Jack Emmott – Bending Angel

Prayer for the Dollhouse You Sent Me – February 17, 2019

February 17, 2019 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Lord, instead of attending First Grade at Bane Elementary, for a year I sat in my wheelchair in class with 15 other polio victims at Hedgecroft Hospital. Across from me sat an expressionless high school girl with hair cut short like her dreams of going to her Senior Prom and dancing to the music of her dreams stilled by paralysis.

As I sat near the teacher loaned to us from Spring Branch ISD, as each day passed I found my eyes drawn to a dollhouse in the back of the classroom. That dollhouse strangely attracted me to it as iron shavings to a magnet.

As the class emptied one day, I worked up the courage to ask the orderly to push my wheelchair up next to the dollhouse and to leave me there alone to study it and to understand the attraction it held for me, a boy, not a girl.

Suddenly, I was overcome with tears. I realized this dollhouse was not just any house. As I peered into its rooms I could smell my mother’s cooking from her kitchen. In the dining room I could see my family seated around the table and holding hands and saying grace. In the bedroom I could hear the voice of my mom saying the Lord’s Prayer as she knelt by my bed. I wondered whether my parents, brother, and sister missed me as much as I ached for them.

As I sat daily next to the dollhouse in quietude and prayer for the rest of that year, I learned a far greater lesson than the teacher could ever teach. That the dollhouse was not only a dollhouse. God, it was Your house with a room for me, before, during and after polio.

Lord, thanks for the dollhouse You sent me when I was separated from my loved ones at age six with polio. Thanks for making room for me and all Your children on Earth and in Heaven in the comfort and warmth of Your care and everlasting love. Amen

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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full service firm in Houston, 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 God to Be Seated on the Throne of my Heart – February 10, 2019

February 11, 2019 by Jack Emmott 2 Comments

Lord – In prayer I ask that You please make my heart ready to receive Your precious Son, Jesus, to find His rightful place on the throne of my heart. May my every mindful act, thought, deed and prayer be focused solely on what pleases You and not my need to control others, to have my way, to overlay my will on another person or to prove that I am right or that he or she is wrong. When I make room for Your Son to be seated on the throne of my heart, I know You will be pleased. Thus, I will live a life of loving acts in harmony with Your love and guidance over me. By faith those acts will be Your blessings and will never die but will live forever and ever on earth and in heaven. Amen

This prayer was inspired by Father Bob Wismer in his sermon at the Christ the King service at St. Francis Houston. Father Bob spoke about how each of us has a continuous and ongoing inner battle in our hearts. Our will to do what we want or do what the Risen Christ and our God asks of us, His children, to do as He wills and what pleases Him, not us. Who is the victor to be? Thanks, Father Bob

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Prayer for the Angel on My First School Bus – February 3, 2019

February 4, 2019 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Left:
Left: Cheryl Hagler as on My Bus Right: Cheryl Hagler at Time of Tragedy

God-After four years of being schooled at home, the day had come for me to attend Post Elementary full time. I felt so unprepared and out of place.

On the bus would I fit in? Would I be accepted as I looked after polio?

As I stood under the tallow tree waiting on the bus to arrive, I obsessed on how different than others I was. Scoliosis. Uneven shoulders and legs. Orthopedic shoes of different heights A steel back brace. Topping it off was that football helmet Mother made me wear to protect my brain if I fell.

Suddenly, the yellow school bus driven by Bubba Willbern pulled to a stop in front of me. The way the children watched me from the windows inside the bus made me feel like an ugly creature in a fish bowl.

My brother, Charles, helped me up the steps and into the bus. Apprehensively, I looked first at the faces down the left row of seats and then to the right. Everyone turned away from me. Where would I ever find a seat?

Lord, then Your angel appeared. A girl on the sixth row on the right scooted closer to the window. She smiled at me. She patted the seat next to her and waived for me to join her.

The bus that year went to Post Elementary every day. But, with Your angel, Cheryl Hagler, sitting beside me, I always went somewhere else. In her divine way, Cheryl guided me ever closer to you with each passing day. Through her, You imparted to me the sacred lesson of the power of acceptance of the differences in others.

