my blog entries should always begin with the words... “LOOK, i am still alive!” i know some of you have had your doubts. well, most of you realize that i am still living. but not always still typing. still thinking. musing. pondering the great mysteries of the universe AND pondering what in the world i will make for dinner since i will only be home for 20 minutes today.
well, not today. today was one of those amazing days in which we found ourselves with NOwhere to go this evening. these days are few and far between right now. greatly appreciated. and usually squandered. i wish i would use this time to do HUGE and IMPORTANT things like curing cancer. or cooking dinner. but i used the time looking at pinterest and etsy items with millie and a friend that came over to “study” with her. and by “study” they meant “look at pinterest and etsy items with millie’s mom”.
i am really limiting my computer time to times when my kids (and adam) aren’t home. but that is also my cooking, cleaning, shopping, volunteering, go to Bible study, laundry, walk the dog time too. so blogging has moved to the back burner for now. having teenagers will move a lot of things to the back burner. and move time spent in prayer up to the FRONT BURNER. ha.
this past weekend was a GREAT weekend. i spent the weekend in nashville with those crazy gals in the above photo. those girls are at middle school birthday party. and they are the most immature people at that party. which is quite an accomplishment.
i flew into nashville (boy were my arms tired) to surprise my friend, deaver, for her 50th birthday. she was surprised alright! my friend, dina (and former college roomie) flew in also. we had so much fun! we shopped. we ate. we laughed. we partied. we watched 5 episodes of downton abbey. totally hooked on that now. thanks pbs. for making me want everyone to call me m’lady. and bring me a tea tray in the morning. is a tea tray served to me in bed too much to ask?!?!?!??!?! i think not.
anyway, the BEST part of the weekend was spending time with deaver’s family. i don’t usually get to hang out with sean, mallory, and allie. but this weekend i did. isn’t it fun when you realize that you can really really really LOVE some crazy kids that you don’t really know merely because you have prayed for them so much? don’t know how that feels... pick a kid to pray for. pray daily for them. and then meet them and realize that you care so much about them. that you have some kind of connection with them that is (for lack of a better world)... supernatural.
isn’t prayer amazing? not only is it a way to relate with the God of the universe BUT it is a way to relate to people that you don’t really know but are compelled to pray for repeatedly. i was just awe struck this weekend of the power of prayer. the responsibility of prayer. the privilege of prayer. and the tiny (and yet maybe not so tiny) results of prayer...
"I look at a stone cutter hammering away at a rock a hundred times without so much as a crack showing in it.
Yet at the 101st blow it splits in two.
I know it was not the one blow that did it, but all that had gone before."
“The great people of the earth today are the people who pray!
I do not mean those who talk about prayer;
nor those who say they believe in prayer;
nor those who explain prayer;
but I mean those who actually take the time to pray.
They have not time.
It must be taken from something else.
That something else is important,
very important and pressing,
but still, less important and pressing than prayer.
There are people who put prayer first,
and group the other items in life's schedule around and after prayer.”
S.D. Gordon
"Prayer does not fit us for the greater work;
prayer is the greater work."
Oswald Chambers
“I have been driven many times to my knees
by the overwhelming conviction
that I had absolutely no other place to go.”
Abraham Lincoln
which made it a good weekend indeed. to see your prayers being answered... not in the way you thought they would be (which were all the easy and boring ways), but in His way, His timing, His propensity to go above and beyond our imaginations and expectations EVERY time... and trusting that He will do it with ALL situations. that is a good weekend.