Bending Angel

Prayer for the Everlasting Legacy of Love – September 18, 2022

September 19, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Due to a major legal project this week I was unable to spend the 10 hours I need each week to write the prayers. However, I am reposting one of the most widely read prayers I wrote during the Pandemic. May you and your pets leave a legacy of love for others.

For the last five months, Dorothy and I have sought refuge from the Coronavirus at Camp PawPaw. Camp PawPaw overlooks Tres Palacios Bay with a myriad of waterfowl to entertain us from dawn until sunset each day. Some of the water creatures seem to perform the same way day after day. Others appear for a few weeks and will not be seen again for a while in observance of migratory habits rooted in ancient history.

One repeat performer is a beautiful Brown Pelican who lands nearly every day on the stair rail of Sissy Taylor’s pier a few houses down from us. The Pelican is an elder by human standards. He has an 18-inch-long bill and a large throat pouch. His head is white in front and dark brown in the back. This regal bird has silver-gray feathers that adorn the rest of his body.

Judging by his appearance our frequent Pelican visitor must be about 25-30 years old. Clearly near the end of his time on Earth.

Countless times Dorothy and I have wondered why the Pelican returns to this unlikely perch. All the other Pelicans sit on the ends of the neighboring barnacle-encrusted navigation posts in the bay or lined up like a platoon of Army soldiers on the ends of the piers at the conclusion of their exhausting day dive bombing for fish in the bay. But not our Pelican. He is committed to always returning to the same perch. But, why?

The mystery became clear a couple of weeks ago. Our friend, Sissy Taylor, explained it to us. Twenty years or so ago there lived in a neighboring house a Magnus Mertz. Known to everyone simply as Mertz. Each day Mertz cast for bait fish with his casting net. A Pelican landed near him. He stood there as if to ask Mertz to be served him a meal, his daily bread from man to a feathered friend. Mertz gave the Pelican part of his catch. After that first meeting, the Pelican and Mertz repeated that ritual nearly every day for the years which followed. They eventually, became such good friends Mertz named the Pelican George. Soon George was following Mertz into his garage to be hand-fed mullet and just hang out with him.

Mertz moved away from Palacios a few years later to live closer to his family. Relocating to be with family was a huge win for Mertz. But, it was a big loss for George.

So, even now, many years later and without receiving his daily bread and friendship from Mertz, George still returns. Still remembers. Still sits on his perch. To be at kind of holy place. A place where Dorothy and I witness and appreciate Mertz’s everlasting legacy of love to George. George officiates the sacred happening that we are fortunate to know and celebrate because we understand the mystery revealed to us by Sissy.

God has spoken to us in Scripture as to the legacy of love.

Proverbs 13:22
A good man leaves an inheritance to his children’s children.

Psalms 78:4
We will not keep them from our children; we will tell the next generation about the Lord‘s power and his great deeds and the wonderful things he has done.

3 John 1:4
I could have no greater joy than to hear that my children are following the truth.

God, I thank You for the lesson in the everlasting legacy of love as represented by George, the Brown Pelican, on Tres Palacios Bay.

God, in prayer please guide, support, and enable me to leave an everlasting legacy of love in my service to You and Your children.

God, when I have joined You in Heaven, please show to others on Earth the signs of my works in Your name as I have witnessed in watching the George, the Brown Pelican. Each day he pays homage to the blessings he received from his friend, the fisherman, and the giver of daily bread that feeds George’s soul forever and ever. Amen.

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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 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 Memories Made When Labor Rests – September 5, 2022

September 5, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

What do you remember most when you think of Labor Day and Labor Day weekend?

Margaret Zagst, Jack and Lucile Emmott

For me, it was the annual family trip to the Rio Grande River Valley for the opening of dove season. Mom and Dad loaded up the Jeep Waggoneer which smelled like a big nasty well-smoked cigar on four wheels. Dad acquired it from Bruno Leonard, the cigar aficionado and legendary Manager of KILT Radio.

Driving down Old Highway 59 and cruising through old Texas towns like Harlingen, Refugio, Sinton, and Beeville. Sleepy towns mirrored our eyes all too ready for bed when we rolled into Rancho Viejo Country Club late at night. Joining us were my parents’ friends like Chuck and Marie Zagst. (Chuck took this picture of Marie, Mom, and Dad on one of our trips.) Mom, Dad, Marie, and Chuck have all gone to Heaven. I am certain those dove Dad shot are telling him that they never enjoyed dove season the way he did.