In her early twenties the Cheryl, who once wore that Peter Pan-collared blouse, was killed by a drunk driver near where You and the bus brought us together.

God, please help all Your children search for the angels You send them. For in finding angels whether on a bus, in church, or in a line at Starbucks we can receive the holiest of holy messages from You. That we are unconditionally loved by You.

Oh! And God, thank You for my angel, Cheryl. More importantly, at the moment of her tragic death, I thank You for giving her light-filled wings to fly into Your loving arms. I know You made room for Cheryl in Heaven just as she made a place for me next to her on the bus when I needed her most on Earth. Amen

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Prayer in Thanks for Margaret’s Smile – January 27, 2019

January 28, 2019 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

Lord – When I was only four, my mother took me to the Airola’s home to give them homemade chocolate chip cookies. Mother warned me that inside the door was their daughter, Margaret, who was laying inside an Iron Lung. Mom said, “It is a big yellow machine. Do not be afraid.” We stepped in the front door. I stood silently beside Margaret who was dependent on the lung to breathe due to polio.

Amidst the horror and bewilderment of the moment what I remembered then and now was the radiant smile on Margaret’s sweet face.

I could never have comprehended that I would later catch polio like her or be in the Iron Lung for a time each day for 5 years.

Little sweet Margaret, the home in which she lived, the Airola dairy, and the Iron Lung which cradled her in its arms, are no longer in the physical. But, beyond the physical, what remains is Margaret’s radiant and everlasting smile.

God, thanks for Margaret’s smile. That was Your gift to me. For in that gift You let me know there are no limits on what Your children can do or face armed with a smile and the power of Your love. Amen

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My Day with the Hamilton Elementary School Fifth Graders

January 27, 2019 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Huge thanks to Mr. Jack Emmott for coming out to visit with our 5th graders at Hamilton Elementary. Not only did Mr. Emmott share facts about polio and the toll it took on his body, he also reminded us to smile even when faced with adversity. #HESKindMinds #BePositive

Prayer for Our Daily Bread – January 19, 2019

January 19, 2019 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Sister Carolyn, 4, and Jack, 3, on Old Donk

Lord – In my childhood my Grandfather owned a four hoofed creature named Old Donk. Old Donk was beloved because of her daily ritual of traveling from house to house in our family compound to beg for bread at each kitchen door. After feasting on her daily bread at each home, including mine, Old Donk returned to her barn.

God, with the onset of polio, paralysis, and the seemingly insurmountable challenges which accompanied it, You comforted me in witnessing Old Donk’s quest for bread take place every day. Her ritual was as constant, unchanging, and certain as Your love for me.

God, I thank You for giving me my daily bread after I prayed the Lord’s Prayer to You each day. You answered my prayers and gave me each day the strength I needed to overcome the problems I faced.

God, last I thank You for the example of Old Donk in our 100-acre wood. In witnessing her example I learned that Old Donk and I were on the same Holy path. To taste the bread of heaven and take nourishment from it. To one day find our way back Home to You and the comfort and light of everlasting love, hope, and peace.

God, please help all Your children know that what they need each day is only a prayer away. Amen.

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Prayer to Not Argue Our Limitations – January 13, 2019.

January 13, 2019 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

God – My grandfather was an amazing baseball pitcher. Known locally as “Wonder Boy Emmott”, he helped his team, Cargill and Company, win the Houston City Championship in 1917. My dream of becoming another Wonder Boy, like him, was seemingly crushed by polio at the age of 6.

At age 10, despite polio, I was still determined to earn a spot on the Cy-Fair Lion’s Club Little League Team. I took the pose of a baseball player as shown in this picture. I still tried to succeed and to make my dream come true. I was not going to allow failure to happen without a courageous fight. Despite my efforts, prayer, and faith in You, I did not make the team. My heart was broken but never was my faith in You.

In the days, months, and years which followed my loss, I learned many lessons. An earthly dream can die but in You another one is surely born. Dreams may be lost, but I will never lose You or Your plans for me.

God, please help me and all Your children not argue our limitations. There are no limitations on what can be accomplished on Earth if we believe in ourselves as much as You believe in us.

