Circling The Prey
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A few days ago, maybe a week or more, I clicked a link and found myself at the Circle of Prayer Facebook page where Circle of Prayer asks, "What prayers has God answered for you this week?" Always curious, I read the long list of comments.
Quite a few people said that they and their family had woken up in the morning, alive and well. Fingers crossed they never forget to say the prayer they believe was the cause of that outcome, although, barring a Groundhog Day type of miracle, it seems likely there will come a day when it's not answered. Of the rest, apart from some rather odd ones, and others of a very mundane nature, there were some which did touch my 'heart strings' because they reflected the troubles which many people face in their day to day lives.
There was one though, which, bad as it may make me, caused me to GOL (giggle out loud):
"God kept me safe from harm and unwanted traffic fines and accidents, schemes and attacks of the enemy." [My emphasis]
I pictured a slightly manic motorist careening around committing traffic violations galore, while making the sign of the cross and asking God to protect him/her from the wrath of the traffic cops.
Something which became apparent as I read through the something over one hundred comments, which were visible on that day, was that the vast majority seemed to be from females. Not much can be inferred from such a small sample, but I counted anyway. Of the 143 comments, 116 were from females, 25 from males, and two from people whose gender was not easily discovered. That's about 81% from females.
According to Richard Peppiatt in a recent article for The Independent, roughly 75% of Britons who convert to Islam are female. That, coupled with my own observation of the Circle of Prayer contributors, who hail from the world over, makes me wonder why there seems to be a gender imbalance when it comes to things religious. I don't have any answers, and wild speculation isn't my thing, but it does raise the intriguing question of why it is so (assuming that casting the net much wider would return the same result).
Going back to the Circle of Prayer comments, I'll allow myself to speculate that, regardless of gender, nobody's been praying for world peace lately, or if they have, for reasons that entirely escape me, keeping us safe from unwanted traffic fines takes precedence.
~:~
Footnote: While looking for a suitable image for this post, after I finished writing it, I came across Christian Graphics. Now either their spelling abilities could do with a prayer or two, or someone with an uncanny insight has been at work:
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Ta very much - that's how I got the title of this post.