Eating a quick breakfast and heading out Old Military Highway to find and stake out the best shooting spot. Taking positions. Waiting anxiously for 12 noon. The repetitious sounds nearby and in the distance of other hunters shooting and getting their limits of doves for the day.

Tired. Satisfied from the hunt and with clothes soaked in salty sweat it was time to clean and pluck the feathers from the birds. (Yes. None were ever wasted. All were eaten when we got home.) After I married, Dorothy came along. She was very smart. After just one feather-plucking experience, she learned and used the lesson that the one who made Cuba Libres was exempt from this messy chore. Rum. Lime. Coke. A holy trinity of sorts consumed in an almost sacred way by bird-hunting enthusiasts in South Texas.

A quick shower upon returning to Rancho Viejo. At 10:00 pm. off to the now no longer standing Drive Inn Restaurant in Matamoros, Mexico. It was safe. No Los Zetas or drug warring Cartel gangs to fear. For $2.10 you could have three kinds of meat, iced tea, rice, guacamole, chips, salsa, queso, beans, and dessert. It took me only one Singapore Sling to persuade Dorothy to eat the fried frog legs. The first and last time for her.

Driving back to Houston at night and observing the flashing lights in the clouds to the north of Highway 59 caused by the weather anomaly of heat lightning.

Those are my fondest Labor Day remembrances. Like me, as you rest from your labors with family and friends, I hope you can thank God for your Labor Day memories. Because of polio, my body is weak. But, my memory is strong. My heart beats loudly in thanksgiving for times like this long ago.

God has spoken in Scripture about where to find rest from our labors.

Psalm 62:1:
My soul finds rest in God alone.

Dear God, please help me to remember to pray daily. In my prayers to You, I surely find all the rest I need.

God, I am grateful to You for the fruits of my labors that enable me to take time off from work to spend time with family and friends and to make lasting memories to savor for the rest of my days.

God, I praise You for giving me a mind, hands, and heart to earn a living and support those who depend on me.

God, please help me to remember to give more to those who have less.

God, may I strive to labor in ways that always please You.

God, last, I pray, that when my work in service to You is done, I will find eternal and everlasting rest from my labors with You in Heaven. Amen.

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Prayer for Intimacy and Intimate Relationships – August 28, 2022

August 29, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Photo credit: goodmenproject.com

As I was a quadriplegic from polio, Dorothy helped me to get in bed. Dorothy removed all my clothes. I was naked as a newborn baby. She saw the bare, tender, unseen parts of me. The slick-numbed ugly surgical scars. Scars on my hands. Scars on my legs and feet. A long scar from below my neck to my tailbone. An opening through which Dr. Harrington had inserted and attached three steel rods to my spine.

Dorothy saw my backbone shaped like a river winding through the Mississippi Delta. Dorothy viewed the obvious asymmetry of my body, arms, legs, and hips deformed by polio. Dorothy saw my naked truth. My physical truth. The ugly, imperfect, unchangeable, and unalterable parts of me. The truth of me I hid from others in the clothes I wore. She saw the real me. The true body polio left me. Then, Dorothy kissed me. She intimately and sweetly embraced the broken parts of me. From that first lovemaking, I knew for the rest of my life I was always safe with her.

What do you think of when you hear the word, “intimate”?

What does being “intimate” mean? In my youth, I thought it was “sex.” But “intimacy” means much more than sex.

Intimacy is really about truth. My truth. Your truth. To have a relationship with someone with whom you can share the truth of who you really are. Not just the physical you. But the more profound unseen truth of you. Your inner truth or self without fear of rejection or judgment. Not only the perfect spirit God gave you but your imperfections, fears, losses, battles with addiction, regrets, weaknesses, failures, secrets, hopes, and dreams. I have that kind of intimacy with my wife, Dorothy, with whom I share the entirety of my hidden self, now and forever. How many people in your life do you trust with that truth? The layers of truth beneath your skin.

