By Rachel Roney
Dear Lord of un-ending love.
We pause to thank you for summer. For clear blue skies, sunny days and warm breezes. Thank you for the sound of children playing outside with squeals of delight. For long days and time to spend with family outside. For green grass, running steams and bare feet.
Let us pause to feel gratitude for everything we have and everything we experience is a gift from you.
From the words of todays scripture and message let us remember that our words are powerful. That we have the power to lift people up with our words, but that our words can also be hurtful and cause pain when used the wrong way. Let us remember to use our words carefully and humbly. Help us to show unconditional love, even to those who hurt and scar us. With gratitude, we can see those who have caused us pain as a child of the most high God, loved and accepted. Help us find the compassion that comes with true forgiveness.
Loving God, we pray for those in our congregation who are facing significant personal challenges. – death of a loved one, a health challenge, financial hardship or a broken relationship. We lean on you, Lord to get us through these tough times and pray that those in pain will feel your gentle touch on their shoulder.
We give special thanks today for both the leaders of this past week’s VBS and to the many children who attended VBS. We are so thankful to have such a thriving children’s ministry here at DCC.
Loving Father, forgive us for those things we have done which have caused you sadness, and for those things that we should have done that would have brought you joy. Bring us back to that place where our journey began when we said we would follow…