When I was a child, I first learned to crawl. Next, I took baby steps. Soon, I was walking slowly and, thereafter, briskly. By age six, I ran faster than all other kids in my neighborhood. A couple of weeks after my sixth birthday, polio struck. With polio my running days were over for good.

After five years of physical therapy five days a week, I learned to take steps again. I could get to my destinations or reach my goals. It just took a little longer and with much greater effort.

Love is found by taking steps too and trusting God to show me and you the way. At age 22 I met Dorothy at a church retreat. A drive-in movie was our first date. Soon thereafter Dorothy invited me to come to her apartment for dinner. Dorothy warned me that her apartment was on the second floor. I needed to climb two flights of stairs to sit with her at the dinner table.

The evening came for me to ascend the stairs to her apartment. As I looked at the formidable flights of stairs for the first time, Dorothy said, “Jack, don’t worry. I will help you one step at a time.” I lifted my left foot up on the first step and stiffened my left leg. Dorothy held my right upper arm. She pushed my right side up in the air and forward. My right leg and foot swung forward and landed on the next step. The process of taking one step at a time with Dorothy’s help repeated itself until we were both on the balcony next to her front door.

After a few months of climbing the stairs to have dinner with her, to watch TV, to study, or play cards, I knew Dorothy was worth the effort. Unexpectedly, one day Dorothy said to me, “Jack, I signed a new lease at my apartment complex. It is on the ground floor.” Those steps to climb the stairs led me to find love and Dorothy’s love finding me.

We can all trust God to guide us to find the love of a husband, a wife, or a partner. How God does that is a mystery. The ways in which God orchestrates our steps are as limitless as the depth of God’s love for us.

The path God chose for me involved taking steps on stairs, steps which led to the woman I married. I will love Dorothy to the last beat of my heart. Taking steps together with the help of God is part an enduring successful and happy marriage. On the same path we have held on to one another and let the other have space. We have forgiven and given to the other. We have raised children and released them to be and become the children God created them to be. We have grieved those we’ve lost and been grateful for memories they left in our hearts.

We are older now but have never completely stepped out of childhood. We struggle to travel lighter and to simplify our days. We are in no hurry to take our final steps to climb the stairs to Heaven to find God’s eternal love. For now, Heaven can wait.

God has spoken in Scripture as to taking steps to find love on Earth and in Heaven.

Psalm 37:23
The steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his way.

Genesis 28:12
He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.

Let us pray.
God, I thank You for granting me my own will. I know that I can make my own plans. Yet, it is comforting to know that You determine my steps.

God, please help me to trust You. In following Your Word may my path lead to Your love on Earth. At my death may your angels help me climb the stairway to Heaven to find Your love forever. Amen
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If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.
Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

Jack H. Emmott, Sr. – Machine Gun Instructor, U.S Army 1918

As you may recall from my Facebook post on May 24, 2020, “Remembering One Who Remembered,” my great grandmother, Catharine Mary Emmott, is known as the Mother of Memorial Park. Due to her efforts and many others, we have a place which will always honor those who served in war to protect and preserve our freedom. Click on this link to read the post.

Catherine Mary’s eldest son (my grandfather), Jack H. Emmott, Sr., served in the First World War. He learned the skills to operate a machine gun at Camp Logan, now known as Memorial Park. Fortunately, he missed the Houston train to Galveston to board the ship to fight on the Killing Fields of Europe. After missing the train, in tears he came home to his mother, Catherine Mary. He was extremely upset about missing the train.

Shortly thereafter Grandfather, PawPaw, learned that his entire unit died. The average life expectancy of a machine gunner in battle in WWI was two minutes.

Because he missed the train, ultimately PawPaw was assigned to be a trainer in the School of Fire in Georgia. He taught brave soldiers the art by day and rode by horseback at night with Teddy Roosevelt’s nephew to fish on the Savannah River.

