a prayer for courage

Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:6 (NIV)

Dear God,

With You on my side, I know in my mind that I have absolutely nothing to fear. But I still have a fear in my heart. There are times when I take my eyes off You - when I forget Your promise that You will never leave me nor forsake me - and I let fear invade and take control of my life. 

Right now I feel defeated by fear. I am not doing what I am supposed to in life because I am afraid of what will happen to me. I am struggling to trust You to protect and empower me. My eyes are focused on what I perceive to be threats all around me, rather than focused on You. Even before I speak it, You know the specific fear that is most plaguing my life right now.

God, I ask that You do a work in my heart and my mind that I cannot do myself. Please remove the fear that is robbing me of joy, purpose, and success. Help me to trust You as the one true source of courage. I don't claim courage through my own strength, but I do receive the courage I need for the challenges and tasks facing me because I trust You and I know You love me.

I affirm Your promise that You will never leave me nor forsake me. Thank You for the courage that comes from that trust.

In Your Mighty Name - Amen

Believers look up - take courage. The angels are nearer than you think. - Billy Graham

From God's Help by Mark Gilroy
Published by Howard Books (Simon and Schuster) in 2012

a prayer to bless my spouse and marriage

A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.

John 13:34-45 (NKJV)

Loving Father,

From the beginning of creation, You have planted in our hearts the desire for the love and intimacy that can only be found in marriage. Even if in our sinful ways we have damaged the beauty and reputation of marriage, deep in our spirits, we know that You have created us for the joining of body, heart, and spirit that can only come through the covenant of marriage.

I thank You this day for my spouse. I pray that You will nourish our bonds of love, commitment, and affection for one another. I pray that we will be graceful to each other, quick to forgive, slow to anger. I pray that You will help us to season our words with grace and kindness.

I ask a special blessing on my spouse right now. I pray that they will feel Your presence in all they do today. I pray that they will feel peace and confidence in all conversations and endeavors, knowing they are loved by You and loved by me. If there are particular challenges and difficulties that arise, I pray they would be strengthened from within, knowing You are with them every step of the way.

Forgive me for any ways that I have hurt my spouse and harmed my marriage. Help me to be the partner my spouse needs - and that You have created me to be.

In Your Faithful Name - Amen

Love the family! Defend and promote it as the basic cell of human society; nurture it as the prime sanctuary of life. - Pope John Paul II

From God's Help by Mark Gilroy
Published by Howard Books (Simon and Schuster) 2012

don't wait for the perfect time - or you'll never get anything done

When the clouds are full of water, it rains. When the wind blows down a tree, it lies where it falls. Don’t sit there watching the wind. Do your own work. Don’t stare at the clouds. Get on with your life.

Ecclesiastes 11:3-4 (The Message)

Investors know that timing is everything - but they also know that no one gets timing right all the time. So they preach that successful investing is achieved through consistency and diversity over time. When the sun shines. Even when it rains cats and dogs.

Of course someone bought Apple stock at the right time and got rich - but Forrest Gump was a make believe character. And none of the can't-miss stock tips I've received have made me rich. (Though I may just be listening to the wrong people.)

One of my kids asked me when I knew I was ready to have kids. The answer was simple; when Lindsey, my first child was born. Nothing but the miracle of birth could have prepared me for fatherhood.

Business plans are great. Outlines are wonderful. Planning, pondering, preparing, predicting, and other forms of prognosticating on what is the best path to take are necessary for success. And there are better times to make a move than others. But if we wait for the perfect time - or until we think we know when the perfect time is - we'll never act.

Phrases that show the importance of timing, like strike when the iron is hot, are insightful, but so is the simple adage that there is no time like the present. In Aesop's Fable of the ant and the grasshopper, the ant followed Solomon's advise to not stare at the clouds but work - get on with your life. Consistency over time.

Marriage. Kids. New home. New city. New career. New workout program. New endeavor. New habit. New attitude. New mission. New you.

Plan and ponder. But don't kid yourself that you can measure every cause and effect to the point of knowing the perfect time to act and do. The uncertainties of life and the Law of Unintended Consequences mean that even the very best plans get scrapped and rewritten once we start the journey. Doesn't mean the plans were bad. But it does remind us that the only test for whether something we want to do is possible is doing it.

So what's on your heart and mind these days? And what are you waiting for?

There's no time like the present.

redundancy, repetition, and saying or doing the same thing over and over

Is it possible that redundancy is underrated?

Most of us value efficiency to a much greater degree. We want to drive redundancy out of our personal and corporate lives. Redundancy means wasted time and energy. Right?

But having spent more than 30 years in publishing, I've come to gain a begrudging respect for the sometimes necessary discipline called redundancy.

Just think about the book business. Everything is redundancy! (Is it any wonder I'm crazy after all these years?)

A writer writers a book. Then rewrites the same book. At least a couple more times. Then hands it to an editor who tells him or her how to rewrite it yet again to make it better. (The mean editors smile when they hand off their shopping list of improvements.)

When the writer is finished, the editor edits the same manuscript that has been worked over too many times to count. After that, a typesetter puts the very same manuscript into a professional and polished format, with a proof reader ready to make yet another round of marks.

What happens next? The editor and writer get to read the "blues" and then the "proofs" one more time - and invariably, find yet another error or way to improve the text. In the old days of publishing, when a writer wanted to rewrite at the "blues" stage, the contract outlined a series of fees since "cut and paste" really meant cut and paste back then.

After final corrections and changes are made, the book is printed, and a new person, the reader, pores over the same material - and sometimes finds yet another error.

Does anyone else circle printed errors they find in books?

But the end result of having numerous alert and adept people cover the same book is a work of power and beauty - or at least on that has its best chance of achieving that loft status. (And yes, occasionally, too many cooks spoil the soup.)

The old cliche tells us that anything worth doing deserves our best effort. I couldn't disagree more. There are a lot of activities in life that aren't worth our best time and energy.

But some things are. Many things are.

And when we want to put our best foot forward, redundancy - another set of pushups, another read through and light edit, another prayer, another conversation - can be our best friend.

No surprise the carpenter's motto is "measure twice, cut once."

At the risk of being redundant, when something or someone matters to you, some extra attention and repetition - also known as redundancy - can go a long way to affirming that.