Photo Credit: CelebrityCouples.net
I happened to catch part of an episode of The Talk the other day, before the Super Bowl. This is the first time I’d seen it since the Great Firing took place, so Holly Robinson Peete and Leah Remini weren’t there. This one featured Kelly Osborne, Aisha Tyler and Sheryl Underwood. I’m guessing that Kelly was in for her mom.
Anyway, the topic was Giselle Bundchen’s prayer for Tom Brady and the Patriots (ptooee). In a private email to friends and family, she said,
“My sweet friends and family,” the e-mail began. “This Sunday will be a really important day in my husband’s life. He and his team worked so hard to get to this point and now they need us more than ever to send them positive energy so they can fulfill their dream of winning this super bowl . . .
“So I kindly ask all of you to join me on this positive chain and pray for him, so he can feel confident, healthy and strong. Envision him happy and fulfilled experiencing with his team a victory this Sunday.
“Thank you for your love and support. Love, G :)”
Well, this topic was brought up by Aisha Tyler, and when she discussed it, she was extremely disrespectful, flipping her hair around, and using a “Valley Girl” accent to pretend she was Giselle. Part of her quote (paraphrased): “If you are sick, if you have cancer, if you have a baby who is sick, I’m going to pray for you. But if you’re a millionaire supermodel, your husband is in the Super Bowl, you can zip it.” And then she rolled her eyes.
Kelly Osborne pointed out that her mom, Sharon, would do the same thing… “If I was up for an award… she’d do the same thing.” Her problem was with the rat fink friend who released this prayer request to the public. “What kind of a friend does that?”
The other ladies displayed varying degrees of support for Bundchen; Sarah Gilbert pointed out that she’s getting hammered for this because she’s a celebrity – anyone else in the same situation would get a pass, even if it is “one degree off” of acceptable behavior. It’s not shown in the clip, but Sheryl Underwood made an excellent point that it is not up to us to judge Bundchen’s “prayer style” – perhaps she IS praying for the “end of death and suffering”, as Aisha Tyler wants her to do. So does that mean that suffering and illness is the only thing anyone is allowed to pray for? Tyler’s point was that Bundchen already has it all – she’s a supermodel, a millionaire, her super-athlete husband has already won multiple Super Bowls with his team – she shouldn’t be praying for something this trivial.
Where do you stand on this?
Us Girls..Our Views 
If there is a right and wrong way to pray, I’m sure I’ve been on the wrong side of it more often than not in my adult life. Because for years, the only time I really thought to pray was when I needed God to get my arse out of some really bad sh!t. And He did. So that tells me that it’s OK to pray a selfish prayer.
I teach my kids to pray like this: thank God for the good stuff, ask for help in being better people, and then ask for what you “want” – health for our families, a good day at school tomorrow, etc.
As far as I know, the Bible doesn’t say you are only allowed to ask God for help if your income is under a certain percentile. Nope. David was pretty darn rich and powerful, and look at all the praying he did. As far as I know, God was OK with that.
I do consider it disrespectful and extremely arrogant for any human to declare that someone’s prayer isn’t good enough for God. Does she have some unique connection with the Big Guy in this regard? Does she think He appointed her His personal prayer screener? Eyeroll, eyeroll, eyeroll.
Some people are just mean. I wish we wouldn’t pay people to be mean on TV. It sends a terrible message.
Oh, and by the way, I assume that twit isn’t exactly poor. What does she pray for? I’ll bet she’s prayed for some things lesser than world peace, if she prays at all.
Or that she prayes at all.
Oh please!!! Why do I care what someone else is praying for?! It’s no different than anyone else who has a job to pray for the best result possible. I take more offense to the ‘friend’ who leaked the email.
First of all, I haven’t see this show since the Great Firing.” I do miss it. It gave me a lot of good ideas to write about but I can’t stand what they did.
