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rumplestilskin4
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Praying or prayer
I think that prayer or praying does no harm.
What I think is actually happening is building up your resolve or courage to see something thru. And maybe the sub conconsious is gearing up to look for ways to attack or solve whatever it is you are faced with.
It is a well known fact that very often a solution will pop up in the mind if you just put it to bed, so to speak.
"sleeo on it!"
I use this method to write new stories. One set of thoughts will often spark a long lost memory of some pleasureable event in my life.
Bummy74
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8/6/2009, 7:45 pm
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Lesigner Girl
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Re: Praying or prayer
I can both agree and disagree with that.
The benefits of prayer are as you outlined, which is really no different than meditation. When someone meditates or prays for guidance and an idea comes to them at that time, it's basically due to a calming of the mind that helps a person think about a situation more clearly and/or gives them the confidence to do what they already knew they needed to do, etc, as you said.
But prayer can be harmful when someone believes so much in the power of prayer, that they pray instead of taking a beneficial action. It isn't really the prayer itself that's harmful, but the belief that praying will produce a better result than taking a different action would.
An excellent example of this is when parents don't take their children in for life-saving medical treatment because it's against their religion, so they pray for a miracle instead. Or, they believe God will help the perfect career fall in their lap if they are faithful enough and keep praying, instead of going out, getting an education, etc.
Instead of forbidding life-saving medical treatment to a child and praying for a miracle, I see no problem with praying in addition to getting that child the necessary medical treatment. Prayer could actually help in that case, if it helps the parents have a more positive attitude around the child, which could then, in turn, help the child stay positive. If the child can stay positive, in addition to the medical treatment, I think that would give the child an even better chance of survival.
As well, go ahead and pray before studying, or before that big test. Better yet, pray after studying. And yes, sleep on it! Studies have shown that sleeping after studying will actually help a person retain more of what they've studied. Due to the relaxing effects of prayer and/or meditation, perhaps it would give a similar result.
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8/6/2009, 8:27 pm
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rumplestilskin4
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Re: Praying or prayer
You are right on the money about the negative aspects. I did not mention them because I was trying to keep a positive outlook about the subject. Selfish folks usually have convinced themselves that is okay to take whatever they want regardless of the importance the particular item might be to the owner!
My exwife believed in that kind of behavior. I dealt with her for 18 years. She was raised that way from the start.
Bummy74
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8/7/2009, 6:23 am
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rumplestilskin4
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Re: Praying or prayer
An experience that I had as a kid of about 12 sort of proves this out I think.
I had been staying with an uncle who ran a milk route. Ordinarily I went with him. But this pitucular day I stayed at his home to play with the neighbor kids. For some reason my Uncle did not come home at the expected time. I was not to anxious to return to an empty house so I hung at the neighbors until they walked me down to my uncles house. It was now long after dark. Maybe 10Pm. I went to bed but I was very nervous about being there all alone. All kinds of thoughts ran thru my mind wondering why he had not returned.
I recall very clearly the thought came to me that everything was fine and I was safe. A strong sense of peace came over me and I was soon asleep.
About dawn I heard the milkcans rattling as he came up the dirt road. He looked in on me but I did not stir. Then he went to the barn to milk his cows and make ready to start his milk run after breakfast.
I never did find out what the delay was.
Bummy 74
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8/8/2009, 10:04 am
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SKOKEY
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Re: Praying or prayer
Whenever we'd see a kid that didn't look like the rest of his family, we'd say that it was the Milkman's kid.
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8/8/2009, 10:17 am
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Morwen Oronor
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Re: Praying or prayer
Seems that that' s an international thing. We say it too.
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The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.William Spencer Churchill
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8/8/2009, 10:24 am
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SKOKEY
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Re: Praying or prayer
Those milkmen really get around!
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8/8/2009, 12:19 pm
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Morwen Oronor
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Re: Praying or prayer
We haven't had milkmen here for at least 30 years.
When the tokens started going missing, the delivery was stopped, now we just buy milk at the supermarket with all the other groceries.
I kind of miss the idea of postmen, milkmen and to-you-door grocery deliveries.
I remember my mum going to the grocery store, being served a cup of tea while she made her selection and then having the boxes delivered later in the day.
My dad used to go around at the end of the month delivering cheques to all the people who brought food to our house.
I wonder what he would have made of all the instant payment and online shopping.
Now I've bought an e-reader for books, I won't even be going to booksales anymore.
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The truth is incontrovertible, malice may attack it, ignorance may deride it, but in the end; there it is.William Spencer Churchill
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8/8/2009, 2:54 pm
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Petal Alderin
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Re: Praying or prayer
When I couldn't drive last year for ages after my neck op, I ordered groceries on line and had them delivered - it was wonderful!
Postal delivery here is very erratic and nine times out of ten, sacks of mail are found abandoned and destroyed in the bushes, so we have a P O Box for most of our mail and collect it ourselves ... but some of it still goes missing. I haven't received my TV mag for months and they keep telling me they're sending replacements but they never arrive! The problem with not getting post delivered to the street address is that I seem to frequently need to prove my residential address, and this is becoming impossible and causing major hassles, especially with banks and stuff like FICA.
In the early days of our marriage there used to be an Indian guy who came around the neighbourhood in a huge van, selling the most wonderful fresh fruit and veg. If he didn't have what you wanted, he'd make sure he had it next time round, and he refused to take payment other than just once a month. He had a little book in which he wrote down all our names and our purchases or orders, and would add it all up weekly, but we'd pay him on the last day of the month at his insistence! Even that trust has gone today ... the birth of big supermarkets put him out of business, sadly, as it did to all those lovely corner grocery stores as well.
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8/8/2009, 3:24 pm
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