Loving the new praise song this week: “Glory to God, Glory to God, Glory to God Forever. Take my life and let it be all for you and for your glory. Take my life and let it be yours.”
For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.
a Quote:
“Where is God leading today? What are the priorities that need to be addressed? Who needs my attention? What do I have to learn? Where might be the landmines in the day’s journey? What needs to change? In asking these questions, I hope to tune my soul to the voice of God so that I will be conscious of His guidance throughout the day. With increasing frequency this actually happens.” A Resilient Life: You Can Move Ahead No Matter What by Gordon MacDonald
my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with discernment today. Show me what I need to see, whether I want to see it or not. Lead me where I need to go, give me the words I need to speak and, please Lord, give me an awareness not only of your faithful presence, but an awareness of the needs of others that I so often miss even when they are smack in front of me. Allow me to serve you today Lord, even if I never get to know how you do it. Please allow me to be your hands and feet and voice. Please use me right where I am. Please allow me to be a witness for your grace and glory today.
the Word:
Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Peter 4:10-11 (NIV)
This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.
a Quote:
“What if power comes from empowering others rather than dominating them?” The Friends We Keep: A Woman’s Quest for the Soul of Friendship by Sarah Zacharias Davis
my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with the motivation and wisdom to recognize opportunities to encourage those I interact with today. In those opportunities, help me to equip someone by showing me how to freely and graciously share any knowledge, skills or talents you have already blessed me with. Please don’t allow me to miss any opportunities due to my attention to self-focused goals, indifference or the sense of being needed or admired that can stem from knowing, understanding or being able to do something better than someone else.
Help me to remember how much I don’t know, don’t understand and can’t do. Help me to remember all the people who have helped me, and those who continue to help me. Thank you for those people in my life, Lord.
the Word:
. . . to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up.
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
This was dual published on my Pragmatic Communion blog.
a Quote:
“Jesus understood that the deadliest sins – resentment, arrogance, judgmentalism, lovelessness – are ones we can commit without lifting a finger.” Everybody’s Normal Till You Get to Know Them by John Ortberg
my Prayer:
Lord, please bless me with patience and kindness today. Please bless me with empathy and compassion for others. Please don’t let me hurt anyone as a result of my neglect or indifference or pride.
the Word:
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.
Colossians 3:12 (NIV)
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.
Ecclesiastes 3:1
Summer is over.
The loss of solitude at the beginning was nearly instantaneous. A shocker and familiar at the same time. A living flashback to before PinkGirl started school. Kid duty every waking moment and sometimes more. Most of my prayers were short and in fragments. I seriously missed consistent, dedicated time spent with the Lord. I seriously missed the time to read. To think.
School’s been back in since Thursday and yesterday was my first day back to routine. Some quiet time, some reading, a cup of coffee in my favorite ceramic mug instead of a travel mug, a workout – I even got some work done! And now, a blog post! Even with a forgotten homework delivery and a horrendous traffic jam during after-school pick-up, this day was great! Top it off with an evening that included a flat tire for FirstHusband and needing to replace the broken lock on the front door?
No stress. No matter what happens, I handle things better after a little solitude and prayer.
I’ve said it before. There are seasons of prayer. Sometimes, my days allow for moments alone and I can choose to spend some of that time with God. Sometimes, my day barely allows for a shower and that’s the only solitude and prayer time I get. Sometimes, my day doesn’t even allow for the shower so I pray while I’m driving a kid somewhere or while I’m loading the dishwasher, cooking dinner or cleaning something.
Summer was a good reminder of what it was like when the kids were little and I had to carve out time for solitude. It was also a hearty dose of empathy for other moms in that situation right now. It was lots of fun. And lots of driving. Summer day camps for kids, sometimes with less than two hours of unfragmented time between drop off and pick-up. And those bits of time were most often spent frantically getting stuff DONE.
But Summer was a season, as were the years when I had small children at home all day, every day, and the years I spent working full-time while going to college, and the years I spent working like a crazy woman when I first started my business. I had to learn and have again been reminded that when the seasons of my life are such that my solitude and prayer time are encroached upon by my daily responsibilities, I have to do two things:
First: Not beat myself up over it, because by doing so, I waste time I could be praying and spending with God.