Second of all, I don’t think it’s up to anybody what anybody else prays for. She has a right to pray for what she wants just like the rest of us do. I personally don’t pray “for things” but that’s just me. I agree with Kelly also. What kind of “friend” or “family” would turn this over to the press. It almost makes me wonder if it’s even true. I’m not a fan of this woman. I never have been. I think she’s a snot and I hated when she said if mothers don’t breastfeed they should go to jail. BUT….she has a right to pray for what she wants.
I also hate the statement “Bundchen already has it all – she’s a supermodel, a millionaire, her super-athlete husband.” I also hate that she thinks Brady winning the Superbowl is trivial. It’s his job and he’s good at it but he’s worked hard for it. She works very hard too. I don’t think doing what she does is an easy walk in the park. Would it be different if her husband was a lawyer and she was asking for a good trial? Or a doctor before a big surgery? What about a pilot about to fly a plane? The talk that they “have it made” makes me mad. They’ve worked hard for it.
I’m not a fan, but I think people really should MOYB more. You can’t tell someone what to pray for or make people feel trivial.
Where to begin. I suppose I will follow the order in which the information is presented in this Blog post.
First of all it seems “G” is double-minded.
“My sweet friends and family,” the e-mail began. “This Sunday will be a really important day in my husband’s life. He and his team worked so hard to get to this point and now they need us more than ever to SEND THEM POSITIVE ENERGY so they can fulfill their dream of winning this super bowl . . .
“So I kindly ask all of you to join me on this positive chain AND pray for him, so he can feel confident, healthy and strong. Envision him happy and fulfilled experiencing with his team a victory this Sunday.
What sort of new-age thing is going on here? She seems to want to cover all her proverbial bases. Prayer isn’t enough she needs her friends and famil to send “positiv energy”?! It’s much like a person who wants to go for a boat ride but they can’t fully committ to it so they leave one foot on the dock while they place their other foot into the boat. You can’t have it both ways. Either you believe in the power of prayer or you don’t. And the other thing is, is she praying to A god or THE God?
“Well, this topic was brought up by Aisha Tyler, and when she discussed it, she was extremely disrespectful, flipping her hair around, and using a “Valley Girl” accent to pretend she was Giselle.” While this may make for interesting television (to some) this type of behavior shows not only personal immaturity but more importantly a complete lack of spiritual maturity. The Book of Jamesis pretty clear about back biting and gossiping.
“It’s not shown in the clip, but Sheryl Underwood made an excellent point that it is not up to us to judge Bundchen’s “prayer style”
This judging thing is widely misunderstood. Likely by those who haven’t studied it much. I think it’s in 2 Corenthians where we (the Church) are basically ordered to judge BEHAVIOR of those in the Church. The story about the priest’s two sons who would stand at the doors of the temple to get their women and no one would say anything to them. BEHAVIOR shoud be called in the Church. Judging souls is something all together. Also those in the Church are not to judge the behavior of those outside the Church.
“Tyler’s point was that Bundchen already has it all – she’s a supermodel, a millionaire, her super-athlete husband has already won multiple Super Bowls with his team – she shouldn’t be praying for something this trivial.”
It is also Written in the Bible, “To whom much is given, much is required.” I don’t know enough about these people to say if they are doing their “much” that is required or not. But it seems that for those who do not have not as much as others do… it may be easy to slip into jelousy, envy or even covetousness.
My current understanding of God is that He doesn’t see anything that is important to us as trivial. Look at our own children. How about that story in the Bible where it is talking about God’s love for us and it says something like, “What parent would give their child a stone when they ask for a slice of bread? How much more then is God able to provide for us?” He Says He will give us the desires of our heart. The thing is though we can not (necessarily) desire a big house, fancy car, big fat bank acount, etc if our motives are purely self serving. What will we do with all that stuff? Will we just enjoy the things we desire or will we use those things as tools to advance the things that is God’s heart’s desire. I think that is key. Do we love God more than we love what we want? If the answer is yes then perhaps our desires will be more lined up with His desires.
