Meditation Practice w/o dangling participles

9/24/12 Monday blogs are normally somewhat easy to write because I usually start the week with selected scripture. Scripture for meditation. Then, I just share it. Today---not so easy. I felt like Miss Rosa Nourse, 7^th grade teacher at Virginia Street School in Hopkinsville, KY, was looking over my shoulder. She was a stickler for correct grammar. The improper usage of the predicate nominative pronoun I and dangling participles were two usage problems that she attempted to pound into our heads. The nominative gaffe caused me to shudder recently when during a prayer, the participant requested prayer for “my wife and I”----Miss Rosa would NOT have been pleased. I, on the other hand, felt bad that I even noticed it because the request was so heartfelt.

As for the participles (all those words ending in  “ing”)….. this week’s meditation includes several participial phrases. I’m fearful that I won’t set them off with commas or that any paraphrasing and explaining I do, might not relate back to the subject. Hm-m-m, even “relate back” sounds like a redundancy. But oh-h-h the fear of a dangling modifier that would dishonor Miss Rosa’s teaching.

But God….is the One who inspired all scripture so unless the chosen translation messes up, then it will be correct in the way it speaks to one’s heart. In meditation, that’s what counts. Chew on all 5 of the participial phrases listed in this prayer and see if you don’t agree. Pray it for yourself and others.

Because of this, since the day we heard about you, we haven’t stopped praying for you and asking for you to be filled with the knowledge of God’s will, with all wisdom and spiritual understanding. We’re praying this so that you can live lives that are worthy of the Lord and pleasing to him in every way: by producing fruit in every good work and growing in the knowledge of God; by being strengthened through his glorious might so that you endure everything and have patience; and by giving thanks with joy to the Father. He made it so you could take part in the inheritance, in light granted to God’s holy people. (Colossians 1:9-12)

Praying it for my family, I experienced great joy----with or without the dangling participles. I was too caught up in my prayer time to even notice.