Just before a party I was giving, I eased into one of the chairs at the dinner table for a moment. The silver gleamed, the crystal sparkled, fresh flowers made a colorful centerpiece. I looked at the place card in front of me. "Margaret," it said.<\/p>\n
From out of my past came a memory of a story. I once heard about a minister's wife who, during the week, would enter the empty church and move from pew to pew, praying for the person who usually sat in that spot. What if I sat in each chair around the table and prayed for each name?<\/em> I wondered.<\/p>\n I went around the table praying for each guest. I felt wonderful and completely at peace until I came to the last place card. I stared at the name. This person had hurt me. I thought I'd forgiven her but now, as I mentally knelt before the Lord, I realized I was still bitter. I didn't want to ask God to bless her.<\/p>\n It was difficult at first, but finally I imagined myself kneeling beside her as Jesus put a hand on each of our heads. The hard knot of bitterness inside me began to dissolve.<\/p>\n There was a lot more than good food at the table that night. Among other things there was a carefree, happy hostess!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Just before a party I was giving, I eased into one of the chairs at the dinner table for a moment. The silver gleamed, the crystal sparkled, fresh flowers made a colorful centerpiece. I looked at the place card in front of me. "Margaret," it said. From out of my past came a memory of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":30984,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[400],"tags":[51],"ppma_author":[650],"class_list":["post-24691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prayers-for-loved-ones","tag-inspirational-stories"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n