Additionally, we can’t pray for something against God’s will or Word. It is our obligation to have the knowledge of what His will is and what is Written about the various situations we CAUSE ourselves to be found in. For me, the biggest mystery in this arena is sickness and disease. When I read my Bible I can see instances where Jesus healed “all”, He healed “some”, or he Healed “none”! How is it that some people are healed of… let’s say cancer? I mean miraculously healed. While others die? Or how is it that some soldiers are killed, some are horibally wounded, while others never get a scratch? At times like these I have to remind that I can not see the entire picture. That I can not comprehend the entire Divine Plan and/or how that will play out. But it also helps me to remember one song’s lyric, “Everybody wants to get to heaven but nobody wants to die.”
God always answers prayer. Sometimes the answer is yes. Sometimes the answer is no. Sometimes the answer is wait a while. He always answers.
But these are all just my current understandings. They are (of course) likely to change as my understanding grows.
Wow. There’s a ton here. Of course, I expected this one to touch a nerve with you!
I don’t think we should judge Bundchen too harshly on two points: First, the “positive energy” request. We don’t know who her friends are. Perhaps she, like me, has friends who are Wiccan or Buddhist, as well as Christian or other religions. In that case, wouldn’t asking for prayers AND “positive energy” be appropriate?
Second, “to those who are given much, much is expected,” is true. But we never hear (of course) about any charitable endeavors that she might be involved in. How do we know that she isn’t involved heavily in helping sick or starving children? She is one of those women that the Press loves to hate, so of course, we’re not going to hear peep about the good that she does, because that would destroy their carefully constructed image of her as a shallow gold-digging husband-thief.
If we are supposed to judge those who are in the church… what church is she in? Does that mean that Catholics should judge Catholics? Or that Christians, in general, should judge other Christians? OR, because everybody in the entire world is a “child of God” whether or not another person may believe in the same god, do we have free license to judge them? I think it’s better, then, (and it’s my personal opinion, of course) that we “judge not, lest we be judged” (Matt 7:1-5…English translation: Do not judge others, or you will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you…take the plank out of your own eye and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.)
In other words, nobody is perfect. It’s not our job to be judging someone else, when we, ourselves, have plenty of faults that need fixing. (so, honestly, I shouldn’t even have written this piece about Aisha being all catty and nasty, because aren’t I doing exactly the same thing to her?)
I DO agree with one thing, though (and continuing to judge here 🙂 )… Giselle shouldn’t have prayed for the Patriots to win. For a good game, yes. For the safety of the players, refs, and fans, yes. For fair play on both sides, ok. But this falls into the category of Tebow thanking God for a touchdown (which I believe he isn’t, he’s said that he’s thanking God for the talent to do what he does), asking God to favor one group of people over another in something as trivial as a game is not really what prayer is for.
“Perhaps she, like me, has friends who are Wiccan or Buddhist, as well as Christian or other religions. In that case, wouldn’t asking for prayers AND “positive energy” be appropriate?” NO it would not. ALL dieties are dead and stuck in the ground somewhere. There is no power in a dead diety. There is but One God Whom has overcome the power of death.
“How do we know that she isn’t involved heavily in helping sick or starving children?” I said, “I don’t know enough about these people to say if they are doing their “much” that is required or not.” So,,,
“If we are supposed to judge those who are in the church”
These verses specifically address the local church. 1 Corinthians 5:9 I wrote to you in my letter (N)not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 (O)not at all meaning (P)the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, (Q)since then you would need to go out of the world. 11 But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone (R)who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12 For what have I to do with judging (S)outsiders? (T)Is it not those inside the church[b] whom you are to judge? 13 God judges[c] those outside. (U)“Purge the evil person from among you.” “Idolater” would include any other god/diety than the One True God (ie sending positive thoughts etc.).
Matthew 7:1-5 is more about sowing and reaping. No one will ever be perfect. I think these verses are more about nit-picking someone. Clearly we are to judge unholy, sinful behavior. Those type sins (I think) are the ones that an individual KNOWS is a sin but they want to do it so they do. It’s not about those doing their best day in and day out to follow the Savior but still make mistakes.
“asking God to favor one group of people over another in something as trivial as a game is not really what prayer is for.” Really?
