, give me the strength and the great joy of discovering the great secret of life:
to do what is good, to serve others with joy, to sow love, and thus be able to realize that to live in this way is true happiness.


A Wife's Prayer

My God, I thank you for the husband you gave me.
I feel as if we were born for each other.
The happiness I feel also comes with the obligation to love him as he loves me.
With tenderness I keep the memory of our early encounters.
I recall our efforts to fit together and to understand each other.
Sometimes it seems to me, my God, that he is like the plant root and I am the plant.
He is never separated from my being and with time he more and more sustains my life and enriches it.
My God, take good care of him because I love him so much; I love him just as he is.
Faithful to him, I want to be worthy of his love and fulfill our common destiny to the very end.
I hope that with your grace, my God, I will live happily with him, side by side, fulfilling my role with all my hearth.
Pour your blessing, my God, over my husband's life, over his work and concerns, and make our lives become even more beautifully united.


A Husband's Prayer

Blessed are you, my Gracious God, who gave me my wife; she became flesh of my flesh, blood of my blood.
I thank you for everything she stands for in my life.
Help me to understand, Lord, that because she is different from me and because of her unique qualities, she adds so much to what I am.
Her sensitivity and her love fulfill me harmoniously.
I promise, Lord, to stand next to her through life and to be a loving husband.
I thank you, Lord, for the way I am enriched by being in touch with her feelings.
I feel fulfilled and happy, Lord, when I can count her warm presence, sharing in all the varied aspects of my life.
She has become part of my being.
I ask you, Lord, passionately protect our love for each other.
May it always remain faithful and strong.