Lord, I give You praise and thanks. Because of You and Your love for me, I became a different kind of Wonder Boy than I ever thought possible. From polio, paralysis, the Iron Lung, and surgeries, I am now the best me I have ever been. Because You have always had the best plans for me. Amen

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Prayer to Search for the Holy Treasure – January 6, 2019

January 7, 2019 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

.God, when I was a young boy, my father told me and my siblings that pirates long ago had buried treasure on our family land of 100 acres. The vision of searching for and finding a treasure trove of riches of silver, gold, and jewels was something that distracted us from our daily routines and me from the burdens of polio and paralysis. For me, if only I could find that treasure, I would be consumed with wealth, happiness, and joy.

My father saw my excitement. He showed me an old authentic treasure map he had found. He said, “Son, follow the map. When you find the spot marked with an X, that is where the treasure will be found.” It did not matter to me that the map was not made of parchment paper or sheepskin but rather Nifty notebook paper, or that the treasure was always found inside a Maryland Club coffee can and not an ancient chest, or that the treasure inside the can was just a few pennies, nickels, and dimes and not gold doubloons. What mattered at the end of each quest was the sheer joy in the pursuit of the treasure.

God, in adulthood, I like many others, often think that if I accumulate enough wealth, a bigger home, a nicer car or the latest electronic device, all would be right in my world. My life would be perfect. I’ve learned that the riches which sustain me are not my possessions or the house at the end of my street. Rather, what matters most is the search for what treasure lies at the end of my search for the Holy treasure You buried for me.

It is the prayerful journey as much as the treasure found at the end of it.

It is in giving away the treasure to others after I have received it.

It is in the sharing of the treasure with others that I get to keep it.

God, please help me and all Your children pursue daily the quest for Your Holy treasure. For when the Holy treasure is found on Earth, that is not the ending. That is just when the greatest journey begins. We get to find and keep the most precious, everlasting, redeeming wealth in Your Kingdom. It is marked with a Cross, not an X. That is where Eternal Love is found. Amen

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New Year’s Prayer for Americans to Ask What God Would Have Us Do – December 31, 2018.

December 31, 2018 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

Lord – As I prepare to step into 2019 and leave 2018, I thank You for the innumerable blessings and love from You and others I received. I have never been more grateful for the past nor more hopeful in my walk of faith in service to You in the future.

Yet, my heart is gravely troubled at the divisions and indecisiveness which currently exist in our Nation. At times the problems we face in America seem insurmountable. I do not proclaim to have the answers or the directions we must take to restore trust in government or for our government to better serve its people. I do not know how to balance supporting our military at home and abroad against the cost of being the defenders of democracy in the world, or how to honor America’s humanitarian obligation to give refuge to immigrants fleeing from persecution or inhumane living conditions while still protecting our borders, or how to staunchly advocate liberal or conservative ideals and yet be willing to compromise for the benefit of America as a whole, or how to maintain the proper balance between the Executive, Legislative, and Judiciary Branches of government, or how to make sure America takes care of itself and its own needs and at the same time shoulders a sufficient amount of care for its loyal allies.

So, God, as our elected leaders, government employees, members of the military and all other citizens of the Great Nation Under You, Our God, face each challenge in the year ahead, I pray that every day we each say a prayer and ask, “God, what You would have us do?” For then, the actions taken or not taken would be more in line with Your will and Your ways on the Earth as well as in heaven. Amen

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Prayer for Room in the Manger in My Heart – December 24, 2018 – by Jack Emmott

December 23, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Birth of Christ with Angels, Pedro Berruguete, Italian 15th century

Heavenly Father – As I pray in Advent darkness please help me make room in the manger of my heart for the light of Christ to soon dwell. I have brothers and sisters in Christ who have little or no food to eat or water to drink or a stable for comfort or shelter. Out of the fruit of my labors may I generously give in Your Holy Name my time and money to Your less fortunate children who have so much more of so much less. As Mary borne baby Jesus, the King of Kings, please make room in the manger of my heart for me to carry the love and light of Your blessed Son to others so in need of Holy hope, healing and sustenance. Amen.

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Jack H. Emmott is a Senior Counsel of Gray, Reed & McGraw, LLP, a 120-lawyer full service firm in Houston, 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.