Exodus 11:3(A)And the LORD gave the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians. Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight of Pharaoh’s servants and in the sight of the people.
Exodus 12:36 (A)And the LORD had given the people favor in the sight of the Egyptians, so that (B)they let them have what they asked. Thus they plundered the Egyptians.
God can clearly favour one group over another.
So you’re equating the Superbowl with the Egyptians exodus into freedom from slavery?
Make it sound as redicuous as you want.
What I am saying is that people’s heart’s desire are people’s hearts desire. There is no asterisk in my Bible and you look at the bottom of the page for the exceptions (Super Bowls not included).
There are many examples in the Bible of God showing favoritism. Look them up when you have the time.
After a few words, this was a blur!
While I understand your feelings, I don’t agree with much of what you said. It’s okay but I just don’t. I’ve said many many times when I felt I needed support, even on FB, “please send prayers, good thoughts or whatever you do because x-y-z.” Not everyone I know is a christian. Just because I am, that doesn’t mean everyone is.
I also totally disagree about the judging. People who judge want to judge and say “well, it’s in the Bible.” The verse Laura put in was the one that first came to my mind when I was reading your reply. It’s not right to judge others no matter what. Jesus was about as nonjudgmental as they come. I think anyone feels they can do anything after reading something and taking it out of context. “Christians” are some of the worst for taking things in the Bible out of context to fit what they want.
Even though I’m not a fan of hers, it’s personal, but her and Tom Brady are very involved in a lot of charities. She’s one of the biggest humanitarians and she donates a lot of money. I know she’s involved in St. Judes and breast cancer. She’s also donated a lot of her money from the sales of her shoe/sandal line to the rain-forests. She also donates big money for disasters like the hurricanes. Google her.
I don’t like defending her but her taking heat for this, FOR THIS, ticks me off because she can pray for what she wants. She should check her email list though. There’s a rat in there.
Joy, you only THINK you totally disagree about judgeing people.
When the kids were growing up were there any other kids they were not allowed to hang out because of their shenanigans? When you worked at the school; did you know of kids that you did not want your kids hanging out? Isn’t that judgeing? As adults aren’t there others you just would rather not be around because of the way they act? That’s judgeing.
We all judge behavior every day. All of us.
We all are judgmental, but that does not mean that God wants us to be judgmental.
Paul’s ideas about judging within one’s congregation were largely based on maintaining a spotless image before scoffers as well as preventing weak “believers” from going astray. Many people don’t agree that everything Paul said is applicable to all humans throughout all of time. And since we’re not in the same congregation as Bundchen, and I assume Mis Twit isn’t either, that stuff does not apply, in my opinion.
I prefer Jesus’ own words: let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Do I always live by it? No.
Not letting our kids hang out with kids who pull “shenanigans” isn’t being judgmental IMO. If they’re troublemakers, it’s known fact and it’s our job to steer our kids in the right direction. Now if you were to “hear a rumor” about someone and didn’t let your kids play with them, I think that would be being judgmental.
And for the record… I stand by my statement that she needs to go Rat Hunting, and ferret out the dirty dog that squealed like a pig to the press.
I don’t agree that the winning of that game is trivial from the perspective of the QB and his wife. It would be like Steve praying for you to get a gold medal if you were a front-runner in the Olympic figure skating championship. Sure, it’s materialistic, but far from trivial – to you. And from God’s perspective, what is trivial? With 6 billion people in the world and many children suffering, is it too trivial to pray fo the life of one baby in the NICU? Didn’t God say he’s numbered the hairs on our heads?
I do agree that praying for one side to win equals praying for the other side to lose. Which I personally don’t feel comfortable doing. But I guarantee that there were a lot of people out there yesterday praying for one side to win. I wouldn’t get on TV and rant about it, personally.
