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Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Wise prayers for wisdom

Scotty Smith’s prayer for wisdom sounds a lot like mine:

   Father, please give me wisdom about the difference between gospel peace-making and conflict-avoidance.  What’s really worth fighting for? When do soft answers turn away wrath, or when are they a sign of selfishness and cowardice? When do I lose sight of the real issue and simply refuse to lose? What does it mean to fight fair and to conflict redemptively?

     Father, please give me wisdom about the balance between being spent and poured out for the gospel, and stewardship of my body, mind and heart. Show me when I’m living more of a driven rather than a called life. What’s the difference between a living sacrifice and a depleted workaholic?

     Father, please give me wisdom about loving our children at different stages of their lives. When do I show up? When do I shut up? When do I offer advice that’s not being asked for? When does my help not really help? What’s the difference between parenting by faith-n-grace and manipulating by guilt-n-grit… even when they’re adults?

     Father, please give me wisdom about the next season of my life. What does growing older in the gospel look like?

If you don’t have his weblog “Heavenward” on your feed reader, you’re missing some good devotional reading.

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