 |
BACK TO
CRITIQUE CIRCLE
COMPLETE
INSTRUCTIONS HERE
CRITIQUE GUIDELINES
CRITIQUE TIPS
HELP TOUR
It's easy to critique the works of others and get your work critiqued. Just follow the steps below:
1) Post your first piece.
2) You must then critique the work of another member to post another piece yourself.
3) For each critique you give, you earn 1 credit that can be used to post another one of your writings.
4) You can build up credits to be used at another time by giving critiques to others.
Our Daily Devotional
HERE
Place it on your site or
receive it daily by email.
TRUST JESUS TODAY
|
|
|
This is for a Christian audience, mostly women, for a weekly newspaper that mostly includes 800 word articles. Right now I'm about 30 words over, and I know this needs tightening up, just not sure where or how.
The topic area is supposed to be Timing of Devotional Life or Ways to Enliven Your Prayer Life. I only have a couple days before the deadline to submit so any feedback would be MUCH appreciated - thanks. Honest, constructive feedback - even if it means tearing it all apart and reconstructing - would be very appreciated.
Please give feedback on the title well - I also considered Finding Time to Pray or just Time to Pray, other suggestions also appreciated.
Who can call themselves a good Christian and not have one hour a day to spend with their Lord? It’s a question I’d heard from a number of people, so I thought, oh, I guess I’m a bad Christian since I’m not doing that. I’ll do better, I’ll make it a priority. I love my Lord, and I’m not going to let others or Him think I don’t.
Since I am not a morning person, I thought in order to be a truly devout Christian, I needed to make the sacrifice to get up early each morning and spend that hour with God. And so each night I’d set my alarm an hour earlier. “Lord,” I’d pray, “help me to get up early tomorrow. I want to spend this time with you.” Morning would come, and in my groggy, bleary-eyed state, I’d grope for the snooze button, telling myself that 45 minutes was almost as good as an hour. Continuing to hit snooze each time the alarm interrupted my sleep, I’d decide I’d start with less time today and increase it tomorrow. Or maybe I’d just start tomorrow. God will understand. He knows how much I do each day and how little sleep I’ve been getting lately. He knows I may even be getting sick. I need to make sure I get enough sleep so I don’t compromise my immune system. I’ll start tomorrow. Or better yet, Monday, after I’ve had a chance to catch up on sleep and can really start fresh.
Some mornings I did get up. My time with God was precious, and it was a great way to start the day. After several mornings in a row, however, I was exhausted. I’ll just sleep in today, I’d think, and get up early again tomorrow. But tomorrow would stretch into a week, then a month.
I beat myself up mentally and told myself how rotten I was. How pathetic am I if I can’t even get up consistently for that all-important hour with God? I tried starting with 15 minute increments instead of a whole hour, or praying during my morning workout or shower as part of that hour. I tried asking others to help hold me accountable. But every time, even if I’d do well for several days, eventually sleep would get the better of me and I would fail once again.
I decided maybe it didn’t matter if the hour was spent first thing in the morning. I tried for an hour each evening instead. That didn’t really work, between cooking and cleaning up from dinner and a day’s worth of messes, helping with homework, getting kids ready for bed and preparing things for the next day. The hour would often slip away unnoticed, or I’d remember it briefly as I fell into bed and drifted off to sleep.
A few months ago, a friend called to tell me she was coming into town to visit. We hadn’t seen each other since I’d had kids, so we were used to spending hours together just hanging out and talking. We planned a day to spend together that would work with both our schedules. I arranged for a babysitter for the kids for part of the time, and my husband planned on watching them that evening. When the day came, my sitter ended up canceling at the last minute, and my friend had to leave earlier than she originally had planned. We never got to spend even a moment together without kids, chaos, and interruptions. As I expressed my dismay at not being able to spend focused, one-on-one time with her, without all the distractions of my day, she assured me it was fine and she was just glad she’d gotten to see me at all. “It’s not about how you spend the time, just that you do it,” she said. “I still got to see you, and see what your life is like for you now. It’s actually better this way because I have a real sense of who you are as a mom.”
And that’s when it hit me. God doesn’t care so much about how we spend the time, just that we do it. He just wants to know us, and for us to know Him, in our lives today, not some time in the future when we achieve that “perfect” schedule (which will never really happen anyway). Just as Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5:17, we are to “pray continually”. God wants us to turn to Him in each and every moment, to give it all up to Him and spend time with Him, as a companion, friend, counselor, and confidante. He wants us to invite Him into every aspect of our daily lives, not just one pre-scheduled hour a day. Our prayers should become as natural and consistent as breathing.
It’s not about finding the right time to pray, it’s about praying all the time.
The opinions expressed by authors may not necessarily reflect the opinion of FaithWriters.com.
|
|
|
LOGIN HERE
REMINDER:
REMEMBER, this is a Critique Circle. Please try to give a critique to receive a critique. If you do not want to give any critiques, you can use the REGULAR ARTICLE SUBMISSION area. If you are unsure about how to critique, please use the CRITIQUE GUIDELINES and CRITIQUE TIPS.
|
VIEWING CRITIQUES:
To view your critiques that you receive on any writing, login to your account and click "CRITIQUE CIRCLE MANAGEMENT" to view all of your critiques and edit each piece. Then, click "VIEW CRITIQUES" next to the article title to view critiques on that piece. Comments on all of your writings when using the Critique Circle will not be displayed publicly as regular and writing challenge articles. They can only be viewed by accessing them from your account.
|
|
|
