{"id":2917,"date":"2016-05-16T10:31:00","date_gmt":"2016-05-16T14:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?p=2917"},"modified":"2016-05-16T10:31:00","modified_gmt":"2016-05-16T14:31:00","slug":"a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html","title":{"rendered":"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>You were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><strong>All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>Sheep are dumb, experts tell us. Are ewe? I certainly have been on more occasions than I&#8217;d like to admit.<\/p>\n<p>Humans are often called\u00a0sheep in the Bible; is that an insult, perhaps? Take a look around, and even better, take a look within. How often have you led yourself astray? How often have you made choices without consulting God\u00a0that have led to pain?<\/p>\n<p>How we need a &#8220;Guardian&#8221; for our souls \u2013 someone watching over our emotions, thoughts, and feelings, so prone as they are\u00a0to stray from wisdom.<\/p>\n<p><em>Guardian of my soul,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>I choose to follow You today. Accommodating my instincts, my heart, my lusts, and my hunches have not bode well for me. Moment by moment, may I seek your guidance. Task by task, text by text, help me to seek your wisdom. May each conversation be edifying on my part. Speaking the truth in love, help me to fight for others\u2019 good. Above all, please keep me from foolishly wandering off and leading others astray! Keep me within earshot of your still, small voice. Hold me close to your warm and loving heart.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In Jesus, My Shepherd\u2019s\u00a0Name, Amen<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) Sheep are dumb,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,15,7,4,25,3],"tags":[957,1735,1734,1733,1736],"class_list":["post-2917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-bible-prayer","category-daily-prayer","category-god","category-jesus","category-prayer","tag-good-shepherd","tag-guardian-of-my-soul","tag-jesus-the-shepherd","tag-sheep","tag-soul-care"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul<\/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\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) Sheep are dumb,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Prayer, Plain and Simple\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-16T14:31:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark and Jill Herringshaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul","og_description":"You were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and guardian of your souls. (1 Peter 2:25) All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. (Isaiah 53:6) Sheep are dumb,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html","og_site_name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","article_published_time":"2016-05-16T14:31:00+00:00","author":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html","name":"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-05-16T14:31:00+00:00","dateModified":"2016-05-16T14:31:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/2016\/05\/a-prayer-to-the-guardian-of-my-soul.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"A Prayer to the Guardian of My Soul"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/","name":"Prayer, Plain and Simple","description":"Prayer, Daily Prayer, Simple Prayers, Quick Prayers, Prayer Requests","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/29563cda917dd596f93dba2ff3a7fedf","name":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/94f\/94fb184ea80985d82e603e3d8dd0056bx96.jpg","caption":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw"},"description":"Mark and Jill Herringshaw and their four children have been ministering in their local church since 1990. Jill is an accomplished worship leader and recording artist with several CDs in Target stores\u2019 \u201cLifescapes\u201d collection. Mark is the former pastor of the 7,000 member North Heights Lutheran Church. He holds a Ph.D. in leadership from Regent University, is the author of three books and a recognized conference speaker.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/author\/mherringshaw1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/478"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2917"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2924,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2917\/revisions\/2924"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/prayerplainandsimple\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}