(1) Texting with my faves

(2) A great group of ladies and an awesome coaching session.

(3) Rain

(4) Texting with my aunties and sister

(5) A great youth gathering meeting

(6) Losing a pound or two! Or five!!

(7) A good camera that captures awesome photos.

(8) Full House

(9) Sitting outside reading on a beautiful day

(10) Snapchatting with KL

(11) Sunscreen

(12) Texting with EG

(13) Water!!!

(14) 90 degree weather

(15) So many compliments on my sermon today and I struggled to write this one.

(16) A wonderful PLN!!

(17) Grad parties and visiting with members.

(18) Running into BP and S at Walmart

(19) Reading the Bible in 90 days

I am linking up for the Five Minute Friday. The FMF is hosted by Kate Motaung over at our Five Minute Friday website. Today’s word prompt is “pause.” We would love to have you join us.

Lilacs blooming, the smells wafting through the air.
Time to stop, pause, breathe in her scents.
Behold, Gods amazing creation.

The mountains
Reaching high
The crisp mountain air
Is inhaled through my lungs.
Behold, Gods amazing creation.

Sitting on my porch
The sun kissing my face
A book in hand
Summer scents all around
Behold, Gods amazing creation.

Dirt caked in his fingernails
The sound of a tractor
Rolling from one end of the field
To the next.
Creation a time it’s finest.
Behold, Gods amazing creation.

A toddler
Gleefully
Blowing and popping bubbles
Laughter ensues.
Behold, Gods amazing creation.

Our God
The creator
Who wants us
To pause
And take it all in!

Dear friends,

I (Tara L Ulrich) am writing to alert you to some changes in data protection which may affect how you receive emails from me at Praying on the Prairie. This is of most importance to those who have signed up to receive blog posts from me at Praying on the Prairie via email. It’s important to be aware of what I do with your information.

In order to ensure that I am complying with the European Union’s changes to GDPR by May 25, 2018, you will need to confirm that you are happy for your email to be used for the specific purpose of delivering blog posts to your inbox and storing your email for this purpose alone.

WordPress stores your email address, which I can also see. I do not share your email address with anyone else, nor will your email address be used for anything other than the stated purpose above.

I want to ensure I have your consent to do this.

IF YOU DON’T HAVE A WORDPRESS ACCOUNT:

Please use the blog subscription form  (the “subscribe button in the upper right corner) to sign up again, regardless of how you signed up in the first place. Emails will be sent to you from WordPress with the content of posts from Praying on the Prairie.

WORDPRESS ACCOUNT HOLDERS:

The “follow” button will read something like “You are already subscribed/You are following this blog (manage).” You can choose whether or not you want to continue to get email notifications from me by managing your WordPress subscriptions in your own WordPress account. Click “manage” and then look at your list of subscriptions – each site will have “settings” you can click through to turn on/off email notifications as desired.

“But I don’t get your posts by email!” If you would like to do that you can easily sign up using the form, or, if you have a WordPress account, adjusting your subscription settings as explained above.

By doing so, you are giving consent for your email to be stored and used for this purpose. You can unsubscribe at any time, either by “managing” your subscriptions as above or clicking “unsubscribe” at the bottom of emails.

“He [Jesus] didn’t die for anything he could get out of. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying. He didn’t….he wasn’t getting anything out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life, for the good of others, for the good of the other, for the well being of the world…for us.”

“That’s what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.” (Bishop Michael Curry in his sermon at the Royal Wedding)

The redemptive power of love is a phrase that I haven’t been able to shake since listening to his sermon on Saturday. It is because of the redemptive power of love that I am able to tell my family’s story of mental illness. It is because of the redemptive power of love that I was able to graduate seminary and be consecrated as a deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) It is because of the redemptive power of love that I truly believe God calls us to share God’s love with all the world.

“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s one and only Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. God did not send God’s son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).”

My heart aches when I turn on the news or look at the comments in a blog post and see the evil that is being spewed out into the world. As Bishop Curry reminded us in his sermon, if we actually are able to love and show love, the world would be a much different place. If we truly loved one another, would our friends of color not fear for their lives? If we truly loved one another, would we truly treat each other as family?

