Bending Angel

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Prayer for Angel Eyes Who See Something and Say Something – January 17, 2021

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For the video of Jack’s prayer, please click here.

I believe in God.

I believe in angels.

Angels in Heaven.

Angels on Earth.

Angels, God’s holy messengers of love and protection.

Angels who are not confined to history and the Bible.

Like the Angel Gabriel or Jacob’s Angel or the Guardian Angel Michael.

Living angels, here and now.

Like the twelve living angels in my book, Bending Angels.

Living angels are everywhere, like Flaviane Carvalho, a Florida restaurant employee, who opened her angel eyes. She saw with her heart a sad 11-year-old boy seated with his family at a Mrs. Potato Restaurant in Orlando, Florida on Dec. 31, 2020.

Flaviane noticed the boy had scratches and bruises. She became more concerned when his parents didn’t order him anything to eat.
Flaviane asked herself, “How can I know that this boy needs help?’ Instantly, she wrote and flashed a note to the boy when his parents weren’t looking. “Do you need help?” When the boy nodded and crossed his arms across his chest, she called 911. This living angel was a messenger to the police of God’s love and protection for this boy.

The police arrived within minutes. The police took the boy to a hospital, where doctors found numerous bruises. He also was 20 pounds underweight.

The boy told detectives that he had been tied up and hung upside down from a door in his home. Also, he had been beaten by his stepfather, handcuffed, and denied food.

The boy and his sister are now out of harm’s way. The angel saw something. Said something.

The abused boy was saved by a note and the angel eyes of a waitress.

God has said in Scripture that angels see, act, and have a place on Earth and in Heaven.

Exodus 23:20
Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way and to bring you to the place that I have prepared.

Hebrews 1:14
Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Psalm 91:11-12
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up…

Hebrews 13:2
Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained

God, in prayer we thank You for Your angels on Earth and in Heaven.

God, in prayer may we see the guardian angels You have appointed to watch over us, night and day.

God, in prayer please call us to be Your living angels on Earth. That we may have the eyes of angels to see and say something to protect all Your children from harm as Flaviane did for the 11-year old boy in Orlando.

God, if we see others in harm’s way or in need, please help us to take the next step, like Flaviane, to say something, to do something, and to lead them to the place You have prepared for them.

God, we may not have the chance to save a child from abuse. But, we can see the lonely neighbor next door and pay a visit, or the poor lady counting pennies in the grocery store line and buy her food, or a cold homeless man sleeping on the street and hand him a blanket. There are tens and tens of thousands of Your angels, may we each be one for You. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.
https://www.amazon.com/Jack-H-Emmott/e/B01BZFHSBW%3Fref=dbs_a_mng_rwt_scns_share

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com website.

Photo credit: GoFundMe.org

A Common Prayer for an Uncommon Time in America – January 10, 2021

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Click here for Jack’s video version of this prayer.

Photo credit: Christchurch.org

When I was six with polio and in quarantine in the hospital, at my age, I was incapable of understanding how a democracy works, the importance of the rule of law, or in following the United States Constitution. I did know that I did not understand why I could not move my arms or legs or why I could not be home with Mom and Dad. I did not understand how I could ever fit in again or how I could ever belong to what had been or what I had taken for granted.

In that lonely place, an Episcopal minister came into my hospital room dressed in black, a white clerics collared shirt, a smile, and holding a little red book which to me became a sort of Declaration of Independence from the bondages of paralysis.

Father Skarden Daubert said, “Son, I have a small book of prayers I want to give you.” He carefully opened the Episcopal Book of Common Prayer and placed the book in my hands. I could not turn the pages. But, I was always able to do what Skarden Daubert asked of me next. “Son, would you like to say a prayer with me from this book?” I nodded, yes.

Almost every day that year at Hedgecroft Hospital Father Daubert came into my room and brought the love and hope of God to me as we prayed together. Most of the emptiness in not understanding my condition and loneliness was filled with what he and prayer did for me every day.

