{"id":1634,"date":"2015-04-25T21:17:04","date_gmt":"2015-04-25T21:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1634"},"modified":"2015-04-25T21:17:04","modified_gmt":"2015-04-25T21:17:04","slug":"a-praying-spirit-fair-weather-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/04\/a-praying-spirit-fair-weather-prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"A Praying Spirit: Fair Weather Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of graur codrin\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Have you ever prayed beneath the bright blue sky of God’s creation? Or knelt on soft grass and given thanks to its Creator?<\/p>\n

We might pray for rain, or for warm days to come after a hard winter. But besides praying\u00a0for\u00a0<\/em>weather and other things of the earth, one of the best ways to get close to God in prayer is to take our supplication outdoors. There, it’s easy to imagine God’s hand in the wind, or see His handiwork in the clouds. New growth on winter-worn branches reminds us of God’ eternal love, and that once-dormant bush springing to life (a pun in the best sense of the word “Spring!”) is testament to the promise of the rainbow fulfilled. God’s earth will be with us forever – and for this He is forever worthy of praise and prayer!<\/p>\n

Try a fair weather prayer this week. Or, if it’s raining, settle in by a window and look out at the natural spring of rejuvenation coming from the heavens. Lift up your prayers then, too. For it is all good!<\/p>\n

Blessings,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever prayed beneath the bright blue sky of God’s creation? Or knelt on soft grass and given thanks to its Creator? We might pray for rain, or for warm days to come after a hard winter. But besides praying\u00a0for\u00a0weather and other things of the earth, one of the best ways to get close…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1272,43,1047,578,1420,1236,95,1246],"tags":[1657,1658,183,133,96,1659,1661,1660],"class_list":["post-1634","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-praying-spirit-prayer-2","category-encouragement-in-life","category-good","category-goodness","category-pain-2","category-prayer-2","category-prayers","category-uplifting","tag-effective-prayer","tag-gods-earth","tag-gods-love","tag-gods-promise","tag-prayer","tag-praying-for-rain","tag-praying-outdoors","tag-weather-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\nA Praying Spirit: Fair Weather Prayer - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/04\/a-praying-spirit-fair-weather-prayer.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Praying Spirit: Fair Weather Prayer - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Have you ever prayed beneath the bright blue sky of God’s creation? 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1634"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1635,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1634\/revisions\/1635"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1634"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1634"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1634"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}