Rachel Anne Ridge's Blog

I posted this prayer four years ago, Jan. 20, 2017 and I thought I'd share it once again. It's a beautiful prayer from 1947, when Dr. Peter Marshall, the Chaplain of the U.S. Senate prayed it. The words still resonate today, and my hope is that we can unite our hearts in this timeless request for peace, wisdom, and good governance.

Blessings, Rachel

We pray, Lord Jesus, for our President.

We are deeply concerned that he may know the will of God,

and that he may have the spiritual courag...

Hey there, friends,

I've been blogging here since 2006 - the "olden days" of sharing on the internet! I'm working on a new and different blog space that reflects where I am today, but until that's ready for you, I thought I'd dust off some of my best posts from the past. I've loved re-reading these and hope you will too!

Enjoy:

Older Kids and Empty Nest

Dear Lonely Mom of Older Kids - my most loved and shared post of all time

Mama, There is Hope

Motherhood, From the Way Back Seat

Dear Mom Who...

The Christmas season sneaked up on me once again.

Y'all, I had been lulled into a false sense of security because I got our Christmas tree up BEFORE THANKSGIVING, something that has never, ever happened in our house. (I mean, it's been a policy of mine not to mix holidays, especially because I feel sorry for Thanksgiving always getting lost in the shuffle and all. But with the late Thanksgiving I gave in, JUST THIS ONCE!) I put the tree up--and not just one, but TWO trees!

I hate to admit it,...

Dear Mom of a High School Senior,

Hey, friend. How ya doin'?

I see you there, and I've been thinking about you. You've been holding your breath all year long, blinking back tears, bursting with pride, and simultaneously fighting a feeling of disbelief that your child is graduating this year.

What?! How is this possible?

My baby!

Where did the time go?

I know just how you feel.

During each of my children's senior years I swung wildly between excitement and dread, wonder and anxiety, joy and...

As Palm Sunday approaches, I find myself pondering: what kind of king would risk his Triumphal Entry by riding a borrowed, inexperienced donkey? If you know anything about donkeys, this was a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

In my newest book, Walking with Henry, I describe a comical scene that illustrates what it's like to walk with donkeys: you definitely want to leave yourself plenty of time to get where you're going.

Here is an excerpt from Chapter Eleven, "The Way of Peace:"

* * * * *...

Patient Trust

Above all, trust in the slow work of God.
We are quite naturally impatient in everything
to reach the end without delay.
We should like to skip the intermediate stages.
We are impatient of being on the way to something
unknown, something new.
And yet it is the law of all progress
that it is made by passing through
some stages of instability—
and that it may take a very long time.

And so I think it is with you;
your ideas mature gradually—let them grow,
let them shape themselves, without...

My mom has always told me, "you never stop praying for your kids." Now that I've made it through the teen years and am well into the adult phase of parenting, I know this to be true. Our mama-hearts still hurt over them sometimes, and we wish we could just "fix" things and make them all right...just like we could when they were little. Things are so much more complicated now, aren't they?

The very best thing we can do for our kids is pray for them.

A few years ago I put together a couple o...

Never underestimate how far plodding can take you.

Plodding gets a bad rap.

Plodding doesn't get its due.

Glory seems to go to sprinting, to making a splash, to vaulting to victory.

There are those who seem to rush toward achievement, while others simply plod on...step by step...day by day...moment by moment toward their goal.

Plodders can feel like they've missed out. They feel frustrated by lack of apparent success. They can be overlooked by others who seem to grab the spotlight.

But...

But first, an embarrassing story.

When Toy Story 3 came out in 2010, we were super excited to see it. We had loved Toy Story 1 and 2 – they'd been family favorites and the source of perfect quotes ("That's not flying, it's FALLING....with style!") for years.

But what made Toy Story 3 so anticipated was the fact that it had 3D animation.

Every review we read regaled us with how this incredible new technology made the colors more vivid, the action so real, and the animation unbelievab...

I believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, God's only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, died, and was buried;
he descended to the dead.
On the third day he rose again;
he ascended into heaven,
he is seated at the right hand of the Father,
and he will come to judge the living and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy catholic Church,
the communion of sai...