Michael Craig is a fellow collaborative divorce attorney, friend, and brother in Christ with whom I share the true me. The real Jack. Recently, Michael sent me the following quote by Taylor Jenkins Reid: “People think that intimacy is about sex. But intimacy is about truth. When you realize you can tell someone your truth when you can show yourself to them when you stand in front of them and their response is ‘you’re safe with me’ – that’s INTIMACY.”

God has spoken to us in Scripture about intimacy.

John 15:15
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, I thank You for creating me.

God, Thank You for giving me Your perfect spirit even though I, the true me, am far from perfect.

God, I have a desperate, essential need for the emotional intimacy of truth in relationships with others. Please help me find people in my life with whom I can safely share my truth. My innermost self, my truth which You see every day.

God, I have few friends with whom my truth can be shared. That is the truth and the true me I cannot hide from You, but I withhold from most everyone else.

God, please help me to find those whom I can trust, with whom I can intimately share the true me. The kind of “intimacy” author, Taylor Jenkins Reid, says we all need. Amen

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Prayer for Caregivers to Care for Themselves – August 21, 2022

August 20, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

God has given you and me the capacity to love and care for others. Isn’t taking care of others what God expects of all of us? In caring for others, we give of ourselves. In giving we receive.

In my legal calling, I have worked with hundreds of husbands and wives in divorce and preparing their Wills. I serve. I give. I receive. I get far more value in return for my services than is measured by the amount of legal fees paid to me.

In my demanding, caring job, I do what many of you have done. I postpone caring for my own needs. I put myself second. Dental and routine medical appointments are not timely scheduled. For many months a broken zipper on my favorite pair of slacks is not taken to the tailor. I don’t have lunch with family or friends as I am too busy doing more important things for others. I postpone a long overdue and needed vacation.

Don’t all caregivers need a vacation or break to rest and rejuvenate their minds, bodies, and souls? Rest to refill their cups of compassion and strength to serve others again and again.

I ask you, “Do those, like you and me, with the gift of caring for others, paradoxically, have an equal inability to care for themselves?”

I once had a married couple come to me to prepare their Wills. They were in their 60s. They had been married for 35 years. They only had one child, a son with Downs Syndrome. For 33 years, they had been his sole caregivers. They made sure that his every need was taken care of from bathing, feeding, and beyond. He was their child who never grew up. They had done everything to meet their son’s extensive needs. They even went to the grocery store separately not to leave him alone. The couple had never taken a single vacation since their son was born. They had plenty of money to do that. They just never had the time. As their son got older and bearded in his 30s, he became more difficult to physically manage. He was less compliant in cooperating with their daily caregiving tasks.

When I met the couple, they were considering their deaths. What would happen to their son if both his parents died? How would their beloved disabled son be able to survive? To be happy? I advised them to act and to investigate placing their son in a home or facility suited to meet his needs now. I asked the couple to imagine what their final years together on the Earth would be like if that placement was workable. If the son became a resident elsewhere, the vacuum left behind would give them time to live their unlived dreams and hopes. To take those vacations and to travel in America and around the world.

The couple considered my advice. They researched and located a suitable facility in Austin, Texas. Their son went with them to look around and to see other residents who were just like him. A few weeks later they admitted their son to the facility. Their hearts were heavy. They cried. They left their son behind. They felt they had abandoned the son they loved.

At the signing of their Wills which established a trust for the care of their son, I asked for an update. With tears of joy in their eyes, the parents told me they regularly visited their son in Austin. They were shocked. Even relieved. Despite their fears, the son was happy, well cared for,” and enjoyed socializing with his fellow resident peers. After that time, the couple lived another 15 years. Those years were used to take those dream trips. They were finally able to care for themselves as they had cared for their son.

God has spoken in Scripture about caring for ourselves as we care for others.

Mark 6:31
And Jesus said to them, ‘Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while.’ For many were coming and going, and they had no leisure even to eat.

Hebrews 4:9-11
So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for whoever has entered God’s rest has also rested from his works as God did from his. Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, I thank You for my ability to care for others. In discharging my duty to You to care for others, I strive to love others as I wish to be loved.

God, please help me know that my care for others is not meant by You to be at the total sacrifice of my own needs. Scripture says that my body is Your temple, a vessel that needs to be maintained and cared for.

God, please help me care for myself so that I may steadfastly and energetically serve You by serving others well.