As I held that book of prayers in my hands (which got stronger every day like my faith in God), I swear I could almost feel the healing hands of Jesus holding mine.

Before I was discharged to go home to my family, Father Daubert wrote his name and an inscription in that book just for me. Eight years later I took that prayer book with me to Cy-Fair High School every day. The Principal, Roy Metcalf, asked me to say a prayer over the intercom to the teachers and students at the beginning of classes each day just before the Pledge of Allegiance.

One morning I came to the front office to say the daily prayer. My prayer book was missing. I never found it.

Last week in Washington D.C. at the Capital when the Electoral Votes were being counted a lot happened that I could not understand either. It was not my little red prayer book, but something very special and highly important to America was missing.

And to address the lack of understanding and what was missing and what is needed to heal this Nation as I was healed from polio many years ago, I ask, “Would you, my brothers and sisters, say this prayer with me from that little red Book of Common Prayer?”

Almighty God, who hast given us this good land for our heritage: We humbly beseech thee that we may always prove ourselves a people mindful of thy favor and glad to do thy will. Bless our land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners. Save us from violence, discord, and confusion; from pride and arrogance, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties, and fashion into one united people the multitudes brought hither out of many kindreds and tongues. Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in thy Name we entrust the authority of government, that there may be justice and peace at home, and that, through obedience to thy law, we may show forth thy praise among the nations of the earth. In the time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the day of trouble, suffer not our trust in thee to fail; all which we ask through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com website.

Prayer to Virtually Meet with God, No Zoom App Required – January 3, 2021

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For the video version of Jack’s prayer, please click here.

Living, loving, and working during the Pandemic in 2020 were real challenges for me and for you. To survive and succeed we needed to adapt in many unexpected ways. We had to make use of technology to work remotely, to restore our pantries with food by online shopping, and to stay in touch with those we have been separated from. To stay connected with those we could not hold. Those we could not touch. Those we could not even extend handshake greetings at a business meeting or embrace another in church to share God’s peace.

Out of necessity, I resorted to virtual technology to do what I did before in person in my calling as a Collaborative Divorce Lawyer. At my age, I have gone from being a Boomer to becoming a Zoomer.

Although there are many benefits of virtually meeting with others, I have had to overcome challenges in the use of this technology. I needed a powerful internet signal. A high-resolution camera to be seen by others. To be clearly heard, a background noise-canceling microphone. A selfie light to look my best to others. An iPhone, iPad and a desktop to make long-distance virtual relationships work. The latest Zoom software so that in communicating with others I could be heard and I could effectively listen to what others were saying.

Despite the virtues of virtual communication and the best technology, I still have had difficulties. Loss of electrical power. Interruption of cable or satellite signal. Frozen images. Garbled words from speakers. Voices that are in audible or echo back at me.

This morning as I was about to begin my daily prayer I had a question. “What if I could communicate with God by Zoom?” Instantly, I realized what should have been obvious to me. For generations, we, as children of God, have been communicating virtually with God.

Although we would like to reach out and physically embrace God or see God’s Face with our eyes, that is not possible. Despite that, we all have a virtual relationship with our Creator through prayer. Isn’t prayer far easier, more convenient, and more accessible than Zoom could ever be?

In prayer, each of us can virtually communicate with God and have a close relationship with God without the necessity of any technology or material things. Sadly, those who have suffered most in the Pandemic do not have a job from which to work remotely or any money to buy the technology to use virtual communication. The good news is that they and we in prayer can receive all of the benefits of Zoom, of virtual communication with God without downloading software or buying equipment and accessories.

As with Zoom, we can meet with God at any time, any place, without traveling to another destination, without waiting, without spending money, without incurring travel expenses. The simple truth is that prayer is our Internet connection, our virtual sacred pathway to have a direct relationship with our living God. In prayer, we can share with God unlimited information and our entire concerns in real-time. In prayer, there is nothing we cannot say or turn over to God. No burden so heavy which we cannot surrender to our loving God. There is no limitation on how our powerful God and wise Lord may answer our needs, our questions, or our prayers.

