Homespun Prayers: Conversations with God

By Linda Smock

Homespun Prayers is a collection of prayers seeking God’s will in life as the author strives to walk in the footsteps of Jesus. The author talks conversationally with God, using idioms to parallel scriptures and seeking His thoughts about scriptures and their application to daily decisions. Some of the prayers will give you reason to smile or laugh while others may bring tears to your eyes. You will be encouraged to “pray continuously” about whatever is facing you at the moment.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Nov 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664282698

Linda Smock

Linda Gainey Smock grew up on a small farm in the panhandle of Florida. At the feet of her parents, other family members, teachers, and church leaders, she learned to apply the idioms used in daily conversation to her life and to apply Biblical teachings to her choices. Linda attended Florida State University and the University of South Florida and has taken classes through several other colleges. She continues to take on-line classes, with Bible Study Fellowship classes among her favorites. Other current classwork includes horticulture, gardening, and her special interest of trees, especially pines. Linda spent thirty-two years in public education and twelve years in Christian education, all in the area of St. Petersburg, Florida. She has taught Sunday school classes since she was fourteen. During the last fifty years, she has taught classes for all ages except infants. She still enjoys teaching and speaking when her health permits it. Linda loves the great outdoors, is a Master Gardener, and a want-to-be-birdwatcher. She enjoys butterflies and butterfly gardening. She also enjoys her extended family and her church family. Although married for twenty years, she does not have children and so has enjoyed spoiling her brother’s grandchildren.

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Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Ain’t Over till the Fat Lady Sings

All Over but the Shouting

An Ace up Your Sleeve

Ask No Questions

Asleep at the Wheel/Switch

Back on Her Feet

Back to the Wall

Backed into a Corner

Bad Blood between Them

Barking up the Wrong Tree

Be There with Bells On

Beggars Can’t Be Choosers

Best Things Come in Small Packages

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Bit Off More Than I Could Chew

Bless Your Heart

Blind Leading the Blind

Born with a Silver Spoon in Her Mouth

Bottom Line

Bucking the System

Burning a Hole in His Pocket

Bursting at the Seams

Busy as a Beaver

Butting Heads

Calls Them on the Carpet

Came Through with Flying Colors

Can’t Get a Word in Edgewise

Can’t Have Your Cake and Eat It Too

Can’t Put Toothpaste Back in the Tube

Changed His Tune

Changing of the Guard

Chewed Up and Spit Out

Come to Jesus Moment

Comparing Apples and Oranges

Connecting the Dots

Cream of the Crop

Cup of Cold Water

Diamond in the Rough

Dime a Dozen

Dip Toe in the Water

Don’t Paint Yourself into a Corner

Don’t Poke the Bear

Don’t Throw in the Towel

Drop in the Bucket

Drop It like a Hot Potato

Easier Said than Done

Elephant in the Room

Every Tom, Dick, and Harry

Fell off the Track

Few and Far Between

Finger on the Pulse

Fly on the Wall

Get to the Root of the Problem

Give an Arm and a Leg

Go Back to the Drawing Board

Going against the Grain

Got Her Panties All in a Wad

Heard It through the Grapevine

Hit the Bull’s Eye

Hit the Ground Running

Hung Out to Dry

Icing on the Cake

In One Ear and out the Other

In the Weeds

Itchy Trigger Finger

Johnny-on-the-Spot

Keep Your Eye on the Ball

Leap of Faith

Let It Roll off Your Back like Water off a Duck’s Back

Letter of the Law

Like Stirring Up a Hornet’s Nest

Making a Mountain out of a Molehill

Not a Magic Pill

Not a Spring Chicken

Off the Charts

On the Same Page

Put On Your Thinking Cap

Returned Fire with Fire

Right on the Nose

Right the Ship

Ruffled Feathers

Save His Hide

Scratches an Itch

Seeing Things in a Different Light

Sight for Sore Eyes

Snake in the Grass

Snug as a Bug in a Rug

So Hungry My Stomach Could Eat My Backbone

Spread like Wildfire

Steel Your Spine

Stood Out like a Sore Thumb

Stop and Smell the Roses

Stop the World

Teach an Old Dog New Tricks

Vengeance Is Mine

Watered Down

When Life Throws You a Lemon

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

You Reap What You Sow

Your Neck of the Woods

Dedicatory Prayer

Lord God, since this is a book of prayers, please use it as

my offer of a living sacrifice to You. Please use Your Holy

Spirit to bless the readers as they participate in a few of

the conversations You and I have had over the last year.