Second: FIND pockets of time, multitask prayer with chores that don’t need active thought, and consciously include God in my every day moments and conversations, because He is with me WHEREVER I go. (Joshua 1:9)
Thank you God for reminding me that one of the things I really need to get DONE is time alone with You. I need to actively carve it out wherever I can get it.
Lord, please bless me with an unquenchable thirst for intimate fellowship with you. Please bless me with the courage to listen to the truths your Holy Spirit reveals to me during these times of physical stillness and silence.
“To bring some solitude into our lives is one of the most necessary but also most difficult disciplines . . . As soon as we are alone, without people to talk with, books to read, TV to watch, or phone calls to make, an inner chaos opens up in us. This chaos can be so disturbing and so confusing that we can hardly wait to get busy again . . .
. . . Intuitively, we know that it is important to spend time in solitude. We even start looking forward to this strange period of uselessness. This desire for solitude is often the first sign of prayer, the first indication that the presence of God’s Spirit no longer remains unnoticed . . .
. . . As we empty ourselves of our many worries, we come to know not only with our mind but also with our heart that we never were really alone, that God’s Spirit was with us all along . . . “
The Only Necessary Thing: Living a Prayerful Life
by Henri Nouwen
I posted this as an audio clip and wrote a dedication to FirstHusband on our 20th wedding anniversary, August 11th, but here’s a youtube version.
Peel Me a Grape is one of “our” songs (really, after 20 years, how can we have only ONE song?). The lyrics are so completely opposite of the mini-van driving, pragmatic woman I am and the kind of relationship we have, that they make us laugh. And laughter all wrapped up in sultry? That’s romance for us. We both loved it from the moment we heard it.
Need a few more chuckles today? Check out Friday Funnies hosted by Homesteaders Heart!
If you’ve got time to hang out for a few minutes, check out what else makes me laugh: Pragmatic Compendium’s “laugh!” category.
and
For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.
20 years today. One of the best decisions I ever made!
FirstHusband gave me a cruise for an anniversary present. I gave him this: (the vocals are all me)
Cause anyone who knows me, knows how much I need mink coats, cashmere and bon bons. umm. hmm. I must admit. I do love the line “never outthink me.” And tonight the line “chill me some wine” will work.
We first heard this song 8 years ago in a little piano bar on the Disney Wonder. It stuck with both of us – in a “this is our song” kind of way. But then again, we have framed lyrics by Jimmy Buffett hanging on our bedroom wall:
“It’s those changes in latitudes,
changes in attitudes nothing remains quite the same.
With all of our running and all of our cunning,
If we couldn’t laugh, we would all go insane.”
We are some kind of romantic, huh?
We relied on PinkGirl set up our romantic anniversary dinner in her own special way and then she invited us to the family room for a dance. She played the CD and since the accompaniment sounds exactly like the Diana Krall version, FirstHusband didn’t know it was me till the vocals started. He asked two questions: “Who is this?” immediately followed by “Is this you?”
Happy Anniversary, babe. Today you are FavoriteHusband. Maybe even tomorrow too.
New praise song this week.
“Lord You are good and Your mercy endureth forever!!”
For more Saturday music, check out Then Sings My Soul Saturday every Saturday hosted by Amy at Signs, Miracles and Wonders.
1. Whoever told PinkGirl about Steve Urkel – that was totally uncalled for. Very uncool.
oh. it must have been a Full House ratings crossover week. We watch DVR’d Full House (but fast forward through the DeGrassi promo commercials).
2. It seems that my freakish, overachiever, perfectionism has worked against me once again. I tried a little too hard to read the charts at the eye doctor, resulting in the doctor thinking I could see better than I really can, causing him to give me a lower than acceptable power for my contact lens readers. I can see to read on the computer and books and while I can see entree names on menus, the descriptions are blurry, along with the text on my phone, food nutrition labels and price tags. Reading newspaper print? Not happening. BUT – it is LIBERATING to read without being tethered to reading glasses, which I have been for the last 5 years.
I’ve watched FavoriteSon put in and take out his contact lenses so much over the last few years, the adjustment to contact lenses actually been no problem for me! I’ve tried my first pair for a week and I’m going back Monday, at which time I will tell the truth about the ease with which I can see stuff the doctor asks me to read. Hopefully, my second trial pair will be the perfect strength.
