How can I keep from singing your praise?

My title has very little to do directly with this blog. This will just be a short snippet about prayer. Lately, I've realized I have a lot of free time on my hands. So with that free time, I've decided to invest it in prayer for my friends. I have friends that are in Belton, Boerne, New Braunfels, Austria, Africa, at home, away, here, there, and yon. I feel like the least I can do is pray for them for encouragement and protection, but if I have the opportunity to do better, I will.
So last night, as I was talking to Meg Roe, I asked her if there were specific things that I could pray for her for. It was in the middle of me asking this that this quote, more or less, fell out of my mouth:

"My prayers aren't mechanic, they are organic. You aren't some cog in my prayer machine, you are a seed that has been planted in my prayer garden. I'm wanting to learn how to care and pray for you better, more effectively."

I don't know how you feel about it, but I figured I should at least tell somebody. Plus, if I write it down, I'll have a harder time forgetting.
Thanks guys :)

We can work it out!

I just realized that the titles of my blog posts very rarely have anything to do with what I actually blog about. I'm glad "blog" is now a verb. I think my generation has ruined grammar.

So, once upon a time, a boy made a list. He made a list of all the things he desired in a potential girlfriend. Brown hair...blue eyes...played soccer...on went the list, I'm sure you get the gist.
Then one day that boy went to college, and he started having awkward feelings for girls not on the list. So he said...
"To hell with the list."
...
...
...
Umm, that boy is me.
I don't usually use foul language, in fact, I abhor even my vulgar use of the word "p!ss," however, that's how I feel about my list. I don't like using curse words, and I don't advocate it one bit, for one single moment, but I hope I'm using it in a more literal sense and not in the profane, because that's about how honest I feel towards that list. I'm sorry if I've offended you.
My list has confined me, my list has frustrated me, and my list has set me up for a loss before I ever took the field. I'm finding new ways to play the game, with new people, and with a new sense of......vision for the field, so I'm throwing it out. Well, not the whole list in its complete entirety, but the bulk of it. The materialism: the brown hair, the eye color, the athletic tendencies -- although I value a woman who takes care of her body and who is athletic --and the legalistic process of selecting "suitable" girls. I mean, I'll always remember it and carry it with me, and I'll reference it from time to time, and if I should be so lucky as to date a girl who matched the list well, then that's fine with me. My point is, it is not my starting place any longer. It is......simply a memory of who I used to be.
I think from here I'll probably start redefining what I'm looking for. Re...focusing my lens, if you will, to see what is really out there for me. I don't really know exactly where all this......gumption came from, but it's something that started inside me a few days ago that I really feel like letting out. So, it's out.
Ta DA!

And on the issue of my use of the word "hell" out of it's typical or literal context. I am sorry if I have caused you to stumble. I am sorry if I have offended you. I use that word in the sense of my list is a "curse" that I wish to cast off. By sending it to hell, I guess I feel like I'm rid of it.
To me, it's simple.
Have good weeks. As Meg Roe would say, "be intentional."