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Archives for July 2016

USA Prayer Coloring Page/Template

July 26, 2016 by Sybil Macbeth 2 Comments Leave a Comment

A couple of weeks ago I used a template of the USA map to pray my feelings about our country. The post was called States of Mind and Heart. Below are three different templates/coloring pages of maps of the USA to use for your prayers. In the first empty template you can draw your own lines of demarcation or shapes. In the second version, spaces are provided. You can augment either of these maps with words, doodles, designs, and color. In the third, designs and doodles are ready for coloring. Click below each map to download a .jpg or .pdf version. (If you would rather have a real USA map, there are some free downloadable versions online.)

Here are several suggestions of ways to use the map:
1) Pray your laments, those things about which you feel sad or hopeless. The Bible is filled with laments from the Historical Books, the Prophets, the Psalms, and even the New Testament.
♦In Samuel 18:33, David laments the death of his son, “The king was deeply moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept; and as he went, he said, ‘O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! Would I had died instead of you, O Absalom, my son, my son!'”(NRSV)
♦Jeremiah laments what he sees as God’s abandonment of Israel, “A lion has come out of his lair; a destroyer of nations has set out. He has left his place to lay waste your land. Your towns will lie in ruins without inhabitant.” Jeremiah 4:7 (NIV)

2) Write your hopes and dreams for the US in the spaces. Offer these to God as you write and draw and color.
♦Psalm 25:5 “Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” (NIV)
3) Pray your specific concerns: safety, education, race relations, healthcare, drugs/addiction, terrorism, jobs, whatever is on your mind….
4) Pray your gratitude list about our country.
5) Write your feelings and emotions as I did in the States of Mind and Heart post on July 11, 2016.

For any of these exercises, write your ideas, thoughts, feelings, frustrations, opinions, and concerns on the map. But as you color and perhaps add more designs, just listen. When I do this, I try to set aside what I want to hear. Or what I think is right. I am suspicious if I hear a tidy summary of my own small ideas and opinions. If after my prayer time I love the people I disagree with just a little more, I know my prayers have been heard and answered.

However you choose to do it, brothers and sisters, please pray for our country. I think the passage from 2Chronicles 7:14 is so appropriate: “if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Michael Card sings a version of this song called “Heal Our Land” from his album Joy in the Journey.

US Map 2 Color

.pdf   OR   .jpg

US Map 2 with Lines Resized

.pdf   OR   .jpg

 US Map 2 with Designs Resized.pdf   OR   .jpg

Apologies for the absence of Hawaii and Alaska. I was not sure how to incorporate them into the drawing.

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Election 2016, Jeremiah 4:7, Praying in Color, Psalm 25:5, Samuel 18:33, USA

New Praying in Color Website

July 25, 2016 by Sybil Macbeth 3 Comments Leave a Comment

My new Praying in Color website has launched. The first site was launched in 2007; this is the third. I’m very pleased with the work of the designers and tech staff at Paraclete Press. Please take a few minutes to check out the new site here. If you know people who do not know about praying in color, please Share this post. If you receive this post as an email please go to the Blog page and Share this post or email the address to others. I would be grateful. Thank you.

Screen Shot 2016-07-24 at 8.14.48 AM

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Prayer and Coloring, prayer and doodling, Praying in Color, prayingincolor.com

States of Mind and Heart

July 11, 2016 by Sybil Macbeth 4 Comments Leave a Comment

My states of mind and heart about our country have flip-flopped all over the place in the past few weeks. The map below is an outpouring of words describing the states I have entered. Many of the words are negative and despairing; but poking through are positive words of hope and joy. I am not a proponent of the adage: “You can have either faith or fear, but not both.” Conflicting words like fear & trust and joy & sorrow live in my mind, heart, and body all at the same time. I can straddle several states in just a matter of minutes.

States of Mind and Heart

Drawing this map was both a cathartic purge and a blessing prayer.* I am so weary of words and opinions and judgments—even ones I agree with, even my own. I am so quick to form a response to whatever I hear based on some knee-jerk outrage or some closely-held belief. Words can be helpful, encouraging, and transforming but they can also be a form of assault and violence. If my words do not agree with yours, we can immediately be at an internal or external verbal war, judging the intelligence and character of the other person.

I look at my own categorizing and am appalled. I grew up as a Christian Scientist. Christian Science taught me that everyone is created in “the image and likeness of God.” (Genesis 1:26) When I came home from elementary school and said something like, “I hate Susie”  Or “Bob is a big liar,” my mother would say, “You know, Sybil, you need to fix your thinking. Susie is a perfect child of God and you need to see her as that.” Then we would pray. What would happen when I changed my assessment of the person from a liar to a child of God was nothing short of a miracle. I’m not sure whether the person changed or I changed. But the atmosphere changed. Maybe the atoms of the universe surrounding us changed by my moment of loving. God was clearly present however that happened.

I notice how infrequently I now start with the “child of God” premise especially when I read the news or consider the political arena. I am much more likely to start with judgment and criticism. Frankly, it’s eroding my soul. The violence I condemn becomes part of my psyche.

I would like to say that from now on I will always start with seeing others as children of God, that I will never be “the first to throw a stone,” but that is not true. My plan is much smaller. For the next hour anytime I hear or read something that oversimplifies the state of our country or that lures me to some sort of get-on-the-bandwagon or blow-it-apart response, I’m going to try to just listen. I will invite the polarizing rhetoric inside of me to be still. I will recite “image of God, image of God…” as many times as needed, then wait on some “Good Orderly Direction.”** I will try this one hour at a time and be grateful for any minutes of success. I want to do this, not just because it feels like a holy or righteous thing, but because my heartsick soul feels like it is in jeopardy. I do not want “to become what I hate.” I know I cannot do this alone. I need accountability to other people in my life and to God.

*The blessing prayer on the outside of the map is a format I use frequently. It is adapted from an ancient Celtic prayer.
**Good Orderly Direction = GOD

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Good Orderly Direction, opinions, Praying in Color, United States, violence

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