Dear God...

Writing letters to God is something I started doing in high school.  It is one of the best decisions I have ever made to start doing. I look back in all of the old journals I have filled up with my prayer requests, joys, sadnesses, hurts and pains and see Him holding me every step of the way.  It's way way for me to tangibly hand over my burdens by transferring the ink from my pen onto paper.  Once it's on the paper I release what I've written knowing it's been placed in the hands of my heavenly father.

I wrote this over a week ago and decided to share it in hopes that it will encourage others who are struggling or going through something hard.  I pray the words in this prayer are ones you can adopt and pray for yourself and for others in your life.

Dear God...

I see your hand being so evident.

I see you working amidst so much and I'm grateful to bear witness.

We are weak people and we choose easy.  We choose what helps us in that very moment.  We choose anger, violence, distance, substance, people, things.  All the while we just need you.

We are filled with holes and we are continuously emptying.  We use what we can to fill ourselves, but we always pick what doesn't last, first.

Why don't we go to you first?

Why do we wait until our vessels are so empty that we begin breaking?

We lose pieces of ourselves and try and hold things together with temporary fixes that break down.  Suddenly we are piles of wreckage that seem unmendable.  Who would ever want to start with the journey of me?

You would.

And you DO!

It is your one desire for us to turn to you, a broken mess, and say, "Lord, I am yours. You created me.  You chose me.  I have made a disaster and know that you are the only one who can fix me. 

I'm not too far.

I can turn to you and you want me.

Take me. I am yours."

Let us find you in our piles.

Let us feast on grace and discover new life. Let us realize a new start and look up to find healing and restoration.

My hope is in you.

My peace is found in you.

My carnage is mended in your sight.

Let us emanate you to all we cross and show others the joy of life found in you and the peace of dying to ourselves.