Acknowledgements

Where do I start with appreciation? There are so many people to whom I need to say a huge Thank you but I think the greatest appreciation and thanks goes to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who is the source of our grace and who opened up the throne room of heaven in a way that allows each of us to go before the Father with our most private thoughts and feelings, our requests, and our questions. God knows what we are thinking so why not state it? It helps us when we do. I thank Jesus and I thank God for that open throne room and their listening ears and hearts full of love for us. What’s more – they hung the moon, giving us idiom to use as we talk!

Thanks also to four ladies who have graciously given of their time to not only the content of this book, but three previous books. Each one reviews a portion of my writings with each piece reviewed by at least two of them. These sisters-in-Christ are Barb Admire, Dolores Hayman, Sandy Peeples, and Kym Samek. They are faithful friends through thick and thin.

Teachers and ministers have played a big role in teaching me to think, study, and pray about the meaning of scriptures. These include but are not limited to Gayle Crowe, Joel Harper, Jim Shannon, Joe Stephens, and George Welty. Although I’ve never met them, people like Tony Evans, Kyle Idleman, Max Lucado, Beth Moore, Andy Stanley, Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, and Sarah Young have taught me much through their books, videos, radio and podcast lessons. There are many more I could list, but those are the ones I’ve listened to the most and read many of their books and resources. They’ve taught me to get my rear in gear and to transfer the knowledge I’ve gained from my head to my heart and actions.

Whether you start this book with your cup half empty or half full, may you fill your cup to overflowing as you pray these prayers with me.

Introduction

I’ve read that in Paul’s letters to the churches, sixty-eight of the verses are prayers. I wonder how much of his day was spent in prayer? I don’t know, but I do know that most of those sixty-eight verses focus on praying for others and not for himself, although he does ask the readers to pray for him.

I wish I were half as good at praying as people think I am. One thing I’ve come to realize is that the prayers I write are much more from my heart than routine prayers that I say at mealtime, when I get up, or when I prepare to sleep. I also find that arrow prayers are common – brief sentences or even just the words, Help, Lord - shot up to God are effective and help in that quest to pray continually as Paul admonishes us to do (I Thessalonians 5:16-18).

So why have I written these one hundred prayers? First, for me. My prayer life is more effective when I write my prayers. Second, for God who should have been first, but if I’m honest, He’s not always. Third, for you, the reader. I hope they will help you (and me) to develop better prayer habits, to use time with God for conversations, just as we do in any healthy relationship that we have, including family, fellow Christians, neighbors, co-workers, and best friends. In our relationships with these people, our conversations vary. They may be brief chats, long and deep questioning, heated discussions, casual observations, or many other forms. Can conversing with God be the same? I think so, and I hope these chats, questions, discussions, and observations will help all of us develop intimacy with our Lord and Savior.

Idioms and colloquial sayings are quite common in our society and God has given me one for each of these prayers. Often they just come to mind, but sometimes I research in an effort to find the right one. I keep a list of them and occasionally use the same ones I’ve used in previous books. It’s fun to research their background and origin as I prepare to use them.

Most of my prayers are private, never shared with anyone except God. In fact, that’s true of most folks – their thoughts and prayers are private. This book is a glimpse into the private conversations I have had with God, usually about a scripture He’s provided us, but sometimes over an issue in the news, or some interest of mine that is peaked by something that has occurred such as a chat with a friend.

One of the great things about having conversations with God is that He is a good listener. I suspect He would like me to also be a good listener. In some of these prayers, I include what I think God is saying to me while in others, I’m left hanging without a clear answer, and want to tell God His answers are about as clear as mud. I would prefer that God had given me an answer that I could grasp, but His timing is better than mine, and so I await the answer He will provide in His perfect timing.

It is my hope and prayer that God will use these conversations to help both you and me to grow in our relationship with Him, and to come to know Him, to believe Him, not just believe in Him. If we are not already in love with Him, may we fall head over heels in love with Him.

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Ain’t Over till the Fat Lady Sings

Zacharias and Elizabeth were godly folk, careful to obey all of God’s laws in spirit as well as in letter. But they had no children, for Elizabeth was barren; and now they were both very old.

—Luke 1:6–7 (TLB)

L ord, this phrase about opera has been used since 1978, but it could have been used back when Zacharias and Elizabeth were waiting for a baby. I don’t know how old they were, but possibly over fifty, even in their seventies, but who knows? Doesn’t matter, does it, Lord? The opera was not over; the fat lady had not sung; You still had plans. And You timed it well, even though back when they were young, they were probably upset that they didn’t have a child, possibly even wanted a big bunch of children like their friends and neighbors had. They waited and waited, waited and waited, and may have given up hope.

Suddenly, You show up—and so does a baby. A little boy, and You promise that the little boy will be