Here’s a prayer dilemma that I was in 5 years ago. My kids were in Guatemala and the process took 8.5 months from the time I accepted their referrals and the time I brought them home. The birth moms had four separate opportunities where they had to explicitly affirm that they still wanted to relinquish parenthood, or change their mind and end the proceedings. In my heart, I felt that God wanted me to be these kids’ moms, but I wasn’t really “sure,” and it was very hard to pray about it. How do you pray that a woman be cut off from her child forever? So I prayed that God would do whatever was best (which he does anyway, prayer notwithstanding), and still felt guilty for desiring something that would mean such a loss to another woman.
I don’t pretend to understand prayer entirely, but I sure don’t want to hear the views of some snotty twit on TV telling me that because she’s jealous of what I have, my prayers aren’t up to standard.
When i said that, I was looking at the “both sides of the issue” position, as well as from the point of a fan. This country alone has what, 300 billion people in it? So, conceivably, He was getting 150b requests for each team to win.
Plus, you figure, He’s GOT to be a football fan (otherwise, how is FB more popular than hockey?) so you know he’s watching the game. So it seems kind of futile for her to pray for her team to win… there are a bunch of other prayers that are going to drown her out. I guess my point was…let Him decide on his own who is going to win, but ask for the safety of all involved. Kind of like the Tebow thing: thanks for the talent, and I’ll use it to procure the win.
But you’re right… to HER, the win is not trivial at all. It’s a big deal to her husband, for very personal reasons, so it’s very important to her, as well. So I guess I agree with you.
I would agree that God is probably a football fan.
Yeah, I couldn’t care less what people pray about. People pray for everything under the sun! I don’t quite understand it, but to each their own.
I’m more upset about what she said about Brady’s teammates, after the game. I know this isn’t what this post is about but, that made me sick and I think less of her now.
Uh-oh. What????
Check this out.
Oh no. Some things should never be said out loud. It’s very poor sportsmanship.
BTW, they’re talking about this on The View right now.
Oh snap! Not a good idea on her part!
Yeah, I’m actually watching that. I never do, but for some reason turned it on this morning.
Like Elizabeth said, she broke the cardinal rule.
This is a huge part of why people don’t like her. She’s beautiful but is not a full six pack.
Humans will be human….
I know that “G” shouldn’t have snapped at the press and play the “blame game” but have you heard what those hecklers were saying to her? Now just imagine it was your husband or your son and they just lost that “important” game and she’s trying to get on the elevator and she’s got a gang of drunks calling her husband a “pussy” and “Eli owns Tom in the house Peyton built” and such comments. I guess they were really horrible. Yesterday it wasn’t as clear what was going on but I’m not sure I could have held my tongue either. She was sad and just wanted to go home. What she said wasn’t right but what those guys were doing to her wasn’t right either.
I’m glad you put this up here… I felt the same way, but kept getting distracted, and today I was insanely busy (still am, but I’m waiting for my insanely slow printer to finish a bunch of Scout Stuff…), so I just didn’t have time to come by and put up that perspective.
I don’t really blame her for getting angry. Those hecklers were nasty. I really think that people are trashing her because she’s Giselle, because any other wife would be praised for defending her husband like that.
I just wish women would stop looking for an excuse to trash successful women. We are our own worst enemies. Every one of us has put our foot in our mouth at some time or other. But in a lot of ways, we’re all in the same boat. If women hold each other to impossible standards, then those are the standards we’ll all be held to. You want to be taken seriously, stop cutting down every thing a successful woman says.
My peeve of the week is the Komen / Planned Parenthood issue. I don’t even know the whys and wherefores. I just know that the women who think they speak for all of us have declared that because Komen didn’t kiss the pro-abortion lobby’s arse good enough, we should stop supporting Komen (i.e., stop supporting breast cancer cure efforts). Now honestly, I don’t even know that I believe in the Komen foundation since it’s so marketing-oriented. But up until the recent “scandal,” most women were very pro-Komen. Fighting breast cancer ought to be a common goal whatever your politics, right? But apparently not. Apparently the abortion litmus test trumps everything. Now we are supposed to let all the research etc. go to hell because Komen dared to offend the abortion lobby.
Sometimes the internet makes me want to smack women. But then I remember that most of us are not that stupid.