I am especially proud to serve in a church (the ELCA) that truly believes that all are welcome in this place. I was excited and delighted to hear that Jamie and Rebekah Bruesehoff will be sharing their story at this summer’s National Youth Gathering. I had the opportunity to hear Jamie speak at this year’s ELCA Youth Ministry Network Extravaganza. Her story is powerful as she reminds us what it means to love God’s beloved children.

Today, evil has found its way as outside forces attack this family without even knowing their story. It is moments like this that cause my blood to boil because all of us are beloved children of God. God continually calls each and every one of us by name.

The redemptive power of love allows us to put aside our differences; to treat each other as “fearfully and wonderfully made” children of God. The redemptive power of love calls us to love ALL of God’s beloved children. The redemptive power of love is why God sent God’s son into the world for each and every one of us. The redemptive power of love truly allows us to hear the stories of our LGTBQ+ siblings. The redemptive power of love opens our hearts to all the world.

And because of the redemptive power of love, it is words and actions rooted in love that are pouring out to Jamie and Rebekah today. And this is the type of church I want to be a part of us; a church that openly and freely opens their doors without question. A church that truly lives out the words “all are welcome in this place.”

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
    you formed me in my mother’s womb.
I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
    Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
    I worship in adoration—what a creation!
You know me inside and out,
    you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
    how I was sculpted from nothing into something.
Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
    all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
    before I’d even lived one day.
(Psalm 139:13-16; The Message)

Friday May 18–yet another school shooting. This time at Santa Fe High School in Texas. My immediate reaction was that I wanted to cry; cry holy tears for those ten individuals who went to school that day planning on returning home but they didn’t return home.

Any time there is a school shooting, I feel like I am a broken record. So often media jumps to the conclusion that the shooter is mentally ill. Now don’t get me wrong, that could very well be the case. But the reality is that the mentally ill are more often the victims of a violent crime then the perpetrator. And as the daughter of a woman who lives daily with a mental illness, I know this reality all too well. I have first hand experience of the stigma that comes with a mental illness.

The reality though is that my mom is able to live a normal life because of the medications she is on. She is one of the most faith-filled women in my life and would seriously give the clothes off of her back to someone in need. She embodies what it means to love and be loved in this broken world. Yet her illness comes with a stigma; a stigma that still carries with it the weight of every school shooting and violent crime despite what statistics tell us.

I have to be honest. I grew up in a house where my dad and grandpa hunted. Yet those guns were not easily accessible. In fact, they were kept far away from our reach. I have so many questions in regards to guns and gun violence. How are these students getting access to these guns? Why is someone not able to stop them?

I don’t know what the answer is to end all school shootings. But what I do know is that too many kids have gone to school hoping to come home and haven’t because another classmate showed up to school with a gun. Often times they come with a motive because they are hurting and are not in their own right mind. Yet with proper treatment and care, these individuals could, perhaps, live a normal life.

My hurt aches for all of my friends and family and their children. I fear for the days when I will have my own children and will send them off to school. It breaks my heart that our children know what to do in the case of a school shooting because they have had active shooter training at their own schools. I don’t want the names of the children I love or even the names of my sister and other teachers who dedicate their lives to teaching to be on the list of deceased at the next school shooting.

My heart aches friends and we must do something about it. I cannot hear the name of more individuals who lost their life at school. There are too many school shootings. There are too many who have given their lives simply by being in school when a shooting occurs. We remember the ten victims from the Sante Fe High School shooting: Glenda Perkins, Cynthia Tisdale, Kimberly Vaughan, Shana Fisher, Angelique Ramirez, Christian Riley Garcia, Jared Black, Sabika Sheikh, Christopher Jake Stone and Aaron Kyle McLeod.

My eyes are wet with tears; tears that ache for the day when our children will feel safe going to school again. Wet with tears as I lift up my prayers to God knowing these individuals are not alone in their final days. But also wet that they had to breathe their last before graduating high school or going home to their own families.

