Jack Emmott – Page 2 – Bending Angel

Prayer for Voting – November 4, 2018

November 1, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Heavenly Father – As a citizen of the greatest country on Earth, I thank you for all the blessings of living in America, one Nation under You, my God. As I exercise my Constitutional right to vote, please guide me in prayer to select the best candidates. I pray to You that those we elect across our Nation will be ones who afford America the greatest opportunity to heal and unify its people, to restore civility and peace, to respect and embrace the diversity among its people, to exercise fiscal responsibility, and to give this and future generations the greatest opportunity to live, love, worship and flower in your Kingdom. May the exercise of my precious right to vote find pleasure in Your sight. 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 All Saints, Especially St. Luke – November 1, 2018

November 1, 2018 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

Although Your Saints have equal rank in Your sight, I am especially thankful for St Luke, the Patron Saint for artists, writers and physicians. Artists have shown me the beauty of the world You created for me. Beauty which far exceeds the ugliness of polio. As a writer, I have penned words which have come from You, not me, for You are the true Author of all creation. Through the saintly skills of my physicians and surgeons, what could be remedied with the hands of man was repaired. That which could not be repaired was healed by Your unconditional love for me. Amen

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Prayer for Civility – October 21, 2018

October 21, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

God – The angelic Mother You sent me had many words of wisdom to live and love by. One of the simple yet profound ones was, “Jack, if you cannot say something nice about someone else, please say nothing at all.”

My Mother is in Heaven, but her words live on in my heart on Earth.

As a divorce attorney I learn of parents who speak to their spouses and their children in angry tones and hateful demeaning words. God, one of Your ministers, Wes Seeliger, said such words of incivility hurt forever and are hard to forget or forgive. Over time Wes said they become “tapeworms of the soul.”

Tapeworms of the soul deprive the spirit of the nutrient it needs to thrive and live. That nutrient is love.

Lord, today and every day, please help us speak with dignity and respect to our spouses and our children, family members, and all others we come into contact with in our personal, business, social, political, and international relationships. For when we do that, others will see You in us and we will shine Your light of civility and love on others in our service to You. Amen

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Prayer in Thanksgiving for Music – October 14, 2018

October 14, 2018 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

The Minutemen. Photo by Legendary Drummer
Buzzy Gruen.

God – I met You first in my mother’s warm embrace and in her song.

As a young boy I sat next to Mom in the church pew on Sunday mornings.

Adorned in a hat, a veil over her lovely face and white gloves on her hands which held the hymnal, I listened to her sing like an angel.

After polio, my infirm body felt firmly part of God’s family as I sang in the Cherub Choir. I had felt so different and alone. Yet, as I precariously stood beside the other choir members, I knew God loved me. I was part of something far greater and more powerful than polio could ever be.

In the awkward years in high school of wanting to fit in while feeling out and of having pimples and scoliosis that made me feel like a leper, I played the keyboard in a local band, The Minutemen.

In our tri-cornered hats and in black attire as I played beside Bob Vaden, Mike McGauhey, and Steve Glover on their Fender electric guitars and Buzzy Gruen on his Ludwig drums, I received and re-experienced the joy of being in church with my mother, and in the Cherub Choir.

God, today and every day may we thank You for the gift to us of music, of voice, and of song.

In the melody and rhythm of song, of string, and wind may we hear the voices of angels.

May we hear the beat of Your ever present heart.

May we feel the pulse of Your never-ending love for us.

May the joyful noise we make together in Your Name rise above the deafening sounds of ordinary days.

May we follow the voices of Your angels who lead us nearer and nearer to You. Amen

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Prayer for Recognition of Others – October 7, 2018

October 8, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

At 14 when I graduated from Dean Junior High, I felt like a fish out of water.

At the Graduation Ceremony I sat in a wheelchair with my head in a sling. One of the steel rods in my back had broken and surgery loomed a few days later.

As awards were given to my fellow classmates for outstanding grades, Most Popular Boy and Girl and Most Likely to Succeed, I was not aware of anything about me that was worthy of praise or recognition.

Suddenly, a teacher wheeled me on stage and presented me with an unexpected award— The Most Optimistic Student Award.

I’ve always known that this Award had no historical precedent. It was given to me by teachers and the Principal in recognition that I always had smile on my face despite my obvious disabilities and struggles.

The fact that others gave me that recognition helped me recognize the gift God gave me in a smile and a positive attitude in all things.

Lord, even though our imperfections are many, every one of Your children has some quality, gift, or talent worthy of recognition and praise. Please help us to look beyond the superficial and the obvious and find something worthy of recognition and praise in others. For in the recognition of Your gifts in them, we glorify You and show You thanks for our creation. Amen

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Prayer to Let Go of Outcomes – September 30, 2018

September 30, 2018 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

God – In our prayers to You we ask for what we need or want from You. We ask You for the outcomes we want. We do so without considering the outcomes You want for us.

After polio and during my rehabilitation from paralysis, in daily prayer I asked You, my Lord, to cure me, to grant me the miracle I wanted.

As I petitioned You to be cured, I also asked You to strengthen my trust in You to accept the outcome You wanted for me.

In the end, because of Your love and plans for me, I was healed instead of cured.

I have come to believe that You thought that I could be a better servant to others and You while I was seated in a chair with four wheels and not standing on two strong legs. The plans the polio virus intended for me were uprooted by Your Divine Will for me.

