Father, life comes at us like a harlot,
with its many comforts and flatteries.
Most often it is that soft and tender soul
who knows exactly how we feel,
and expresses how they care when no one else does,
or at least not like we need.
It is that wicked smile that says,
You don’t need to let things get you down.
You are better than that, deserve more than that.
You deserve good things.
You deserve to feel happy. You deserve to be happy.
Let me make you happy.” says the harlot of life.
“Let me shelter you from that which threatens to steal your happiness.
Let me be strong for you while being so tender to you.”
All so this harlot can feel happy.
But she is happiest when the giving of pleasure is filled
and it is her turn to receive pleasure.

Her pleasure is to be the one who inflicts the pain, the sadness, the destruction.
Her goal all along was to prove that she could win the soul.
Protect us, Lord, from the harlot of life.
Our souls are weak from hunger and oppression.
Keep us for you. Save us for our First Love.
The love that truly wants what’s best for us,
even if it means protecting us from what we want,
or taking us through the hardship that will prepare us from what is really to come yet.
Help us to cling to you when we feel scared.
Help us to spend time with you when we are lonely.
Help us to seek you when we are lost.
Help us to read your word when we need wisdom or guidance.
Help us to pray to you when we need answers.
Help us to listen when we need to hear.
Help us to hear when we need to listen.
Help us to remember that your heart longs for ours.
Help us to remember that we love you because you first loved us.
And when we need proof, help us to remember the cross.
May your tenderness and strength,
your sacrifice and shelter protect us from the harlot of life.
May your word and Spirit protect us from every form of harlot.
May you remain our First Love.

10-15-16 written by Gail Brookshire
Inspiration: Proverbs 7