A Prayer of Faith

We have been working on some changes here at A Prayer of Faith. We have a new look, new writers (soon to be introduced), and a new feature, entitled “A Mother Heart.” Please note: This feature is not just for mothers! The purpose of this feature is to allow all of you to share fun, funny, and inspirational stories from your interactions with the children who are a part of your world. It’s also a place to share the joy you are discovering in your roles as woman, sister, aunt, neighbor, teacher, friend, mother, daughter…whatever may describe you at this point of life. (You can submit your stories and insights to amotherheart at gmail d’ com.)

The name of the feature was taken from the title of a talk, given by Sister Julie B. Beck in the April 2004 General Conference. We also took inspiration from a talk by Sheri Dew, entitled, “Are We Not All Mothers?”

Both of these women talked about how this role of “mother” is beyond just the bearing and rearing of children. It’s about nurturing, leading, teaching, and loving. It’s about covenant-keeping, serving, and opening our hearts. It’s about trusting in God and His individual plan for each of us — and being trustworthy in caring for His children, helping Him do His work in whatever capacity may be ours.

Sister Beck says,

Every girl and woman who makes and keeps sacred covenants can have a mother heart. There is no limit to what a woman with a mother heart can accomplish. Righteous women have changed the course of history and will continue to do so, and their influence will spread and grow exponentially throughout the eternities.

So, please share your experiences with us as you notice “mother heart” moments in your life. It is our hope that in this spirit of sharing, we can strengthen and inspire each other to open our hearts in love to those around us, and, by so doing, help the Lord in His work.

Submissions can be sent to amotherheart at gmail d’ com. Entries may be edited for length and content.

We at A Prayer of Faith are happy to announce that, after two wonderful rounds of guest-writing for us, Mary has agreed to join our permanent writing staff. We are blessed to have her insightful, sweet, and supportive voice in our community.

Here, in her own words, she tells us a little about herself:

I was born and raised in Oklahoma and have lived here all my life (52 years–53 before the end of 2006), except for the 6 months I lived in Snowflake, Arizona, where I found, learned about, and joined the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the age of 21. I was married at the time and my then-husband also joined the church, although we were never married in the temple. We had a son and daughter, Jim and Dixie (named after grandparents), who died in a car accident in 1979. A divorce followed soon after, and I have been on my own since. I still talk to my ex-husband occasionally, and we are sort of friends. My parents have passed away, but I have a brother and his family, plus assorted cousins. I’m the only member of the church in my family, though. Read the rest of this entry »

A letter from our editor…

Dear friends of Roxcy/A Prayer of Faith,

My sincerest gratitude goes out to each and every one of you who read or participate with us here on the site as we have gone through various permutations of writers, plans for new looks, new names, summer break, and the like. I have to say that there have been plenty of times lately that I have felt far too small for the task of maintaining this project. The Lord has gone on to provide ongoing inspiration, and even the priceless gift of phenomenal help. I have been blessed to have some of the most amazing sisters of my acquaintance come into my life by way of connection to this project.

Even amongst ourselves, though, we are still refining the nature of our vision for what this site is, can, and should be. Read the rest of this entry »

We are happy to announce that our sister ‘JKS’ (whom you have likely seen commenting here and on various other LDS sites) will be a guest writer here at Roxcy for the next couple of weeks. You will see her first article tomorrow in our “Every Word” feature. We’re all looking forward to hearing from her!

Welcome, JKS!

If you are interested in being a guest writer at Roxcy, you can find more information here.

Ready for her first foray into blogging, and making her debut here on APoF is Michelle. [Insert applause, whistles, and general sounds of rejoicing here.] You may have seen her strong, faithful comments (left under the monicker “mullingandmusing”) on a couple of sites already. We’re looking forward to seeing what Michelle will be mulling and musing over in her writings on here. Welcome, Michelle!

Welcome to the roster the sweet Tanya (a.k.a. ‘Tigersue’)! We’re thrilled that she’s going to take some time away from the jungle to share some of her enthusiasm and excitement here with us.

You may have noticed that the subtitle/tagline here on APoF has undergone a few changes ranging from “This is where a tagline would be if I were able to think of one” to the one about being “Ostentatiously Faithful Latter-day Saint Women.” Fact is, I can’t think of one because this site isn’t just about me. It isn’t even just about the seven ‘Roxcettes’ writing it. It’s the writers, the readers, the commentors–it’s all of us together. And so, I pose the question to our growing community-at-large: how would you sum us up? What would you put in the tagline?

In the last week, we’ve acquired two new writers for the site–Indi & RoAnn. I’m looking forward to seeing what they have to say!

(If anyone else is interested in blogging around a bit, drop me an email via naiah at synthian d’org.)

A Prayer of Faith, a new group blog with a new voice coming soon.