God, please guide me each day to take the time to do something that brings me rest, preserves my health, and restores my body and soul.

May my self-care enable me to be a better servant and to obey Your command for me to love others and myself as You love me and all Your children. Amen

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Prayer for Gifts of My Birth – August 12, 2022

August 14, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Another year in my life has come and gone. The Earth has completed another circle around the sun. Thankfully, I am alive today to celebrate the day of my birth. I am able to express my thanksgiving to God for my life. I can reflect on the gifts I have received because of this beautiful, difficult, tenuous, exquisite, unpredictable, heartbreaking, and joyous life God gave me. I appreciate everyone who has wished me Happy Birthday or thought of me today. In my way, this prayer is my birthday gift to each of you.

When I was very young, my mother, Lucile, provided me with the happiest birthday memories of my youth. The simple beauty of my birthday parties has never faded with the passage of time. Today, when I got out of bed, my thoughts centered on those birthday parties and on what gifts from God I received from them.

Before each birthday party, I had a crescendo of joyous expectation. Mom set up the picnic table. A colorful tablecloth was placed over it. Homemade ice cream was cranked and ready to go. Party favors were placed on the table. My cousins and friends arrived. Each of them carried packages wrapped in colorful paper. “What was in them?” Then, the games began. Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Bobbing for apples. Dropping clothes pins in a milk bottle. The gunnysack races. Races to reach the finish line with the egg still on the spoon.

After the games, I, the birthday boy, and the other kids sat around the table. Cups of ice cream were placed in front of us. Then, Mom set on the table in front of me the chocolate cake with a decadent layer of chocolate icing.

I recall my mother telling me there was something special inside the cake for the first time. Below the light of the candles burning on top, there was a gift unseen below in the dark layers of the cake—an unseen gift of her love and devotion to me. In the span of my long rich life, I learned this ritual pre-shadowed God’s everlasting unseen gifts to me.

I made a wish and blew out the candles. Mom served to me the first piece of cake. With my fork, I dug like an archeologist for a treasure of sorts. I uncovered a shiny dime wrapped in aluminum foil. No matter how old I got, as long as Mom made a birthday cake for me, she placed that unseen gift in the cake. Today, Dorothy has taken on this tradition for me.

Two weeks after my sixth birthday party (as seen in these photographs) I was paralyzed and quarantined from my parents, siblings, and friends. I was submerged underneath the darkness of paralysis. The only light in the darkness around me was the bright light overhead my bed at Hedgecroft Hospital.

With daily prayer with a priest in my room, the unseen gifts of God hidden in my misery began to be seen by me. Revelation upon revelation of the unseen treasures from God that had greater worth, meaning, and value than all the dimes in my birthday cakes. The eyes of prayer enabled me to see and find lifelong strengths in losing my muscles from polio.

Such love from God empowered me to be stronger. My weaknesses became my biggest strengths as a son, father, husband, grandfather, collaborative divorce attorney, author, songwriter, and servant of my Creator. My fragility and vulnerability provided me the spiritual wisdom of learning that we are all imperfect, broken, and universally healed by Godly love. The darkness of polio allowed me to see unseen light-filled treasures just waiting to be found and shared with others in dark times.

God has spoken in Scripture as to the unseen gifts in our birth from God.

Isaiah 45:3
I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.

2 Corinthians 4:18
So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

Matthew 7:7
Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. … Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, please help me to have resilient faith that You have unseen gifts of love for me hidden in dark times in my life.
God, with prayer may I see in the darkness of my struggles, illnesses, and brokenness the unseen gifts of my birth and life from You, so that I may be empowered by Your Holy Spirit to live my life with continued hope, purpose, and conviction.

God, may I find Your hidden holy treasures, blessings, and gifts in the dark times. In so doing may I use such gifts of spiritual wisdom, which by Your grace, become the way to live a deeper and richer life in the glorious light of Your love for me. Amen

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Prayer to Prepare for Death So That You Can Live – August 7, 2022

August 7, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Yesterday, with my wife, Dorothy, and many friends I attended a magnificent and very moving Service of Celebration and Remembrance for the life of Betty Devine. It was so beautiful and exceptional that I remarked to a friend, Dr. Mary Ann Reynolds-Wilkins, “It made me almost want to die to have such a celebration for me.”

