The Debacle Between me and My Friend is Resolved, But Now For Another Issue...

[Joshua the Writer]

If you have viewed or replied to my thread about my friend insulting me religion, which can be found here if you are interested in getting more context, I can now say that I emailed his mom about it, and she has talked to him about it, and he has called me and agreed to stop talking about his opinion.

I now feel like I have come one step closer to completely fixing my relationship with my best friend, if it hasn't been completely repaired already by us coming to an agreement to stop talking about it and him making me watch those awful YouTube videos that pumped propaganda into his head ever since the first time he ever typed www.youtube.com into a URL bar and installed YouTube onto his Roku.

So we have agreed to stop talking about that whole Christianity Vs. Atheism debacle.

However, I briefly mentioned in one of the replies I posted to that thread saying that my grandfather, who has been addicted to smoking cigarettes for most of his life. Plus who knows what other drugs he could have experimented with when he was in college.

Since he was addicted to smoking for so long, it has taken a toll on his body and his vital organs, and he had to receive a long list of surgeries to fix damage organs and tissues. So much so that he needed to get one of his kidneys removed because it was damaged so badly by all of the tobacco smoke he has inhaled over the years, and now he has one kidney left.

However, he continued smoking (against his doctor's wishes), and it eventually started to damage the remaining kidney, requiring him to stop smoking and be put on dialyses tubes.

Next month, my family and I are traveling up to Michigan since he is receiving a kidney transplant from my mother. I have been worried a lot about it recently, and I need somewhere to get it off my chest, and I guess it's on this forum, since I feel like there is a ton of people out there who I bet has had a similar experience.

I want to pray for him and my mother while I'm in bed. However, it seems like, whenever I try to do so, I end up starting to cry and lose my train of thought and end up leaving my prayer uncompleted, and I feel like God wouldn't want to hear an unfinished prayer.

It seems like I am unable to pray for my relatives whenever they're going through a dark time, and always end up to start crying and leaving the prayers unfinished. I feel embarrassed whenever this happens.

Is there anybody out there who can complete my unfinished prayer? I know you guys think that it seems like you've had seen too many prayer requests online that it has gotten annoying, but at least listen to this one, please? I feel hurt that I can't pray by myself without the help of others.

I love my grandfather a ton. After all, he was the one who raised my father, who I also love and am close to. He lives in Michigan and used to hunt rather frequently both in the lower peninsula outside of city limits as well as the UP.

He even still has the same hunting rifle, which he bought in the 80s, which means that the rifle is 40 or 30 years old and has had continued hunting use by my grandfather up until his tobacco addiction caused too many problems that slowed him down in terms of physical activity, along with him currently being in his 70s.

He has maintained that gun really excellent, and it worked fine when he taught me how to fire it and actually be able to handle the recoil from the powerful .308 Winchester cartridge that it fires.

I love my grandfather very much and I hope his kidney transplant goes well. I want to pray for my grandfather, and my mother, since she is the person whom my grandfather is receiving a new kidney from. However, as I said, I end up crying too much, and all of the words that I wanted to pray suddenly leave me, and I end up stuck with an unfinished prayer. Can you guys help me on this?

 

[tree]

Josh,

As much as your human pride wants to think that you can
make a perfect prayer, it's not necessary. What you have
said in the first post here is prayerful, in itself.

Don't you believe that God sees your intention?
Since, I assume, God is All Knowing, He realizes you mean well,
but that your human frailty and the strength of your feelings
sometimes work against your being able to verbalize as much
as you'd like to do.

It doesn't look to me as if your prayer is unfinished.
If you feel that way, how about words such as

Spoiler: suggested words

"Lord this is too much for me.
I give it all to you.
Thank You, Jesus."

Or, "In the Name of Jesus, Amen..."

 

[Joshua the Writer]

Josh,

As much as your human pride wants to think that you can
make a perfect prayer, it's not necessary. What you have
said in the first post here is prayerful, in itself.

Don't you believe that God sees your intention?
Since, I assume, God is All Knowing, He realizes you mean well,
but that your human frailty and the strength of your feelings
sometimes work against your being able to verbalize as much
as you'd like to do.

Thank you. I appreciate your help.

 

[Joel's Hear]

Hello Josh! I agree with what tree said and I also sent two prayers for you and your grandfather.

My favorite writer (CS Lewis) died from kidney failure complicated by excessive tobacco use. He was the founder of Narnia, and used his own religious faith to create Aslan.

 

[Fino]

I was gonna say exactly what Tree said!

You just finished your prayer. I think of prayer as a feeling, way of thinking, and way of being, not a recitation to a conscious being waiting for you to finish. God "knows" all of your thoughts and feelings long before you form them into words. The act of speaking or saying in your mind is purely symbolic, in my opinion, a comfort object like a stuffed animal, a reassurance that you understand what you think and feel and solidifying it for the sake of confidence, a reminder to continue with the thoughts, feelings, and behavior you would like to continue with.