Although many of us prefer kneeling as we pray to God, the only position that we need to assume is how and where we find ourselves at any given moment. There is no need to sit in front of a camera or desk. I can and do pray to God in my wheelchair. We can speak with God in our cars, in the kitchen, in the shower, or bathtub. God is virtually with us wherever we are.

In prayer, we are able to do something that Zoom can never do for us. We can speak to God without even saying a human word. For God even hears our thoughts. And, in prayer, we can hear God’s words without God speaking to us in human voice.

One reason Zoom is so beneficial is that it saves organizations millions of dollars. It brings the world closer to one another. It is Green. Using it does not add to the carbon footprint. No carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere from exhaust fumes from air and land travel. For those who are concerned about the environment, I think prayer is the ultimate environmentally-friendly form of activity on Earth. The only fuel needed to have a virtual relationship with God is our love for Him and trust that God is listening to us in prayer. In prayer, we are brought nearer to God and ever closer to one another.

God has spoken to us in Scripture about prayer.

Jeremiah 29:12
Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

Job 22:27
You will pray to him, and he will hear you, and you will fulfill your vows.

Psalm 17:6
I call on you, my God, for you will answer me; turn your ear to me and hear my prayer.

God, in prayer please help each of us to make time for You, for You are always present for us.

God, in prayer please help us to see our precious virtual, meaningful relationship with You.

God, please help us know that prayer is the best part of every day.

God, please help us to set aside a few minutes every day to pray and to thank You for the innumerable benefits and blessings You have bestowed upon us. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon. 

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel Website.

Image credit: thedepotchurch.org

Prayer for Room in the Manger in My Heart – Christmas 2020

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To enjoy Jack’s video of this prayer, please click here.

Birth of Christ with Angels Berruguete

Last evening a strong cold front with blustery winds came to Texas. The shallow waters were blown out into the Gulf of Mexico leaving the canal empty behind my bay home. Even the Kingfishers, Seagulls, Brown Pelicans, and Great Herons appeared to hunker down just as I have for nine long months in the Pandemic.

This morning the clouds gave way to bright sunlight. Now the bay is sky blue. God and His Angels through Nature seem to herald that darkness is giving way to light and the birth of renewed hope.

On social media, I hear the earthly voices of our brothers and sisters crying for food. For healing human touch. For comfort. For the ability to let go of grieving for loved ones who have died. Voices pleading for what had been before the Coronavirus came to America.

As I exit Advent darkness, I recall my mom’s sweet and beautiful small ceramic hand-painted Nativity Scene. Mom died ten years ago. Even though I have no idea where it is now, I can vividly see little Baby Jesus in the manger. In the miniature manger, I still witness God’s gift of hope, love, and eternal life to me and you. I hear heavenly voices calling to me in the darkness. To step forward. To look up to the Light of Christ.

We know who was in the manger in the stable in Bethlehem. But what is in the manger of your heart because of that transformative, seemingly impossible Holy and Devine birth? In your walk of faith, how did that birth transform you? What did that birth create in the manger of your heart?

As God has said in Scripture,
1 John 4:9
In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him.

God, as we leave Advent darkness please help us to make room in the manger of our hearts for the Light of Christ to dwell.

God, we have brothers and sisters in Christ who have little or no food or water or a stable for shelter. Please provide for them and comfort them.

God, out of the fruit of our labors may we generously give in Your Holy Name our time and money to Your less fortunate children who now have so much more of so much less.

God, please make room in the manger of our hearts to carry the love and light of Your blessed Son to others who are desperately in need of Holy hope, healing, and sustenance. Amen.

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com website.

Prayer to Hear the Christmas Bell Forever – December 20, 2020

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To enjoy Jack’s video of this prayer, please click here.

