Because it's Sunday, this is my little Sunday School Lesson today for grownups.
Peter Marshall was a great Presbyterian minister, originally from Scotland, who rose to the position of Chaplin to the United States Congress. Once you read his prayers, you can understand how he got this position. It's unfortunate that he seems so forgotten now. I found this book, in someone's trash, of prayers called "The Prayers of Peter Marshall," which seems very hard to find now. His wife Catherine Marshall became a well-known writer in her own right.
The following prayer really hit home with me. For one thing it's a little political, maybe because he was to give it before a room full of Senators. It's also his very last prayer written before he died in 1949. He died before he could deliver it, so it was delivered in the Congress by another pastor.
This prayer reminds me of a frame of mind of some people I've met in life. They only want to do really big things, things that they don't have the capacity to ever do. However, if they would start with just small, everyday things, they would be such better and happier people. It's not like all or nothing. It's like let me God do something, just something, the scale isn't what is important. You start small and build. If you want world peace, start with yourself and your family.
The line "Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persuade" seems to me that this could really apply to President Obama's present political situation with the Republicans.
I recently rewatched the old film on Cable called "A Man Called Peter," which was his life's story. The film is worth watching because the sermons the actor playing him gives are great sermons. I've never heard anything better. They seemed great to me, because they related so much to my own life and problems.
The following prayer really hit home with me. For one thing it's a little political, maybe because he was to give it before a room full of Senators. It's also his very last prayer written before he died in 1949. He died before he could deliver it, so it was delivered in the Congress by another pastor.
Deliver us, our Father, from futile hopes and from clinging to lost causes, that we may move into ever-growing calm and ever-widening horizons.
Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persuade, for small deeds done are better than great deeds planned.
We know that we cannot do everything. But help us to do something. For Jesus' sake. Amen.
This prayer reminds me of a frame of mind of some people I've met in life. They only want to do really big things, things that they don't have the capacity to ever do. However, if they would start with just small, everyday things, they would be such better and happier people. It's not like all or nothing. It's like let me God do something, just something, the scale isn't what is important. You start small and build. If you want world peace, start with yourself and your family.
The line "Where we cannot convince, let us be willing to persuade" seems to me that this could really apply to President Obama's present political situation with the Republicans.
I recently rewatched the old film on Cable called "A Man Called Peter," which was his life's story. The film is worth watching because the sermons the actor playing him gives are great sermons. I've never heard anything better. They seemed great to me, because they related so much to my own life and problems.
