Sunday, March 25, 2012

Praying the Hours; Listening for the Bells

I set my phone alarm for 6, 9, 12, 3, 6, and 9 o'clock in order to pray the hours of the day. Unfortunately, my phone alarm clock has a snooze button which keeps ringing every five minutes if it isn't turned off.

The purpose of praying the hours is to stop what you're doing when you hear the bells and take a moment to pray and come back to center.

I've been letting the bells ring for about thirty minutes or until I finish what I'm working on at the moment before turning the alarm off and becoming quiet. It finally dawned on me that I was missing the point of STOPPING. I've been putting God on hold....not good.

And I guess that's one of the purposes of praying the hours; to reveal sinful behavior and attitudes. So I'm going to STOP when the bell rings at the top of the hour and quieten my mind and heart. I'm always interested to see what will next be revealed to me that needs cleaning up. I've become okay with being a mess. Not complacent just content to let God work on me.

4 comments:

Cranberry Morning said...

Good and thought-provoking post, Debbie!

Leslie said...

In His eyes you are perfect because he sees Jesus when he looks at you.

I think this is an interesting idea. I hope you share more. Are you praying for specific things? A Scripture or something like Valley of Vision? Trying to figure out what I would do....

Lisa Richards said...

Such a good idea. We need so badly to stop and turn off the noise of the world and listen for God's small, still voice. Thanks for sharing this!

GretchenJoanna said...

It's an intriguing idea to use your cell phone that way...what would be cool is if my phone had an alarm "bell" that sounded something like the bells that call us to Hours at church. But I think mine is just a horribly alarming alarm - it would be easy for me to forget the point of the plan if I had to listen to that very often! God bless you in this good effort.