In the Advent-like darkness of death, suffering, and separation from the Pandemic many of us are looking for hope? For healing? For the ending of a horrible disease that has deafened our senses? To see the light? To hear Holy Hope amidst the clatter of the struggles we and others are facing.

Sometimes we are drawn to beacons of light-filled hope when things are the darkest. We see the stars in the heavens when the skies are the darkest. Don’t we? Inexplicably, we find ourselves drawn closer to God the farther away we feel He is from us.

In the darkness of Covid 19, we have lost so much. I did with polio. We have also gained a lot in the Pandemic as I did from polio. With God’s help in the dark times and living a life with my disabilities I have been able to more clearly see, hear, touch, and feel joy, light, hope, and most importantly, love.

How many of you, like me, had unbridled anticipation and wonder as a child waiting for Santa to arrive and leave presents under the Christmas Tree?

How many of you, like me, found joy in singing Christmas carols at church or going door to door in your neighborhood to share the gift of God’s peace and joy in song during the holidays?

How many of you, like me, felt that you were safely held in the arms of God when you attended Christmas Eve or Christmas Day church services? In addition to the birth of Christ, child-like mystery and wonder had a secure place in the manger of my heart. Yours too, I imagine.

Thanks to the Grace of God and the talents of scientists around the world, hope is at hand. Amazingly, in less than a year, we have multiple vaccines against Covid 19 being administered.

On December 21st, another source of light, the Great Conjunction, will occur when Jupiter and Saturn align in the night sky for the first time in nearly 400 years. Will we be witnessing the Christmas Star? The one the Three Wise Men saw more than 2000 years ago to guide them to the stable in which God’s Eternal Life and Hope for us was born? Or possibly the Great Conjunction may be the intersection of astronomic reality and our faith in God?

Another source of light for me and millions of others is the movie, Polar Express. At the end of the movie the Hero Boy who had become an older man said, “….at one time, most of my friends could hear the bell. But as years passed, it fell silent for all of them. Even Sarah found, one Christmas, that she could no longer hear its sweet sound. Though I have grown old, the bell still rings for me. As it does for all who truly believe.”

Many of you have young children and grandchildren who still hear the Christmas Bell. During the Pandemic, many of you may have either lost or have greater difficulty hearing the sounds of joy and wonder. In seeing light. In believing in wonder, mystery, and hope.

With prayer, love, and aging I can still hear the Christmas Bell. As I witness millions of men and women across America and the world receive Covid-19 vaccinations. As I look up at the Great Conjunction on December 21st. As I think about the Hero Boy who never outgrew the ability to hear the Bell, I reflect on God’s Words.

Isaiah 40:31
….. but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.

Jeremiah 29:11
For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

God, in prayer, please help us know that in times of darkness and light we are always safely held in Your Loving Arms.

God, in prayer, please safeguard our ability to hear the voices of Your angels and the ringing of Christmas bells in our hearts.

God, on Christmas Day may we hear Your proclamation that in You and Your Son, Jesus Christ, peace, love, wonder, hope, and life never die. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the www.BendingAngel.com website.

Prayer for the Spirit of Forrest Gump to Dwell in Us – December 13, 2020

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To see the video of Jack reading this prayer, please click here.

During this Pandemic, it is interesting how unexpectedly things come out of the blue and hit your heart with the force of a locomotive.  To take you from where you are at the moment.  Then, propel you backwards in time.  Then, sling you forward into the future.  Then, take you back again to where you were originally.  In those few fleeting moments your heart is in a much different place than where you began.

Recently, Dorothy and I had just finished dinner.  As we ate pecan pie, I noticed Forrest Gump the movie, was on YouTube TV.  I turned the movie on.