Betty’s husband is Michael Craig, one of my dearest brothers in Christ and an exceptional family law attorney. Michael’s eulogy for his bride, Betty, was the best I have ever heard. That says a lot, as I have lived long enough to have attended innumerable funerals and memorial services.

Betty died recently from Alzheimer’s. Godfrey Hubert, The Foundry’s Retired Senior Pastor and Spiritual Leader, in his words of tribute, in summary, said, Betty died. Her body suffered a mortal death. Yet, her life, her love, and her body of work live on in us. In all the lives she touched as a world-renowned Pastor, Minister of Music, Choir Director, and Founder of the Houston Choral Society, she was so much more. Blaire Baker, Betty’s granddaughter from New York, sang “I’ll Be Seeing You.”. Our hearts melted and our warm wet tears puddled in our eyes when we heard a “Duet of Pie Jesus” performed by Sonja Bruzauskas and Nancy Curtis Hairell.

Betty and Michael had prepared for this day. They prepared for Betty’s death. A death that will certainly come to you and to me. The extent to which Betty prepared for death and the extent to which she touched others with her heart and her life’s work of music in song, wind, string, percussion, and love was reflected in the large number of performers who came from far and near to the celebration. But this prayer is not to recite the amazing accomplishments of Betty Devine, who is in the presence of the One Most Holy and Divine in Heaven.

(To learn more about Betty, here is the link to her obituary. https://www.legacy.com/…/name/betty-devine-obituary… )

Rather, this prayer is to have you reflect on just how much you and I can live a deeper, more meaningful, and joyful life by being truly prepared to die. No, I am not just talking as a lawyer about having a written Will. Not just about planning your memorial service. Not just about forgiving others for their wrongdoings against you. Not just you forgiving yourself for the wrongs you have done to yourself and others. Not just about telling members of your family and friends that you love them one last time.

Being spiritually prepared to die is all of this and much more. It is seeking in prayer to know God’s purpose of your creation. With God’s help to live that purpose every day. It is in sharing your God-given talents with others, like Betty Devine did, that your life goes on living in others after death—just as Betty’s gifts to the members of her beloved Foundry Choir and Houston’s Choral Society are now magnified and shared with us in their performances.

God has spoken in Scripture about being prepared to die in order to live in Christ.

John 17:33
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Psalm 16:11
You make known to me the path of life;
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, in prayer please help me know what I need to do and say to prepare for my human death.

God, in the divine mystery of my birth and my death, I know by faith that You have a plan for me.

God, please help me to know the purpose of the life You have gifted me so that I may faithfully live out that purpose in service to You.

God, after my death, may the light of my life continue to shine on Earth in the works of others who know You and Your love through me.

God, I thank You for the peace of knowing that Your love for me does not end on Earth. Through the death and resurrection of Your Son, Jesus Christ, my death is the birth of my eternal life with You in Heaven. Amen

If you like this prayer, please share.

Photo credit: Michael Craig

Prayer to Listen to the Voice of God – July 31, 2022

July 30, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

As a collaborative divorce attorney and family law attorney with many years of experience, I have represented many spouses who have benefited from or failed to listen to the voice of God.
Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Life is hard.

When one’s heart is broken, it’s hard not to blame and to shame. It’s hard to refrain from acting to punish the wrongdoer or the one who has breached your trust. Whether married or single, rich or poor, every one of us at times may not consider, listen to and act in accordance with the voice of God.

When I woke up this morning, I read a Facebook post by my dear friend Micki Grimland. Micki shared a blog by Richard Rohr, a well-known spiritual writer, on this subject. Richard’s article is so profound and insightful that I decided to share it with you as part of this week’s prayer.

Rohr writes: “We must receive all words of God tenderly and subtly so that we can speak them to others with tenderness and subtlety. I would even say that anything said with too much bravado, over assurance, or with any need to control or impress another, is never the voice of God within us. If any thought feels too harsh, shaming, or diminishing of ourselves or others, it is not likely the voice of God. Trust me on that. That is simply our egoic voice.

“Why do humans so often presume the exact opposite—that shaming voices are always from God, and grace voices are always the imagination?

“If something comes toward us with grace and can pass through us and toward others with grace, we can trust it as the voice of God.”

