Uphill idealist

  1 2 3 4 What do we stand on a rock for 5 6 7 8 We stand for God’s love, don’t hesitate! We’ve been blessed with hearts bold and stout worthy strong. We, like Peter, have been called by love our whole lives long. To stand for love, justice and grace – Everywhere we go,  mercy all over the place. Wherever it is a rock you see That is the place for love to be This is the place for love to be You are the place for love to be Crying out with songs of praise Never-ending for all our days Lived, shared, generous, true. LOVE Wherever we go, God’s love is calling you … Stand. 1 2 3 4 What do we stand on a rock for 5 6 7 8 We stand for God’s love, don’t hesitate!

My grandson and I have an annual tradition each fall of stringing beads on to stretchy thread and making a set of new prayer beads. We use the beads to pray for our family members, friends from school and work and to talk with God about the things we are joyful or sad about. In between each large bead is a “bumper” bead that we use to give thanks to God for something or someone. At the end of our prayer we are practicing the Lord’s Prayer together. Making and using prayer beads is a faith practice that we enjoy sharing with each other and helps us to remember that God is always with us – and always willing to hear the needs that are on our hearts. Using prayer beads is an everyday way of incorporate prayer into our lives - and so are a savvy way of using the small things and small pockets of time to draw close to God and each other. In Luke 16, Jesus tells a parable of the “shrew” (savvy) manager and tells his followers to be shrewd as the manager is shrewd.  Jesus calls us ...