I recently found out that writing prompts is a thing. Not the prompts for final exams, or for paper assignments, but random sentences that are meant to serve as exercises for creative writers. It may be something I should have stumbled upon sooner, but somehow I have managed to get to this stage in my life without needing other people to give me opening lines for my great American novel.
- Suddenly icy fingers gripped my arm as I walked through the darkness…
- Did you expect her to stay? She did ask you to…
- You’re going to start drinking already?
- You are in a typical awkward elevator ride with a group of people. Suddenly a man says, “I bet you are wondering why I’ve gathered you here” before hitting the emergency stop button.
Clearly, I write more prayers than fiction, but the prompts I use in my personal prayer petitions are well worn and I thought I might share those with you. I think I codified them when I taught 9th grade Confirmation 25 years ago. I was petrified that the youth might ask me about my own prayers, so I scrambled to come up with a structure. I pray in many ways, only sometimes in words, but the discipline of raising these categories in prayer is important to me. We can spend a great deal of time pontificating about the need for prayer petitions, whether God has time to “listen” to them, whether the universe needs us to raise them, or whether anything will change, but for me prayer petitions enrich my connections with others and therefore my own journey.
- For family and friends and friends that are family
- For all I have greeted today and for those I failed to acknowledge
- For the people who made me angry today
- For a group of people that I just cannot understand
- For those who are lonely
- For those in prisons, whether physical prisons or prisons of circumstance
- For parents who do not have food to feed their children
- For colleagues whose struggles I know and colleagues whose struggles are unseen
- For our nation and our world. May peace prevail upon the earth (phrase on peace poles like the one in the front yard of the Spiritual Life Center).
Don’t forget to add prayers of thanksgiving as well.
- For everything that has given me joy today
- For my food and shelter and that my basic needs are met
- For every smile
- For the amazing bounty I have
- For my voice and that I am heard
- For productive work that makes the world a better place
I know that not all of you are the praying type, but I think most on this campus are reflective in some meaningful way. I implore you to please not forget to pray today – center yourself or take a breath to renew your soul.
I want to close by quoting one of Nadia Bolz-Weber’s recent tweets:
NBW: I don’t know what I am doing and I am afraid and what if I make the wrong choice and why can’t I be more productive and what’s going to happen
Heathen Boyfriend: Have you prayed for guidance?
NBW: I legit forgot.
Blessings, Stephanie