The words from Marty Haugen’s Holden Evening Prayer are the words that I seem to only be able to cry out in the midst of another school shooting. “Let our prayers rise up like incense before you, the lifting up of my hands as an offering to you. O God, I call to you, come to me now, hear my voice when I cry to you.”

I am broken.

I am tired.

Tired of sounding like a broken record.

When will the sounds of this broken record cease

Or will this record play over and over again until it is simply way too late?

(1) Time with WND Faith Formation Network friends.

(2) Gorgeous weather.

(3) Halo Top Ice Cream

(4) A call from Dad

(5) Much needed rain

(6) The Greys Season finale

(7) Holding baby Kane

(8) Make Your Own Italian Sodas at a grad open house.

(9) Texting with my fave

(10) #RoyalWedding!!

(11) Michael Currys sermon at the Royal Wedding. So lit!

(12) A great Senior Sunday

(13) Baking

(14) Lilacs

I am linking up for the Five Minute Friday. The FMF is hosted by Kate Motaung over at our Five Minute Friday website. Today’s word prompt is “secret.” We would love to have you join us.

Two sisters playing in the backyard. The younger one leans in and tells a secret to her big sister. After the secret is told, silence, lips are sealed. We must not tell others what we just heard.

What was it? The name of a boy? Or another kind of secret? Whatever it is, it must not be told. It must stay locked deep in the depths of our hearts. To this day, I still hold the secrets. I will forever hold her dreams. I will keep my lips sealed and not share what she told me about her first love.

And there are secrets we tell each other now too. There is something holy in holding each other’s secrets in the palms of our hands. Secrets that carry our deepest dreams and desires. Secrets that are to be held by only those we know we can trust.

Do you want to know the secrets?

I’m not telling!

Laying in bed every night, the litany of requests and prayers constantly play through my heart and mind. This list of prayers that I am continually waiting for God to answer in my own life. I know that God hears them but before morning light and my eyes are barely open, the litany continues to play over and over again.

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, a litany is defined as “a prayer consisting of invocations and supplications by the leader with alternate responses by the congregation”; or “a resonant or repetitive chant.”

Throughout our lives, there are so many litanies that we lift up to God. Litanies that are not just lifted up at church, but litanies that are said each and every day throughout the world. Litanies that play on repeat from one heart to the next. Litanies that embody our dreams, hopes and desires. Beautiful litanies that echo the heart of who God is; and also beautiful litanies that transcend time and space.

These litanies tell the story of who God calls us to be as people of prayer.

“Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all human understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus (Philippians 4:6-7–NRSV).”

In other words, God calls us to lift our prayers; to voice our litanies out loud or in the depths of our heart. Because when we say those prayers; those litanies, a beautiful elegant litany of thankfulness and gratitude is opened to the world.

Linking up with Kelly and the Ra Ra linkup, Holley and Coffee for your Heart and Kristin and Porch Stories.

I am linking up for the Five Minute Friday. The FMF is hosted by Kate Motaung over at our Five Minute Friday website. Today’s word prompt is “include.” We would love to have you join us.

She stands
On the playground
All alone.

Waiting for someone,
Anyone to notice her,
Trying to hide her tears;
Tears of loneliness.

She’s looking for her place
In this world;
Searching, seeking, yearning
To know love and be loved.

Then another hand reaches out
Inviting her to come.
She goes.

This hand reaching out;
Jesus made flesh
In a new friend
Who sees her tears
And invites her in.

She is no longer
Alone!

(1) Getting to hold a three week old baby

(2) Texting with my fave

(3) Recipes from Magnolia Table

(4) The season finale of The Big Bang Theory

(5) Awesome Caramel Roll volunteers

(6) Band Day Fun

(7) Sunshine

(8) Seeing some awesome Minot kiddos

(9) RW telling me how much he enjoyed my book.

(10) Being surprised by LH. It was so good to see you!!

(11) Flowers

(12) Getting to see CT and her girls.

(13) Talking with my momma

(14) Sweet texts and messages from friends

(15) Moderating #SlateSpeak this week.