3. I’m kicking the crud out of our debt, one dollar at a time. Our church is offering a multi-week Dave Ramsey course called Financial Peace University, but amazingly, I got the entire course on 13 audio CDs for FREE on paperbackswap.com! Somebody listed it as a book and it only cost me TWO credits!!! Already listened to the first two CDs. Saved myself the course registration fee and all the time I would have spent driving to and from church for the classes. Not to mention the fact that I can get through the material faster than one lesson per week and I can listen anytime I want!
4. We’ve been asking God to bless our efforts to save money and pay off debt and we paid so much extra on our debt this month that our checking account was running dangerously low. I was worried about overdraft protection kicking in – which is kinda COUNTERproductive the whole debt reduction goal.
Then we found nearly $200 we forgot about from the used school uniform sale in May, FirstHusband found $20 on his nightstand and received a forgotten and unexpected travel reimbursement for $75!
In addition to all that, out of the blue, one of my clients had a nearly firm-wide, major network printer meltdown on Tuesday and I’ve spent the last three days on client site. Unexpected compensated work!
Thank you GOD!
5. Which do I like the least? Network printer work vs. dental work? hmmm. I’m not sure. But, it appears (knock on a printer) that the problem is solved, the solution is set up and tested and ready for firm-wide roll-out next week.
And it’s always tremendously affirming when, after I get stuck on a problem and the heavy tech hitting IT guys are called in, they get stuck in the same place I do. It’s also affirming when, after the IT guys are called in, they still want my help.
The firm administrator described my approach to problem solving and research as “tenacious.” Some might call it “annoying” or “exasperating.” It’s that freakish, overachiever, perfectionism thing again.
6. I finally lost my personal trainer. I knew it was coming. She’s been a law student and she finally graduated, took the bar and is now moving on to the next exciting stage in her life – sans me, I’m sad to say. (But EXTREMELY happy for her.) It’s an adjustment, working out with no accountability and I’m not entirely sure I won’t be hiring an new trainer, but for now, I’m doing . . . okay. I was up to three hours per week of strength training with her. Since we stopped meeting, the strength training has been inconsistent. I actually worked out MORE during the week of our cruise than I did any other week since she left me. I’ll really be able to tell after school starts and I get my routine back.
I worked out yesterday morning and this morning and while I really don’t like working out first thing in the morning, I can honestly say that every. single. minute. of the rest of these two days, I was SO glad my workout was already behind me.
7. PinkGirl is auditioning for a local production of Seussical the Musical tomorrow and parts will be announced on August 16 – NINE painfully long days later. If I were to receive a penny for every time I hear the questions “Mom, do you think I got in?” and “What part do you think I got?” during these next nine days, I would become a millionaire in less than one of them.
She wants every singe part. Kind of a problem.
Join in with your own 7 Quick Take Friday post at Conversion Diary hosted by Jennifer!
I don’t understand suffering. It’s going to be the first thing I ask the Lord about when I finally see him face to face. But whenever I hear about it, observe it, experience it . . . it sends me searching for reasons I can make sense of.
“‘What makes you think children go to heaven when they die?’ I asked.
‘Isaiah 7:16 talks about an age before a child is morally accountable, before the child ‘knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right.’ King David spoke of going to be with his son who dies at birth. Jesus said, ‘Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.’ which indicates they will go to heaven. There’s a considerable amount of other scriptural support for this position as well.'”
The Case for Faith
by Lee Strobel
I don’t know what would have happened in Emmit Trapp’s lifetime. I don’t know if he would have come to know God or rejected Him. But if I believe my Bible – and I DO, that sweet little boy will have eternal life with God in heaven. I don’t know what has happened or what will happen in the lives of his family, but I CAN pray that this tragedy will bring his family closer together and closer to God. If that little boy went to heaven early and someone comes to Christ because of it, I’ve got to believe God’s plan is better than mine. Because my plan puts that little boy at home with his family. My plan says they won’t suffer grief, be plagued with “what if” or have to face tomorrow without their little boy.
I’ve got to believe that God knows something I don’t.
And no, I do NOT judge Emmit’s mother or his family. Because there, but for the Grace of God, go I.
