Plentiful Opportunities for Prayer

Whew - I'm tired after another full day!

Working in long-term care certainly has gotten more complicated lately.  Serving a very vulnerable population in the midst of a pandemic involves a lot of precautions unheard of before now. 

I just took over at the front desk for the evening shift, and had the honor of checking my first temperature and asking my first passerby to use hand-sanitizer.   We are being quite strict about monitoring people for possible symptoms of COVID-19, even though there haven't been any documented cases yet in our locale. 

Life certainly has changed in the past week!  Things are quite stressful. 

We are certainly living in a time which requires a lot of prayer.  Thankfully, I was reminded of a handy little opportunity to incorporate praying for this drastic situation into my daily life. 

We are so often reminded to wash our hands (or use alcohol based hand sanitizer).  The CDC recommends doing this for at least twenty seconds.  Some recommend singing 'Happy Birthday" to yourself twice.  A better option, it seems to me, is to say a couple of prayers while thoroughly washing the various nooks and crannies of the hands with warm soap water. 

I timed it once, and it takes about 20 seconds to pray a 'Hail Mary' and 'Glory Be.'  Consequently, I've taken to doing this as my hand-washing timing system. 

Throughout the day, especially during these times, I certainly have plentiful opportunities for prayer, and plenty need of it. 

Please join me; it's much more effective than singing 'Happy Birthday."

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