“One holy man who came to visit me recently put it this way, ‘We must listen to what is supporting us. We must listen to what is encouraging us. We must listen to what is urging us. We must listen to what is alive in us.’ I personally was so trained not to trust those voices that I think I often did not hear the voice of God speaking to me or what Abraham Lincoln called the ‘better angels of our nature.’ Yes, a narcissistic person can and will misuse such advice, but a genuine God lover will flourish inside such a dialogue.

“We must learn how to recognize the positive flow and to distinguish it from the negative resistance within ourselves. It can take years, if not a lifetime. If a voice comes from accusation and leads to accusation, it is quite simply the voice of the ‘Accuser,’ which is the literal meaning of the biblical word ‘Satan.’ Shaming, accusing, or blaming is simply not how God talks, but sadly, it is too often how we talk—to ourselves and to one another. God is supremely nonviolent, and I have learned that from the saints and mystics that I have read and met and heard about. That many holy people cannot be wrong.

“If we can trust and listen to our inner divine image, our whole-making instinct, or our True Self, we will act from our best, largest, kindest, most inclusive self. There is a deeper voice of God, which we must learn to hear and obey. It will sound like the voice of risk, of trust, of surrender, of soul, of common sense, of destiny, of love, of an intimate stranger, of your deepest self. It will always feel gratuitous, and it is this very freedom that scares us. God never leads by guilt or shame! God leads by loving the soul at ever-deeper levels, not by shaming at superficial levels.”

God has spoken in Scripture as to His voice.

John 10:27
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, as I struggle to be like You in my relationships with others may the ear of my heart listen to Your voice in my daily prayers.

God, may my words be Your words. May my voice be Your voice. May my loving words be Your love.

God, may my service to You impart Your love and grace to others. If all of us spoke and acted in relation to others as Your voice commands, the world would be healed and reconciled by love. Heaven would be nearer to the Earth. Amen

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Prayer for Native Americans and All Tribes of God – July 24, 2022

July 24, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

When I was a child, I played Cowboys and Indians with my brother, Charles, and my cousins, Howard and Bobby. On television, I watched every episode of the Lone Ranger and his Indian sidekick Tonto. My dad took me to the Houston Rodeo to see them as the headliner show stars. The Lone Ranger and Tonto embraced their ethnic diversity and shared a common goal—to do their part for good to triumph over evil.

When I was about 11 years old, my Aunt Carolyn married a Native American, my Uncle Bill. Bill was from Oklahoma. He had many siblings. He worked on a large family farm and ranch. He raised cattle. Harvested hay. Spent long hours digging post holes and building fences. I and my numerous would-be cowboy cousins rejoiced to have an honest-to-goodness Indian join our Emmott Family. Uncle Bill played the guitar and sang Western Oldies too. That was an added bonus.

As I studied history, I learned that our forefathers far from embraced Native Indians. Cherishing diversity was not a consideration. Our Native Americans were treated as uncivilized people, not worthy, not as cultured, and not sacred as all God’s children are. After all, they were made in the image of God like you and me. Would God ever treat His children as we treated them?

My grandmother, Jennie Julie Hewett Emmott, lived in New Orleans at a very young age. In 1898 when she was 6, her father, Percy Hewett, took her to see Geronimo who was held in prison at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. Thousands of Americans traveled to see Geronimo. Geronimo, the great Apache warrior, was referred to as “The Heathen” in the advertisements to attract paying customers to make the arduous trip to Fort Sill. My grandmother said that her stagecoach ride was cold, bumpy, long, and miserable. After her dad paid the admission fee of 25 cents, she found herself in front of Geronimo’s prison cell. To describe the moment for me, my grandmother said, ”I stared directly into the eyes of Geronimo, The Heathen.”

As children of God, the Native Indian people, then and now, deserve better than they were treated. Today, there are still many Native Americans who live on reservations without running water or electricity. This prayer is not only about bringing attention to a great wrong. Also, it is about recognizing that to God we are all different. We are all the same. Native Americans have a great cultural heritage in song, dance, crafts, and so many other things which enrich our lives. So do other people from all over the world who live and work in America.