As a young boy with a curved spine, Forrest wore braces on his legs.  Like Forrest, I, as a young boy with polio, wore a Milwaukee Brace to support my curving spine.  With prayer and hard work, I had hope that brace would disappear.  When Forrest ran in the movie, his leg braces miraculously broke into pieces.  At that moment I was a young boy running next to him.   Unlike Forrest, my back brace did not disintegrate.  I was never able to run with or without the brace. But despite that, like Forrest, I was born and blessed by God with the kind of hopeful spirit we all need.  Hope and dreams I still have.  Gifts I received from God.

Then, came the scene when Forrest sat in a chair by his mother lying in bed. Forrest’s mother announced that she was dying.  Forrest asked his mother why.  She said, “Death is just part of life”.  Just like birth.  It was her time. That time comes for all of us.

Then, I found myself with my mother ten years ago when she was near death.  Receiving the Last Rights.  As experienced by Forrest in his mother’s death, a part of me died when my mom’s heart stopped beating.

Then, there was Jenny, the girl Forrest loved.  The girl who loved him even though Forrest wasn’t the smartest kid on the block.  When Jenny refused to confirm her love for him, Forrest said “At least I know what love is.”  Even though Forrest was different, Jenny came to love him.  Suddenly, I was 23 again.  I was next to my bride, Dorothy.  Dorothy was my Jenny in 1972. Like Jenny for Forrest, despite my own disabilities and differences from other men, Dorothy loved me as I was.  As I am.  As I am not.  As I will never be.

My mind then drifted to the future and to the New Year 2021.  How many Americans might have given up hope?  Would Forrest’s childlike wonder and innocence be near the brink of extinction in the hearts of most Americans?

What I like about Forrest Gump is that he believed all things are possible. Unlike Forrest Gump, our dreams don’t always come true.  And many times we lose our hope.  Despite all his challenges, Forrest Gump always had never-ending hope.  Like death and birth, dreams and miracles were just part of life too

For me, at present no more is needed than that.  Forrest had Jenny.  I have my Dorothy.  Maybe that feather of God’s hope for us, that feather floating in the wind, like Forrest’s, lands some place in your heart or mine, in the mystery of life itself and God’s love for you and me.  With God’s help, we may each live the lives we dream and the hope to love with all the joy and innocence of Forrest.

God has assured us in Scripture that hope is part of the life we are gifted from Him.

Romans 15:13 
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Romans 12:12 
Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

Hebrews 11:1 
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

God, many of us are going through a troubled time.  Many of us struggle every day to see hope amidst Advent darkness.  Amidst all the death.  All the hunger.  All the poverty.  All the unemployment.  All the doubt and despair.

God, in the mystery of Your Grace and love for us, please help us in prayer to see that miracles still happen for all of us.  

God, with prayer, please help us see the hope and innocence which dwell in us and in Your Child born in Bethlehem.  For at Christmas with Jesus’s birth, Your love, Your Holy hope and everlasting light was born.  Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.

 

Prayer for Giving Bread on Days of Giving Thanks – November 29, 2020

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To enjoy the video of Jack reading this prayer, please click here.

When I was six, instead of going to first grade at Bane Elementary, I ended up in a hospital bed. With polio, I was quarantined and separated from my family. I did not know why I was paralyzed. I did not understand why people I loved did not come to see me.

I hungered for comfort. I yearned for family meals and family togetherness. Somehow, I had ended up in a hospital room with nurses, doctors, orderlies, and other polio victims instead of being with my family.

Thankfulness was not in my heart. Giving to others was beyond my comprehension.

Suddenly, my great aunt Mabel Sterling entered my hospital room. She wore a smile and her Blue Bird Circle volunteer dress. That dress gave her special winged-privileges to visit patients like me when others could not, even in times of quarantine.

Aunt Mabel, my Angel in an apron, sat down next to me. She said, “Bubba, would you like to see what I brought for you?” “Yes”, I replied. Carefully, Aunt Mabel peeled back the aluminum foil from the steamy, fragrant, yeasty homemade cinnamon raisin bread she had made for me. I could not butter the bread she brought me any more than I could lift my arms or my legs. She spread the warm butter to the edges of the slice of bread and placed it in my mouth. Eating it seemed like a taste of Heaven on Earth.