I treasure the WWI machine gun bullet box he gave me.  I have pride in his service to our country and in the Park’s precious legacy his mother left for you and me. I am thankful for all the brave men and women who sacrificed their lives and who served to preserve our precious liberties.

God has spoken in Scripture on God’s support of those who war for America.

Psalms 144:1-2
“Praise be to the LORD my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”

Let us pray.

God, may You please bless all Americans who have served or sacrificed their lives in the military to preserve and protect America from evil. In the giving of their lives, we have received the gifts of peace, opportunity, and freedom to learn, grow, earn, and love.

God, may Your angels illumine their paths with the light of Christ. May your unfailing love heal their wounds and comfort the hearts of family and friends left behind. Amen
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If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.
Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

A few years ago, one of my colleagues overheard two lawyers talking at the Courthouse. One lawyer asked the other, “Who is that lawyer in the wheelchair?” The other lawyer replied, “Why, that is Jack Emmott. He is the smile on four wheels.”

Learning of this exchange, I felt I had received the highest form of compliment.

I had polio at age six and have wondered why I smile so much. You see in the photograph posted with this prayer me at age seven and a half smiling on four wheels. The fact that I was wearing an uncomfortable Milwaukee back brace for scoliosis and braces on each of my paralyzed hands did not eclipse my ability to smile.

Maybe my smile is merely a gift of God’s grace. Perhaps it is because I have been deeply loved every day by two extraordinary women. First, my mother. Then, my wife, Dorothy. Maybe it was the faith I received from my parents that I was a special child of God.

Sure, there were times I felt different and not special compared to my peers. In the end I knew that they were just like me. We were all children of God. Different but nevertheless special, worthy, and deserving of happiness.

Maybe my smile was attributable to my teachers from first grade through high school at Bane Elementary, Post Elementary, Dean Junior High, and Cy-Fair High School. My teachers went out of their way to make room in their hearts for me in their classrooms.

In first grade it was Lillie Holbrook. She made me and all her students feel like Einstein. Feeling special and smart as a young child provided me with the confidence, courage and strength needed for the remainder of my life. Especially when I made mistakes. When my best was not good enough. When I felt far less than special.

Every day, Grace Berry, my English and Spanish teacher in the ninth grade, fondly called me Jackie Boy. She went out of her way to find positive things to say. One day I wore a long-sleeved yellow shirt to class. Upon rolling into the classroom, Mrs. Berry said, “Jackie Boy, I really like that shirt. Do you know that yellow is an intelligent color?” A smile was pasted on my face the rest of the day.

The cumulative effect of love received, praise given, acts of kindness extended, and hope from God enabled me to smile. I could freely open up and share with others the happiness inside me. Happiness which flowed from God’s grace to me as His special child.

Considering that I will die one day, I have given thought about what words would be most appropriate to be engraved on my headstone. I have accomplished many achievements in the legal profession, in my service to the community, and in my church, as a friend, husband, father, and grandfather. Yet the most suitable epitaph might be:

Here Lies the Body of Jack Emmott
The Smile on Four Wheels

God has spoken in Scripture as to smiling.

Psalm 4:6
“Many people say, ‘Who will show us better times?’ Let your face smile on us, LORD.”

Proverbs 15:30
“A cheerful look brings joy to the heart; good news makes for good health.”

Let us pray.
Dear God, please help me to smile and smile more often. In smiling I cause others to smile. Smiles are contagious, healing, and encouraging to others.

God, in smiling and reflecting my happiness on others may I be mindful that I am serving You. For these things reflect the good news that You are always faithful and uplifting. On my face I show others my trust in You that Your love makes all things work together for good.

God, I know one day I will see Your Face in Heaven. I will see You smiling at me forever. Amen
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If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.
Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

Photo credit: The Guardian

Beginning at 4 a.m. today, I watched the second Coronation in my life.

