With just three weeks left before Serve-a-Thon, I hope to share some written prayers that we can pray together in anticipation of the big day. I invite you to pray these prayers along with me, or perhaps even together with your family - especially for those of you who have family members who will be participating in this year's Serve-a-Thon. Although this event takes place just one day a year, I hope and pray that it is not an end in itself. Rather, may it be one marker along a journey for people of all ages in the ACSD community who are learning to serve. Learning to serve God, to serve each other, and to serve people wherever they go.
Recently I came across this quote by C. S. Lewis from The Magician's Nephew:
Far overhead from beyond the veil of blue sky . . . either from the sky or from the Lion itself . . . the deepest, wildest voice they had ever heard was saying: “Narnia, Narnia, Narnia, awake. Love. Think. Speak. Be walking trees. Be talking beasts. Be divine waters.”
Those three words - love, think, speak - feel significant as calls to action but the order in which they are listed also seems significant to me. Somehow I think if we tried to reverse the order - to speak before we think or to try to love last - maybe things wouldn't tend to go as well. I wonder what would happen if we instead made it our goal in all things to love first, then to think, and then to speak. I wonder if we could live out these three words on Serve-a-Thon day and beyond.
Here are some words I hope might help us to pray to this end:
From the littlest ones,
Both daughters and sons
To those who've lived longer
Some weak and some stronger
We pray for us all
To answer this call:
Love. Think. Speak.
In serving each other
Like sister, like brother
Our hearts often need
To be changed, to be freed
Take our fears, pride and shame
Give us now a new name.
Love. Think. Speak.
God, open each heart
To love from the start
Take over each mind
Let us think, so we find
The courage and wisdom that come from You
To speak what is loving, to speak what is true
Over and over we ask by Your grace
To always, no matter what battles we face -
Love. Think. Speak.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog and pray for Alliance Christian School District! Lord willing, I plan to publish a new blog post weekly on Wednesdays throughout the school year. Feel free to subscribe (at the bottom of this page) if you'd like to be notified each time a new blog post has been published. We also have a prayer team that is always open for new pray-ers to join. If you'd like to learn more, email me at cwarner@alliancechristian.org.
~ Carrie Warner, ACSD Prayer Team Coordinator
Soli Deo Gloria To God alone be the glory