That day and all the days she came to see me that year, in eating each piece of bread, I received a miracle of sorts. The hospital smells of bedpans, urinals, and soiled sheets disappeared. I could not hear the children crying in the next room when the doctors administered spinal taps to confirm poliomyelitis.

Many decades have passed from my days of quarantine and rehabilitation at Hedgecroft Hospital. Yet, I have never forgotten the first time my aproned Angel came to my hospital room and fed me much more than bread. And other things. Promise. Hope. God’s love. That homemade cinnamon raisin bread warmed my soul that day and has kept on feeding me in thanksgiving ever since.

In the Pandemic, we now have millions of Americans including children who are hungry. Who are separated from those they love like I was at age six. Who do not know where the next meal will come from. Will the food they receive be enough for the nourishment of their bodies? And, if they are fed today, will food be placed on their table tomorrow?

So, today, and on every day of giving thanks to God for your blessings, I ask you to join me in giving bread to someone else in need. For the first time in posting these weekly prayers, I am asking you to make a donation. I am suggesting the Houston Food Bank to feed others who may not be in the hospital like I was as a young boy, but who still need to be fed and to receive nourishment, hope, and the love of God.

The Houston Food Bank’s website says that for every $10 you donate a meal is provided for 30 people. On this particular day of giving thanks to God, Dorothy and I gave $300 which will provide meals to 900 hungry people.

When you donate to the Houston Food Bank, each man, woman, and child will never know you personally like I knew Aunt Mabel. But, God will. Maybe, just maybe, by doing so you will one day get to meet my aproned Angel Aunt when you are both seated at God’s Table eating the everlasting bread of eternal life and love.

Dear God, on all our days of giving thanks to You for the blessings You have bestowed upon us as Your children, may we give bread to those in need to feed their bodies and to warm their hearts with Your comfort and love. Amen

If you are not in Houston, please consider donating to the Food Bank in your area.

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to www.BendingAngel.com

Prayer in Thanksgiving for Parents – November 22, 2020

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To watch a video of Jack reading this prayer, please click here.

Like many of you, I owe my first and deepest gratitude and giving of thanks to God because of Mom and Dad. When I was thirty-something, young and married with kids, I penned, A Child’s Thanksgiving, a poem to God in awe of them. 

Because of the Pandemic, many of you cannot be with your parents on Thanksgiving. Even if the Pandemic did not exist, many of you, like me, have parents who have died and are unable to be with you and your family on this special day of giving thanks.

For another year, Mom and Dad will not be with me in the physical at the Emmott Family Thanksgiving Table. Instead, they will be seated at the Lord’s Table feasting on the Light and Love of God.

Happy Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad.  Enjoy the Love, Peace, and Joy you gave me.

A Child’s Thanksgiving
Lord,
Today is Thanksgiving Day,
At least for another forty-five minutes,
As it is now eleven fifteen at night.
Even though thanks giving is the theme of this day
I have yet to say enough thanks
For the life you have given me.

Thanks for life,
Life so precious, so rare,
Life of mine which might have ended
So long ago in my childhood years,
Years filled with respirators, syringes,
Bedpans, creamagal, prayers, oxygen
Tents, braces, casts, and hospital
Rooms.

Thanks for Mom and Dad.
For all their love, patience, and care,
For just being there
When I so much needed them.
For the untold sacrifices they made,
Which I could never hope to repay.
For devoting their younger years
So that I might live more of my own.
For instilling in me
A happy outlook on life,
Despite physical limitations,
Which chained me down,
Which prevented me
From doing what others did.
For giving me the courage
To endure the painful years
And those unhappy tears.
But most of all,
Thanks for their love,
Love which gave me comfort.
Knowing that whatever I was or was not,
I was always accepted
And had the potential to become a bigger “me”,
Because of what we had been through.