On the cork-covered living room floor in front of the finely polished mahogany encased RCA black and white television, as a young boy, I saw the first Coronation. From my mother’s sharp focus on the screen, I could tell that this was something especially important. Mom glowed as she watched Princess Elizabeth in the royal horse drawn carriage pass the crowds towards Westminster Abbey to be crowned Queen of England.

It is a Norman Rockwellian memory. A mother standing behind her ironing board. Performing such a mundane task. A task of toil so ordinary in the presence of such a beautiful and extraordinary occasion.

Although Mom was just 30 years old that day, she had already experienced the ugliness of the Great Depression, the absence and death of her father from TB, and the death of her mother from pneumonia. Looking back, I realize Mom needed to witness such beauty, grandeur, and pageantry to forget for a little while those things.

Reflecting on indelible memory of the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth 70 years ago, I witnessed another—the crowning of King Charles III of England. This time in color. As a grown man. Sitting up on my Tempur-Pedic queen-sized mattress with my Queen of Royalty in the Family Emmott, my wife Dorothy.

I saw and appreciated the importance to England, the Commonwealth, and to the British people of the crowning of their King. I was captivated by the sheer beauty, symbolism, and historical significance of the rituals of the Coronation. I was amazed by the sheer number of participants required to perform the process of crowning their King. An event accomplished so well and so perfectly in an otherwise imperfect and dysfunctional world.

I will always remember the music, the pomp and circumstance. The majesty and pageantry of the entire Coronation of King Charles. The King and Queen waiving to hundreds of thousands of people standing in front on the balcony of Buckingham Palace. Yet, what I think was the most important aspect of the Coronation were five words spoken by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

“Service is love in action.”

The Archbishop said that with great privilege comes the duty to serve and not be just served as the Head of England. Service. Servants acting in love and with love of others.

Today, every person needs to witness golden-leafed moments of beauty, perfection, and exquisite adornment alongside the ugly, broken, dysfunctional, frightening, violent and divisive world in which we live. However, what we truly need is service, love in action. Can you imagine what our world would be and become if everyone served with love? Not with indifference but with acceptance. Not with judgment but with kindness. Not with resentment and anger but with forgiveness and peace. Not with hate but with love.

We were given a privileged life gifted to us by God. In return each of us has a duty to serve our God with acts of love towards another. Serving the King of Kings. Bearing to others gifts of unconditional love.

In my collaborative divorce and family law practice I strive every day to be “love in action.” God is calling me to serve, to love, and to give. It is possible to uncouple with civility, dignity, and respect. With love the relationship between couples during and after divorce can be protected and preserved.

If everyone would serve the King of Kings with love in action in all things, Heaven would descend on Earth. Our time on Earth would be grander and more glorious than any Coronation of a King of England.

God has spoken in Scripture on serving with love.

John 13:34
A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.

Let us pray.

Dear God, I thank You for my life and for Your help in living it.

God, I praise You for the beauty on Earth and for the perfect spirit You ensouled in the imperfect child of Yours I am.

God, may I serve You as my King, Creator and Redeemer, in my actions of love to others. May I love others as You have loved me and love me now and forever. Amen
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If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.
Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

I led Ellisa home from the park in 2016. We were each so different. One old. One young. One with little feet. One with big tires. One in perfect health untouched by disease. One navigating life on wheels. Yet, both of us were and are alike. Children of God. Each a Child in search of our eternal and sacred home. The home of our Father in Heaven.

When I returned home from that walk, I wrote the following words. On Facebook I posted these words and this timeless photograph of granddaughter and grandfather on the path we are all navigating as best we can.

We are all different.
Whether walking on two tiny feet
Whether on four wheels.
Very young or
Not an infant anymore.
We are all on the same path to the Father.
We are all going home.
May our steps
Beat in the rhythm of angel wings
As we share
Heavenly moments on Earth.
Peace

God has spoken in Scripture on the path to Him.

Psalms 16:11
You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Let us pray,

Dear God, in watching the news and on social media, I see so much which divides our Nation. So much pain and heartache. So much loss, uncertainty, and despair. In prayer, please open my eyes to see the unseen. Your angels near me. Your spirit in me. Your love in everyone around me. Your sacredness in my ordinary days.