My English teacher in my 8th-grade class at Dean Jr was Mrs. Sauer. Mrs. Sauer had our class read an essay on America being a “Melting Pot.” She stressed that America’s greatness resulted from Native Americans and immigrants from other countries and from diverse races and nationalities merging into one American race. A “Melting Pot” in which we all can savor, cherish, love, and appreciate one another. Mrs. Sauer taught me that America’s strength and greatness lie in its diversity and inclusiveness. I believed that then. I believe that now despite the divisions in our land.

We cannot change history. But, as God’s faithful people, we can honor and serve God by honoring and embracing the sacredness, diversity, and beauty that dwell among America’s diverse people.
God has spoken to us in Scripture about the diversity and sacredness of His children.

Galatians 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

1 Corinthians 14:26
What then, brothers? When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up.

Revelation 14:6
Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people.

Revelation 5:9-10
And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, I thank You for the diversity of all people in America. My fellow Americans are not just Americans. They are Your children and my brothers and sisters.

God, when needed, please open my heart and eyes to see the divinity, talents, and worth in all people as Your love and spirit dwell in them.

God, please help me to do what I can to support others who are different from me. They may have every opportunity to live, grow, and love. The greatness of Your Kingdom on Earth is built upon the talents You have bestowed upon all Your people and me. We are Your tribe of many tribes. Your people, as one body of faith. In our diversity, there is the divine. The everlasting and eternal. There is You. Amen

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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 http://www.BendingAngel.com website.

Mothers Who Breast Feed and Those Who Do Not — July 16, 2022

July 16, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

You may be asking yourself why I or any man would write a prayer on this topic. Well, to me it is not a topic. It is not a taboo subject. It is an act of beauty. About a woman taking the time to give nourishment to her child as God nourishes us as His children.

Breastfeeding is about a mother setting aside a few moments each hurried day to be fully present with her child. To be as close as one could be with her infant child. To provide peace. Comfort. Security. Love each of us needs as we start our earthly pilgrimage. A child’s pilgrimage to grow on the road of faith is part of a deeper journey to be with God in heaven.

When my mother had my brother, Gary, in the morning and at bedtime, she often pulled up her rocking chair in my bedroom to breastfeed him. Gary received nourishment from her. As Mom cradled her baby, Gary, in her arms and as the rocker creaked on the oak wood floor, she sang hymns or popular songs of the day. Three years later my brother, Russell, was born. These simple, ordinary, and beautiful acts of giving of Mother were reenacted for him.

Gary and Russell are more than 60 years old now. But the passage of time has not washed away the memories of such beautiful, loving acts. Acts that Mom shared with me without embarrassment or concerns for privacy. What is inappropriate with siblings, children, and you or me witnessing such things?
When I was a young lawyer, I often saw mothers breastfeeding their children in public at the courthouse or in the jury assembly room. These mothers were not shamed by bailiffs or the judges. They were not asked to go somewhere else. They were doing what mothers did when their babies needed to be fed.
A few years ago, I attended a kids’ soccer game. A young mother sat next to me. During the game, her infant cried. Instinctively, the mother picked up her baby and began to breastfeed her child. I looked down momentarily at the mother and child. I saw the beauty of this mother and child. She did this so naturally and so unashamedly. Seeing them together, I was instantly transported back to the days my mom fed my two brothers.

On the sidelines of the soccer field, this beautiful moment between mother and child was interrupted by the father of one of the soccer players. The man, like me, saw the same young mother feeding her child. I heard him say loudly to another man at the practice, “Can you believe she would breastfeed her baby like that here? That is so inappropriate!” The young mother heard him and a few more of his choice and inconsiderate words. His words upset me and her. At that moment the mother stopped feeding her baby and hurriedly left the field. She did not return.

I was angry at the loud-mouthed, insensitive man. I felt bad for that sweet mom and her baby. I was upset that her loving, beautiful, natural act of breastfeeding her child was canceled by that man’s inconsiderate act.

Working moms can have the most difficulty finding time to breastfeed their children. When they cannot do so, they go to great lengths to use breast pumps to recover and provide milk to their babies when they cannot be physically present with them. A few years ago, I read a newspaper article about a professional woman and mother in New York City. Prior to coming to the office and dropping her baby at the nursery, she used the 1-hour drive time to work to hook herself up to a breast pump. She said that this was a real hassle. But doing it for her baby was worth it.

None of us should forget that there are those mothers who are not able to breastfeed their children or maybe they have no children of their own. At times they are filled with loss, regret or guilt. They all need prayers too.

