Benefits of Meditation / Meditation Therapy – How to Meditate

Benefits of Meditation / Meditation Therapy – How to Meditate

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Prayer for Young People

O God, we pray and beseech you
to guide and protect young people
from the dangers that are ever present in our world today.
Be with them, as they experience both sickness and health,
sorrow and joy,
loneliness and friendship,
success and failure.
Gracious God,
give to them the courage and strength
to make the right decisions
as they journey through life.
Through the power of the Holy Spirit,
may they come to know and experience your loving care.
We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The Penny Cup

Lord, I fumed, Caleb is making a terrible mistake. You’ve got to do something! The girl my son was dating was all wrong for him. I just knew it. I’d pleaded, argued, reasoned, even written notes, but nothing could change his mind. One afternoon, at my wit’s end, I was sitting in the kitchen fretting, when I looked down at my cup of tea—and was reminded of the penny cup.

Years ago I had read about the penny cup in a magazine. A woman, impatient for an answer to her prayer, declared that every penny she found she’d put into a mug and they would all be reminders that, yes, God was still listening to her and that, yes, he’d answer her in his good time. Soon enough the cup was full and her prayer was answered.

“That’s what I’ll do,” I said. Rummaging in the back of a cabinet I took out a mug that Caleb had bought for me when he was in the third grade.

God, please change Caleb’s mind, I prayed, and started looking for pennies. I found one in the laundry room, another in a grocery parking lot, a couple more outside on the sidewalk. Once, I found eight pennies in one spot. I deposited every one into the cup. Soon Caleb would see things my way.

But something strange happened instead. I got to know the girl. I discovered that she was good to my son and truly loved him. In fact, she brought out some good qualities in him. I was dropping one more penny into the cup when it dawned on me: Kathy, God has already answered your prayer.

He didn’t change Caleb’s mind. He changed mine. And you know what? When I looked down at the penny cup, it was full!

[extract from inspirational stores written by: Kathy Grooms]

cupcakes

 

Ingredients

• 2 3/4  cups  butter, at room temperature
• 2  cups  granulated sugar
• 4  large eggs
• 2  teaspoons  each vanilla and almond extracts
• 3  cups  all-purpose flour
• 1/2  teaspoon  each baking powder, baking soda, and salt
• 1  cup  coconut milk
• 1 1/2  cups  flaked coconut, plain or toasted
• 8  ounces  cream cheese, at room temperature
• 2 3/4  cups  powdered sugar

Preparation

 

1. Preheat oven to 350°. In a large bowl, cream together 2 cups butter and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Mix in 1 1/2 teaspoons each vanilla and almond extracts.

2. In another large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add to butter and sugar mixture in 3 batches, alternating with coconut milk. Stir 1 cup flaked coconut into the batter.

3. Fill 30 paper-lined muffin cups (1/2-cup capacity) in two or more muffin pans about 2/3 full with batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center of a cupcake comes out clean, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool for 10 minutes before removing muffins from pans. Cool completely.

4. Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, beat cream cheese, 3/4 cup butter, and 1/2 teaspoon each vanilla and almond extract until smooth. Gradually beat in powdered sugar. Frost cupcakes and sprinkle with remaining coconut.

Angels

A Nurse by Any Other Name

They told her there was no other nurse in the operating room, but she knew better.

 

By Sharon Sigler

 

 

Surgery terrified me, but my doctor said it was necessary. “God, please be with me,” I asked as I sat in my hospital bed waiting. Finally a nurse came in. “I’ll escort you to the operating room,” she said, and helped me into a wheelchair. In the hallway another nurse caught up with us. “My name’s Joy,” she said. “And I’ll be with you, too.”

 

Joy didn’t leave my side, even as the anesthetic started to work on me. Just before I went under, Joy gently placed her hands on either side of my face. Her touch was so delicate. My fears left me and I felt completely at peace.

 

Back in my room after surgery, I told the other nurse how Joy had relaxed me with her touch. “Is she still on duty?” I asked. The nurse assured me there was no one on staff named Joy, and that she alone had accompanied me to the operating room. I knew better.

 

 

 

 

Short Story

Crash Landing

Without warning, our plane engine quit. I braced myself for impact

 

 

Many years ago, during one of our visits to see family in Silver Lake, Indiana, I decided to give my parents a tree for their yard. My wife, Marilyn, and I took our four young sons to a nursery and we picked out a sturdy blue spruce sapling.

 

“Someday,” I told the boys as we planted the tree, “this will be big enough to protect Grandma and Grandpa’s house from the sun and wind.” Over the years it was a pleasure to see how tall and beautiful the spruce was growing.

 

Eventually my parents passed away, but we still went to Silver Lake to visit the rest of the family. I took up flying, and once the boys were grown Marilyn and I made the 1,400-mile journey from our home in Idaho in my single-engine Piper PA-16.

 

One fall day we flew up for a visit. We circled the Silver Lake area to signal Marilyn’s sister and her husband to pick us up at the airport.

 

Without warning, our engine quit. We went into a steep dive. As the earth rushed toward us, I realized we were headed straight for my childhood home!

 

Praying desperately that no one would be hurt, I braced for the inevitable impact. But, instead of smashing into the house, something soft cushioned our breakneck fall. We skidded to a halt in the yard across the street.

 

Later, one of the rescue workers who helped us out of the wreckage told us, “It’s amazing you didn’t hit the house or power lines. That big blue spruce probably saved your lives.”

- James Haney

Happiness depends on what you can give, not on what you can get.                                – M. Gandhi

cochan

Smart Pills

One day two boys were walking through the woods when they saw some rabbit turds. One of the boys said, ”What is that?””They’re smart pills,” said the other boy. ”Eat them and they’ll make you smarter.

So he ate them and said, ”These taste like crap.”

”See,” said the other boy, ”you’re getting smarter already.”