2016 Opening Prayer

Father God we thank you for the privelege to live in an area called the Missouri Ozarks, where Bibles are still opened and read, people know who you are and believe, and we are protected by you because you love us and we love you back. While the world Lord seems to be in a rage Lord we still have you and a sense of peace no matter who we are or where we worship you from whether it be at home, abroad, at a ballgame, or on a high school sports message board. Lord at this time I want to thank you for the many prayers not just from our townspeople but from the area that were for our quarterback at Willow Springs and his appendix surgery. We rival each other in sports but when it comes to life we take care of each other. We love our neighbors as ourselves as you command, and yes we can do a better job of that. We also thank you lord for high school sports so our youth can learn competition, teamwork, hard work, unity, and many other positive things to use in life. The prayer of us all is for everyone to be injury free, and to give all they can with the best of their abilities no matter the outcome. Lord let our coaches and teachers have the ability to instruct our youths as they go through school, sports, and life. Let our youths have the ability to learn and respect those who teach them. And Lord, while we pray for safe travels every single trip we also pray that they travel through life with your guidance. If there are none who know you we pray they will get to. We talk about sports and other things more than we do you, and shame on us, but our love for you is stronger than anything else we admire on this earth. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass us. And I hope it
is ok to say, as we root for our teams this year, GO TEAM HEAVEN! Thank you for the great things you give us, most importantly the gift of your son and the sacrifice he made. Without Jesus, we are nothing. Love you Lord God always, in Jesus' great name we all pray - AMEN!