Michael Posted August 9, 2007 Share Posted August 9, 2007 he can read your mind, and knows your thoughts, wishes, and intentions, then why is saying a prayer necessary? Before I go shopping, I sit down and assemble a list of the items I need. I do this not because I import new information of which I had been ignorant, but because my responses to the events of the day have distracted me from my own agenda. While my need for one or the other commodity may be at the surface of my consciousness (eg, I'm painfully aware that, say, I'm out of milk, or I'm reminded several times a day that I need to pick up a screwdriver to fix the front door), others require a moment of reflective contemplation to recall, organize, prioritize. If I don't collect my (pre-existing but scattered) thoughts, I will unhappily forget some needed purchase when I am at the point of sale. The same dynamic can operate in ordinary conversation when it stimulates dormant creativity. Some people (I hear this is truer for many women than for many men) feel they can develop their thoughts or opinions best, or even only, through speaking them out. It's the same rationale for sometimes assigning students compositions to write without assigning them attendant research. Forming desires into words, be the words noisy or silent, concretizes them in the articulator's consciousness. It helps "edit out" vague or transient impulses and focuses attention on lasting goals. I know this sorting - the original meaning of "triage" - has a place in your heart, for you often advise people here to fine-tune their vocational purpose and pursue it methodically. In this sense, a prayerful petitioner is like a newbie posting a question on a message-board: Careful attention to the form increases legibility. Dustdevil or God may know more about the petitioner's real needs than the one posing the question, but in order to address it, you need him to become clear about what he wants. And then, when you give him points or slap him upside the head or ignore him, he can better associate your response with his own clearer and more distinctly known felt need, and have less cause to say, "That Dustdevil isn't fair! She doesn't answer me clearly!" Not that you care as much as God does about being slandered... :wink: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted August 9, 2007 Share Posted August 9, 2007 By the way, Dusty, speaking of unanswered petitions, you've had a PM sitting in your inbox for the past couple of days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief1C Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 I don't get it. If She can read your mind, and knows your thoughts, wishes, and intentions, then why is saying a prayer necessary? Without necessity, there is no point. She? God is a she? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 God is a she? The reverse has been imagined more often ("She is a god!"). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chief1C Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Well then... She is one sick minded, evil, bitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 I meant as exclaimed by someone infatuated with some (mortal) dame. It's been known to happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrsRankin0510 Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 nremtp brittish dude, You're not wrong for thinking that way. If I didn't already know God when I started I might share your sentiment. EMS has definately made me more closed off. I've been pissed at God plenty, but I've been pissed at my husband a lot too but I'm still married to him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ridryder 911 Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 Well then... She is one sick minded, evil, bitch. Typical .. human response, instead of understanding that ..man or woman is responsible for their own demise. It is much easier to blame a deity. Who causes most diseases and murders, sicknesses and illnesses and horrible events? Karma or whatever you want to call it, there is always the event what goes around comes back around. It may take time for it to occur, but sometime or another it will. This may be specific to any person, or to the human race in general. (i.e global warming, war, etc) No one (even in Biblical terms) promised anyone a rose garden. Without bad times, and events, no one would appreciate the good and be thankful. I didn't understand life as well, when I was younger too. Yes, there are still times I question, and suppose to. We were never made to "know all the answers" nor, will we ever. Usually, with more life experiences, one begins to understand this. R/r 911 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WendyT Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 The more I do this job, the more I realise that there is no God and if there is He is a vindictive bastard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
akflightmedic Posted August 10, 2007 Share Posted August 10, 2007 The more I do this job' date=' the more I realise that there is no God and if there is He is a vindictive bastard.[/quote'] nremtp Oh yeah blame the middle man will ya, Satan's laughing up a storm. :twisted: Huh?? WTF?? god is a middle man...to whom, satan?? Is the flying spaghetti monster the real master? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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