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Claire!

I have a deep belief in God, but now consider myself far more spiritual if anything else. As a rancher I find that I pray for many things- the health and happiness of friends and family, for a good hay crop, for the health and well-being of my pets and livestock, for rain, for sunshine and any other reason that may come up. I have Faith that my prayers will be answered and sometimes they are and sometimes they aren't. I suppose it's because God (or whom/what one believes in) determines that in the end. I have learned to accept that and to go on by saying, "Ok, fine, fair enough" and going on to something else. Some things are just beyond my power and there's other things and people to pray for.

What's great about faith and life is that I have many friends of all faiths and some of no faith at all. What's really cool is that we all learn something from one another.

Shshweeesh!... maybe there IS something in it then..

I'm sorry for your sad stories.. You really DO seem to be such a wonderful mum! Perhaps as sad as they are.. they have helped make you such a brilliant parent.

Absolutely!

speaking as someone who lives in ireland where peoples everyday speech is littered with 'thanks be to god," "god willing", "bless you" and the newspapers have special sections where if you say a certain prayer 3 day in a row ( and get it published in the paper for 3 days..€€!!) then it will be granted, I am completely in the 'no' section!!
I also find quite unsavoury , the thought that people have special prayers for eg. good weather, ..and put out the wee statue to help. If i thought for one moment that my prayer for a good day for my party was answered, and at the same time, somebody in the world was tortured, raped, murdered,beaten, or any number of things they were praying to stop, i would be deeply ashamed.

Woww!

maybe i sho!uld have said 'supposedly'

I've missed you Dear Friend,

How are you?

For the newspaper ads?.. tisk!.. because I was just thinking of trying it for some new shoes I have my eye on.

Helloooo.. I'm okay thank you.. a bit of a crazy chaotic life at the moment.. but I'm still breathing.. haha

yeah and thse 36DD I prayed for ,.....just checking... nope, nothing yet

hahaha.. perhaps try placing a 2 week ad?

that amount of cash would probably pay for one 36DD- an interesting look don't you think

I had a woman start trying to convert me in the chemist today after she realised i looked too sick to sell a raffle ticket too and as was sat down i couldnt have made a run for it.

She asked what was wrong so i told her thinking hopefully here eyes would open wide an pneumonia and she would run!

On the contrary she said the i didn't need the help of the fellow man or anything from this realm and all i needed in fact was to ask Jesus for help.

Now despite being ill and waiting for painkillers i waved her on her way.What i really needed was my prescription collected, some yoghurt to get into the fridge and milk to line my stomach.

Trying to recruit the very ill seems like a waste of time to me, you have religion or you dont, and i could have been cruel and asked why didnt jesus then just get what i needed or the illness shifted anyway.

What made me happy though is she went away happy believing she had done good and if nothing else it makes a change to meet someone who wasnt rude in the chemist.

Also she looked remarkably like Portia and had a germanic accent, so best we check if she's moved and if its her i definitely don't want any raffle tickets.

Hey Jeff..great question. I will put my faith aside and try to answer the question how you intended.

It does seem rediculous to pile up prayers for someone in need. And you are correct...God does know all and sees all, so why are prayers needed? However, I think people pray and offer prayers as not only a strong faith in God to hear those prayers, but a psychological release as well. This sounds selfish, but it makes us feel good to send well wishes to others.

Consider a prayer like a gift. It is better to give than to receive and giving someone your deep thoughts of well wishes through God is a tremendous gift.

It helps us cope with tragedy that is overwhelming to contemplate on an Earthly plane. The 3000 killed on 9/11 was so overwhelming, people said prayers to help themselves cope with such an enormous loss of life in an undignified and hateful way.

I read recently that a series of trials carried out at the Mayo clinic showed no connection whatsoever between the patients being prayed for and their rate of recovery and those that were not prayed for. No surprise there.

I guess it helps the people who pray in a situation where they are powerless to do anything, on the other hand do people pray when instead they should be doing something more constructive.

Yes bit isn't prayer a method of NLP, A form of self brainwashing?

yes, but if it works for some people, then more power to them , I say

Works to make them feel better which is fine, but there are those that pray instead of doing something about it which is really sticking their head in the sand.

I would not say it is brainwashing, but I understand your point. I tend to lean on the side of 5000 years of the history of prayer....