For giving me gifts,
Gifts which have kept on giving
Year after year.
The gift of warmth,
Of being held in their arms as a child,
Totally dependent on their nurture for survival.
The gift of being held in my mother’s arms,
Clutched near her breasts.
Of being lulled to sleep in the music
Of her heartbeats,
Of her song
And of the rocker squeaking on the oak wood floor.
For giving me a greater vision
Of this world and other worlds.
For allowing me to believe in
Fairytales,
Santa Claus,
Rudolf,
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,
Jack and the Beanstalk,
The Sand Man,
The Tooth Fairy,
Superman and
The Savior.
For the gifts
Of toys
Of cowboy boots,
Of water pistols,
Of cowboy outfits
Of my first Roy Rogers lunch kit,
Of toys brought back from Mexico,
Of hidden treasures,
Of Playland Park,
Of malted milks,
Of donuts,
Of not making me quit taking
Those shiny half dollars,
From Mr. Logan at Ed Snapp’s therapy clinic.
Of fishing trips,
Of bedtime outings,
Of the best medical care,
And of too many gifts
To write down all of them.

Thanks for keeping them here
For as long as you have
So that I could come to know them better
And love them better also.
The same is just as true for Grandmother and PawPaw.

Thanks for Dorothy, John, and Catherine.

Thanks for giving me
The happiest and most joyous moments
I am now experiencing.
Thanks for the community
We have shared.
And for my partaking of a communion
With each breath of air,
And with each drop of rain.

Lord,
Thanks most of all
For answering my prayers.

Love, Bubba

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur, and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.

Post-Election Prayer – November 15, 2020

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For the video of Jack reading this prayer, please click here.

The last two weeks have been historic indeed.  Much has changed.  Yet, much remains the same. A Presidential election has taken place.  Euphoria and hope for some.  Disappointment and frustration for others.  Unity is needed.  Separation and divisiveness remain. 

How can we steer, support, and direct our elected leaders to better serve all Americans?  You.  The different.  The disabled like me.  Those who have much.  Those who have little.  Those who deserve to be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.  Those whose pantries are full. Those who are uncertain where their next meal will come from.  Those who need the kind of love, care, protection, and opportunity our Founders who signed the Declaration of Independence envisioned.

As I considered writing a 2020 post-election prayer, I read my post-election prayer I wrote and posted on November 11, 2016.  After reading it, I decided to repost it.  I could not add anything new to make such a prayer more relevant today than it was then in 2016.

After every presidential election, each of us knows that the task to achieve our Founders’ vision of the United States seems impossible.  But, please remember and trust, all things are possible when love is present. We are One Nation under God.  God watches over us even in times like this. No matter who resides at the White House, God dwells there too.

Post-Election Prayer – November 11, 2016

God, I am deeply blessed to be living in the United States of America, the greatest democracy on Earth.  I thank you for an election process in which changes in governmental leadership are based on all my fellow citizens exercising the Constitutional right to vote.

God, in the wake of the election of our new President, millions of Americans are excited and hopeful as to new National leadership.  In contrast, there are millions of voters who are upset, afraid, and feel hopeless and disconnected from the American dream.

God, for me and everyone, I pray that You guide our President and all our elected leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate to take actions now which unify us, which embrace the diversity which makes America great, which heal wounds of anger, distrust, and division and which afford all of us and the generations to follow the best chance to flourish in our country and in Your kingdom.

God, I know elections come and go, but Your love is forever.   Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker.  For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website.

Prayer of Thankfulness for a Kingfisher’s Cure for the Soul – October 25, 2020

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To enjoy the video of Jack and this prayer, please click here.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article about sleep deprivation, losing hair, and cracked teeth being caused by the stress of the Pandemic. Certainly, the stress has caused physical injuries to millions worldwide. Yet, beneath those physical injuries are deeper damages within us and within the soul of America. We struggle to find hope and peace within ourselves as our Nation moves nearer to finding a cure for the coronavirus. Being thankful has curative properties too.