Lord, as we all pray for the outcomes we want, please help us let go of the ultimate outcomes. Rather, let us trust that Your Will for us will be done on Earth and in Heaven.

Lord, let Thy will for each of us be done, now and forever. Amen

This prayer was inspired by today’s sermon by Stuart Bates, Rector, St. Francis Episcopal Church, Houston. Stuart, thanks to you for your inspiration and that of all ministers of all denominations to focus our hearts on what great plans the Father has for all His children.

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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 Hurricane Florence Victims and First Responders – September 15, 2018

September 16, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

Dear Merciful Lord – Just one year ago the Houston area was devastated and disrupted by Hurricane Harvey. That same tremendous force of nature in Florence has now set its catastrophic power of wind, flood, storm surge, and rain on the and surrounding States.

Lives have been lost. Families placed in shelters. Homes leveled. Possessions and precious treasures lost forever.

In the darkness please help the victims and first responders see and share Your love and light.

Let them know that Harvey and Florence were not Acts of God but forces of nature.

If a victim cries out to You and asks, “Lord, Why did You do this to me?” Comfort the victim with the knowledge that it was not You who did harm. For You would never hurt a child You love. Rather, You were certainly the First Responder. You were there to witness their pain, to cry with them and dry their tears.

Your Baptismal waters are more powerful than any act of nature including Harvey or Florence. Flood waters will recede and disappear. But, Your Spirit which flows in us never dies and carries those who follow You to Your Almighty, Eternal, and Heavenly Sea. Amen

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Prayer for Those Separated from Loved Ones – September 8, 2018

September 9, 2018 by Jack Emmott Leave a Comment

God – Today, let us pray for all Your children who are separated from those they love.

I particularly pray for You to embrace and comfort the 500 children in America who are separated from their parents due to the implementation of immigration laws. The infants and minor girls and boys are Your innocents. They had no responsibility for the creation of their isolation and heart ache.

I grieve for them just as I grieved for the loss of seeing my parents and siblings when I was 6 and quarantined at Hedgecroft Hospital due to polio.

As I wrestled with fear and questioned whether and when I would see my family next and be reunited with those I love, each day a minister, Father Skarden Daubert, placed a book of prayer in my weakened hands. As he said prayers to You for healing and hope, I knew You were with me and I was not alone. As my hands held that book of prayer each day I felt that Your Son, Christ’s hands were holding mine in His.

Whether separated from those they love by acts of war, service in the armed forces, illness, natural disasters, catastrophic events of nature or immigration laws, may every child of every age, country or condition know that nothing can ever separate them from You and Your inexhaustible, eternal, and comforting love. Amen

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Prayer in Thanksgiving for Aretha Franklin and Senator McCain – September 2, 2018

September 2, 2018 by Jack Emmott 1 Comment

Lord -Today, I pray to you as Your grateful child and not as a conservative or liberal, a Republican or a Democrat or as a disabled or non-disabled Citizen of the best and freest Country on the Earth.

After witnessing the celebrations for the lives of Aretha Franklin and Senator John McCain, I want to thank You for sending them to the world during my lifetime. In their works in Your Name they each left an everlasting imprint of their inherent goodness on our hearts.

In Aretha’s song we heard the heavenly voices of angels we needed to hear. Voices which lifted so many of us out of loss and despair in our personal and national troubles. Voices which rekindled the light of hope and joy we have lost sometimes in our struggles to live and to find You in the darkness.

In Senator McCain’s incalculable courage and steadfast faith in what our Forefathers and soldiers fought and stood for, we heard the earthly voices of the past calling us to be better people in the present. Voices calling everyone to honor the past by being our best now and in the future.

God, every day in our waking and in our sleeping, please help us to listen with the ear of our hearts to the heavenly voices which lift us up to You and the earthly voices which anchor us to the guiding principles which gave birth to our one Nation under God and which will preserve it now and forever.

Sing on, Aretha. March on, Senator McCain. Amen

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Prayer for Peacemakers – August 26, 2018

August 26, 2018 by Jack Emmott 2 Comments

Jack Emmott winner of the 2018 Gay G. Cox Award for Excellence In Collaborative Law

God – In gratitude and with humility I hold in my arms the Gay Cox Award. The Award is adorned with a beautiful dove of peace.

Recently, I accepted the Award in behalf all other Collaborative Divorce Professionals in Texas who strive every day to step into the everlasting footprint of Gay’s calling in peacemaking.

In Gay’s extraordinary life in resolving conflict in divorce she worked tirelessly and with great heart to make sure Your children were not divided like property and that they were protected from the long term consequences of litigation. Litigation which focuses on blame and pits one parent against the other.

I have done my share of being a warrior in court. That is needed sometimes in verbally, physically or psychologically abusive marriages. But, being a peacemaker, like Gay, is my higher calling.

God, thank You for Gay’s life and service to heal and reconcile broken relationships.

A falling tree ended Gay’s life far too soon. But this Award and those who follow her example will ensure that her greatest body of work in Your name did not end with her death. It began.

God, please help all attorneys, families, local, national and world leaders find ways to honor You. By concentrating on what we have in common and not on our differences. By focusing on our strengths and not exploiting our weaknesses. By making peace and preserving it.

Where there is peace, Your love can flower.

In that place in Your Kingdom blessed are the peacemakers. Amen

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