God has spoken in Scripture about breastfeeding.

1 Peter 2:2

Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation.

Genesis 49:25

By the God of your father who will help you, by the Almighty who will bless you with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath, blessings of the breasts and of the womb.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, You made mankind, men and women, in Your image. I thank You for the beauty and wonder of creating women—women who are gifted with breasts to nourish Your children.

God, as You and Your love nourish me, may children be nourished by mothers’ milk and grow up to be Your good and gracious servants.

God, please bless women who breastfeed their children and those women who do not or cannot do so. Not every mother is able to breastfeed a child or may choose not to do so. In that case, please reassure those mothers that their love and Your love through them are shared in their every embrace, kiss, comforting act, and all the little things they do for them.

God, please support and strengthen all mothers who strive to breastfeed their children and in doing so successfully overcome the challenges of life and work. Amen

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Prayer for the Dash Between Birth and Death – July 10, 2022

July 10, 2022 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Photo credit: Paul Chepikian, Devoted Brother to Minas

Several weeks ago, my friend Minas died. For more than two decades this unique human, God-gifted to us, roamed the halls at Gray Reed. He touched each one of us in his own special way. Minas headed up the copy and supply room. He was a fixture to us like the cross on a steeple or a weathervane atop a farmhouse on the Texas prairie.

Minas sprinkled his dry humor and wit on each of us. His corny jokes. His pranks to some of us like putting a headshot of Lew Harpold (without permission) over the head of one of the famous portraits of Winston Churchill in Daryl Bailey’s office. That was done after the death of the Firm’s legendary Lew Harpold who had mentored Daryl as a young lawyer. The question was how long would it take for Daryl to notice that Lew’s likeness had taken the place of Churchill on his office wall. That was just one of many things Minas did to demonstrate that he cared. Minas knew a good laugh heals everyone, especially those who grieve and those who are sick.

In 2015 as I was in Methodist ICU for nine days with pneumonia, I received one of Minas’ creations. A very large poster signed by Gray Reed staff. On the poster, Minas had placed an Andy Warhol-sized can of Campbell’s Chicken Soup. You’ll never find one of those at Hallmark’s Cards and Gifts.

A celebration of Minas’ life was held the week the Firm moved into its new offices. Daryl’s homily for Minas inspired this week’s prayer. Daryl said that Frank Sinatra’s “I Did It My Way” was reflective of Minas’ uniqueness. That comment made me recall Minas telling me that as a young man in Cairo, Egypt he had watched Sinatra perform one evening under the background of the illumined Great Sphinx.

In Daryl’s homily, he spoke about the (-) dash between the birth and death dates of Minas’ life. Minas Chepikian, (Born August 7, 1950—Died June 25, 2022). As well as your dash (-) and my dash (-); the dash God gives all of His children.

Daryl said, “What we all have in common is that dash. The time from our birth until the time we leave this life. We may not all have the same amount of time IN our DASH but while we are here, we each have a dash. It is what we do DURING our DASH that makes a difference.”

Daryl continued with “Minas was a difference-maker in each of our individual lives.

“Minas was a difference-maker because he connected with everyone on an individual level that was important to each individual.

“He would discover in each of us some interest we had or expressed that was important. Then, Minas would talk to us and relate to us about those things. He would send us emails with articles about those topics. He might do something with his graphics background talent and give to us something related to those important topics, most often with a bit of humor.”

As Daryl said to me, “As all of us at Gray Reed moved into our beautiful new office space last weekend, Minas moved into his new space in the presence of God, a space that is more beautiful than we can imagine”. That is a sacred place for all souls like Minas who are difference makers and servants of God.

God has spoken to us in Scripture of making a difference in the lives of others.

1 Corinthians 3:9
For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.

Matthew 5:16
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

Let us pray together.

Dear God, in prayer I thank You for the life You have gifted me. Just as I am certain I was born, I am also certain that I will one day pass from the Earth.

God, I know the life You have given me is my Dash, the time between my date of birth and the date of my death. The DASH is my sacred opportunity to love and serve You and to make a difference in the lives of all Your children.

God, please guide and strengthen me to make the most of my Dash until the day I die and join You forever in Heaven and to love and serve You forever and ever. Amen

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