FORGIVENESS PRAYER WORKS

From Dallas, TX, Randy writes that he considered prayer cosmic begging and yet he felt quiet moments of mediation and expressing gratitude was important. He felt he might have a pride barrier to break. He explained, “Several years ago I fell into obsessive negative thinking about a coworker who was troubling me and I couldn’t break out of it. I caught myself falling into the trap of negative thinking and recalled a sermon by a minister, Everett Iron, that I heard several years before and took his advice, repeating the following either mentally or out loud, ‘I pray for Karen (not her real name), may her troubles be few and may she be filled with joy.’ The repetition took my mind off my negative thinking and feeling and it was a way for me to break the cycle. I was grateful for that, but after a time I actually started to feel ‘good’ about the person. Today our relations are cordial and normal. I certainly did not want to wish on the person the opposite of what I prayed for.”

What a lovely thought and prayer that changed two lives. It would be a wonderful thing if each one of us would memorize that one line prayer and substitute it every time a negative thought tried to take control of our thoughts that could spoil a home or office situation. Condensed from the magazine, “Venture Inward.”