Today, my prayer is not about asking God to do something for you and me. It is a prayer of thanksgiving. Being thankful and grateful is a difficult place to be at this time. Things are unbelievably and unexpectedly hard. But thankfulness enables each one of us to see through the darkness and find that hope and healing still exist. Each morning I find it eating my breakfast as I sit on the patio overlooking Tres Palacios Bay. I look up from the steamy bowl of oatmeal, blueberries, and walnuts Dorothy has prepared for me. And there he sits… A magnificent Kingfisher.

The Kingfisher is perched on the birdhouse the Purple Martens have migrated away from. Their departure is the Kingfisher’s gain. He sits on his perch. He sees and surveys his feathered friends. Great Blue Herons. Brown Pelicans flying over the bay, casting their presence like a squadron of B-52 bombers in World War II. A tall slender white Egret carefully navigates the wetlands looking for another taste of nature. A fast-moving mullet jumps repeatedly down the center of the canal below as if the mullet has someplace to go to in a hurry. Two Roseate Spoonbills flying gracefully to their next destination. A large flock of seagulls awkwardly swarming over a school of baitfish just beyond the rock groin. They catch their feast just as the Kingfisher and I catch a glimpse of all of the Saltgrass illumined by the rising Sun. A pastel of perfection of nature created by God. A Fisher of Men – God’s children, you and me. A glorious King who bids that we step out of this dark mess we are in and into a place of thankfulness for the light and love we find all around us if we open our eyes and hearts.

The Kingfisher surveys the bay with his sharp eyes. It is as if he is the King of the Sea. He watches over the diverse and beautiful feathered wildlife God has provided him to appreciate, love, and be within his own way. He is the living feathered messenger to me from God. The one who sets the table of my heart in my daily ritual of sharing breakfast and hope with Dorothy, the woman I love.

Likewise, God, our King, watches over us from afar. He calls us to notice Him too and to be thankful in a much different landscape during the pandemic. We find Him in us. He is the light that illumines our days just as the sunrise lights up the Bay and all its creatures for the Kingfisher and me to see.

We are made God’s own forever with Holy water in Baptism. So, as we pray for a cure, I am thankful for the healing each morning my bowl of oatmeal provides. I remember that “Emmott” in old English means “mouth of the water”. From my mouth come words of thanks to God for the Kingfisher and the King of us all. I open a sweet card from my dear friend, Laura, who lives on an island with a place on the water like me. She quotes author Isak Dinesen, “The cure for anything is saltwater: sweat, tears or the sea”.

God has spoken to us in Scripture about thankfulness and being thankful for the gifts of nature.

Revelation 5:13
And I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever!

Psalm 30:12
that my glory may sing your praise and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give thanks to you forever!

God, in prayer, let us be thankful for those living creatures in Your Kingdom who open our hearts to see the beauty You have given us as well as the innumerable and exquisite gifts You have bestowed on each of us.

God in prayer, as we find a cure for the coronavirus, may we be healed by our thankfulness and gratitude to You.

God, in prayer, may we see glimpses of Your heavenly Kingdom in all Your living messengers…. the Kingfisher, Your creatures great and small, our pets as well as the beauty that resides in our brothers and sisters. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share. If you want to purchase for yourself or a friend a copy of Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love or Prayerful Passages: Asking God’s Help in Reconciliation, Separation or Divorce, please click on here to go to Amazon.

Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 145-lawyer full-service firm in Houston, Dallas, and Waco, Texas, a Board-Certified Family Law and Master Credentialed Collaborative Law Professional Divorce Attorney, Mediator, Author, Entrepreneur and Inspirational Speaker. For more information about Jack or his latest book, Bending Angels: Living Messengers of God’s Love, go to the Bending Angel website. http://www.bendingangel.com

Photo credit: peruaves.org