God, please calm my senses. For if I am truly part of America, One Nation under You, I must join hands with others who are struggling like me. To know and follow the Holy path. The path which leads to You. To the end of my earthly journey. The heavenly place where the only things that matter are Your love and to be Your child.

God, in walking hand in hand with others, may Your love lead me until I hold Your right hand in Heaven, forever. Amen

If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.
Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

Photo credit: gbfclife.com

In an Iron Lung for seven years, my friend Nita had ample time to think about not forgiving God, her husband, and the Maid of Honor at her wedding.

Before being struck with polio, at age twenty-two, she was living the perfect life, the loving marriage, and the beautiful blessing of 2-year-old twins.  Nita and her husband, Bill, had just had dinner at the Metairie Country Club in Louisiana.  Her husband opened the car door for her, and she got in.  As her husband drove the car out the driveway of the Club, Nita was overcome with emotion and gratitude.  She said, fearfully or prophetically, to her husband, “Everything is so perfect.  I am worried that all of this will end.”

A few days later, as Nita dined with her husband at the Club, she complained of a strangely stiff neck.  An unexpected difficulty in raising the fork from the plate to her mouth to eat.  The end had come.  Within hours, she was confined to an Iron Lung.  The Lung kept her alive to witness the death of the magical and perfect life she had been living.

Nita asked her husband to bring the twins to see her in the hospital.  Fearing harm to the kids from seeing their mother in the Iron Lung, he refused.

A few years went by.  Her husband said he needed a divorce.  He had fallen in love with another woman. “Who?” Nita asked.  Nita knew her well.  The woman had been Nita’s best friend.  Her Maid of Honor.

Divorced, single, and alone, Nita still had one person who loved her and in whom she could trust.  Her dad.  Nita’s beloved father had become her best friend and source of comfort and consolation.  He was a successful traveling salesman.  After every trip home, he religiously came to the hospital to spend hours sitting next to her in the Iron Lung.  Then, Nita received the unthinkable news.  Her dad would not be visiting her anymore in the hospital.  On a business trip her father had been killed in a fatal car crash.

At one point, Nita was temporarily transferred to The Southwestern Poliomyelitis Respiratory Center in Houston to address a medical need.  There she met Dr William Spencer, who later Founded TIRR (TIRR Memorial Hermann Rehabilitation and Research).  After returning to hospital in Metairie, Dr. Spencer called.  He said, “Nita, if you ever grow tired of being in the Iron Lung and don’t want to stay in New Orleans for the rest of your life, I have an offer for you.  Move to Houston.  TIRR will hire you as a full-time employee.  You will live independently.”

In 1959 after morning prayer and 7 years in the Lung, Nita saw a beam of sunlight piercing through her hospital window.  The light intersected with the Lung which held her body.  Nita told me, “Jack, I knew it was a sign from God.  It was time to get out of that hospital.  Time to accept Dr. Spencer’s invitation to live again.”

Initially hired as a receptionist, Nita became the Director of the Volunteer Program at TIRR.  Her leadership resulted in over 60,000 volunteer hours in volunteer patient services.  I was one of those volunteers.

After many years at TIRR, Nita received a phone call.  The man on the phone said, “Nita, do you know who this is?” Shockingly, Nita replied, “I know who this is. This is my Bill.”

Her former husband was in the hospital with severe heart problems and wanted to apologize to her for what he did to her after she had polio.  He did not want to die without asking her to forgive him.  Instead of withholding forgiveness to the unforgiven, Nita said that she had forgiven him a long time ago.  Nita said, “Bill, I was not the only one who lost something because of polio.  You lost too.  You lost a wife.  You lost a mother to care for our children.”  Nita had become a beacon of hope to show others what the power of forgiveness can do for those who forgive and those who have been forgiven. 

God has spoken in Scripture about forgiving the unforgiven.

Luke 6:37

Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

Matthew 6:14

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

Let us pray.

Dear God, thank You for forgiving my sins against You and others.

Please help me to forgive others as You have forgiven me.

God, please keep me ever mindful that when I harbor resentment in my heart towards those who have wronged me, I don’t hurt them.  I harm myself.  Bitterness festers in me which causes needless anxiety, stress, and lack of peace.

God, please guide me to live the good and godly life by following Your supreme example of forgiveness.  May I forgive others not because they deserve forgiveness.  Rather, because that is what they and all Your children need.  Amen

If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.

Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist

Photo credit: Christianity.com

Years ago,  I struggled with what to believe and what not to believe when it comes to God.  When it comes to Jesus.  The virgin birth.  The Crucifixion of Christ.  Good Friday.  Easter Sunday.  The  death and the Resurrection.  Eternal life after human death.

Mom and Dad gave me the gift of their faith in God.  Despite the faith that was passed on to me from my parents, the struggles I faced with polio shook my beliefs in God.  Why did God let me have polio.?  Why did God not help doctors make the polio vaccine sooner?  How could God allow me to be quarantined and alone at Hedgecroft Hospital at age six?  How could a merciful God leave me in the iron lung to breathe at night for five years?  Why did God not answer my prayers to be cured?

I am lame from polio.  However, my faith was not and is not blind.  Through years of prayer, I saw evidence with my senses that God and His grace were and are present in the darkest of times.  That darkness enabled me to clearly see the light and love of God around me.  Witnessing God’s presence in my life, the easier it became for me to choose to believe in God.

I understand that others have doubts in the existence of God.  The forgiveness of sin in God’s sacrifice of Jesus on the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ.  I get it.  There were many doubters over 2000 years ago who learned otherwise on the very first Easter Sunday.  Those apostles, followers, saints, and forgiven sinners showed us God’s truth, way, and light.  They showed us what is worthy to choose to believe, now and always.

As I have grown in my faith, I have chosen to believe that God is real.  That miracles do happen.  That God created me.  At birth God ensouled me with a perfect spirit.  That God chose for me the exact time and place in which be born.  That God had, has, and always will have a purpose in gifting me life.  That angels are as real as the surgical scars on my back.  That God is always present with me.  That God is there to cry with me when I cry.  To laugh with me when I laugh.  That Christ died on Good Friday so that I (and those I love) will live forever.  That my death will not be the end of me.  My death will be the beginning of my new and eternal life with God, the Father of us all.

I choose to believe that I am not an accident.  That what happens in my life is not just a series of random events.  I choose to believe I am a child of God.  So are you.  I choose to believe that one of the purposes God intended for my life was for me to write these weekly prayers and that you may read them.

I find it inconceivable that one day I will die and that will be the end of me.  Instead, I choose to believe that in my world and within everyone there is God.  That the moment my heart stops beating, God will continue to believe in me and love me forever.  Easter Sunday always follows Good Friday.

God has spoken in Scripture about choosing to believe.

Hebrews 11:6

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Let us pray.

Dear God, when I doubt You or Your divine presence in my world, please open my eyes.  With my eyes opened, I, as a rational person, can see evidence which reaffirms my faith, my beliefs, and my trust in You.

God, thank You for choosing me in Your grace to be Your special child.  In thanksgiving for the gift of Your grace, please strengthen in me my choice to believe in You.

God, every infant child has an insatiable active mind, a child who uses the senses of sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch to know and understand what is truly real.  May I, as Your child, use the same senses to know and see You in my world.  To see Your signs around me. Your angels near me.  And Your spirit in me.

God, may I choose Your way every day as You have chosen me, Your child, to live forever in the birth, death, and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ.  Amen

If you think Jack’s prayer helps you or will help someone you know, please forward it to them. Jack may never make millions selling books or writing prayers, but spreading God’s good news to others is reward enough for him.

Ann Boland, Jack’s Publicist