Making room

Does this happen to everyone or just me?

We got one new piece of furniture today....a very nice desk for Maggie's room from my sister. And we ended up having to rearrange 2 rooms of furniture! It's 1am and I just finished the last load of sheets and a comforter for the 2 beds we switched from room to room.

Maggie came home from being out with friends around 11pm and went straight to bed, plopping into clean sheets... When her comforter was dry a half an hour later, I took it into her room and whipped it up into the air, landing the warm, fluffy blanket perfectly onto my smiling daughter.

Today was a really sweet day.

No Wobbling Zone

Word of the year.....

WAR


I asked God to give me a word for 2013 and I can't say that I like it, I was even kind of shocked that this is the word that kept coming to me.... but I keep getting confirmation that it's the word for me. ....or for my year...


I feel like it is for spiritual warfare. So many things are becoming very clear to me, like a curtain's been parted. I am seeing the need and I am on the assault for my family, my church, my community and people who wave their hands out of VWs as they pass by at 2:22. ;)


I picked up a book called  Praying God's Word by Beth Moore back in October of 2012. It's been sitting in the bag I carry my computer in for 3 months, unread. I fully intended on reading it, but never did. Then I got my word and the next time I was at the church office I actually opened the book. Guess what the topic is! Spiritual warfare. I had just thought it would be an interesting read....a way to deepen my prayer life. But it's all about making war on the strongholds in your life. Day to day life in the battle is not easy and it does not seem victorious. It has a whole chapter on praying with belief. Not belief in God (His Presence), but belief that He will do the things He promised and that He WILL intervene...

...and that don't mean maybe. Believing is an "oh yes He will!", not a wobbly "let's wait and see how it goes".

Words like victor and victory and victorious have been showing up consistently in my daily Bible reading. They jump out at me while I'm reading the Bible. I love that. And 6 weeks into 2013 I am already seeing victories, protection and unexpected answers. Hopefully I can share more of that as I get back into regular writing.



A reassuring thing to me was that I realized that getting a word like war was not a scary thing. Life didn't suddenly become a war zone.


It always has been.


The battle is there every day. I was just asked to join in this year. It's a gift to us.

Anyway, there it is, I said it. *raising my Sword and charging in*

Re-entry

As I saw my friends discussing what they'll abstain from this year for Lent, nothing seemed to jump out at me....not that I don't have a hundred things that I should give up, mind you, just nothing in particular this year. I like to practice Lent though. In the early days of our observing Lent in our family, we used to add a spiritual discipline to our daily routine, instead of giving something up. And I learned a lot through that. I also learned a lot through giving something up for the 40 days when I chose to.

However we practice it, it should be about preparing ourselves to celebrate Easter.

We step away from the things that distract us from Him
              we begin things that will be a spiritually healthy addition to our life,
                           but most importantly, we draw closer to Him.

To read a really wonderful post about Lent, go to Ann Voskamp's blog.

So for Lent this year I am ready to work on the discipline of writing again. I miss it, and I have found that writing about my experiences is an important tool for me in processing my life mentally and spiritually. God always shows me how He's working as I write out a post about my day or a life experience.  While I am actually typing it out,  God is teaching me and showing it to me as it comes through the keyboard and I see it on the page. It often surprises me what it ends up looking like when it's done.

After a long break, it's hard to dive back into blogging, but I am challenging myself. For the next 40 days of the Lent season, I am going enter a post every day, as long as I'm not incapacitated physically or my internet quits on me. It may just be a report on what we had for dinner or a Bible verse that strikes me, but I will put a post up each day and see what God's guiding me to see in it.

The fall and winter have been a roller coaster for me, so I have a lot of catching up to do.

See ya tomorrow...the Lord willing. :)

Snow

I miss snow. I love it! 

God interrupts our precision run world & brings it to a halt with a beautiful, fluffy blanket of white. And all we can do is watch it in awe and wait for Him to finish.

Enjoy it while you can.

Lift Him Up

Discouraging start to our holiday season here. We went out yesterday morning and someone had come up into our entryway, unplugged our outside Christmas figures and carted them off like they were free for the taking.

It's not a huge thing, but it made me angry. I was angry that my things were taken, but most of all just angry that people are so dishonest, mean and selfish.

So today when I feel the anger over it, I'm reminded to pray for our city and country, that during this Christmas season, people's thoughts will turn to Jesus. It's Christmas....a time of year people think about God, so we need to be on our knees for our people that the Holy Spirit will draw all men to Himself because we are lifting Him up!

Let your Light shine. (even if someone tries to swipe it!)

Hiatus

I think I am on hiatus.....kind of like your favorite tv show.

Listening to the Call

With  the weekend over, I sat down this afternoon to catch up on my GirlfriendIt podcast. I needed a Patty and Lisa fix and my friend Sheila Jones was being interviewed this week. 

It is amazing to me how God works in my life. Lisa and Patty started out the show talking about something that ties right in with what I've been writing about on the unique, funny, curious ways God is calling me to prayer for people in the past  few months.  They were talking about how Muslims have a call to prayer. If you ever visit a Muslim city, you will hear this call to prayer several times a day over speakers that loudly penetrate into every home or building in the city. And no matter where they are, the faithful followers of that religion kneel and pray.

I challenge you to look for ways that God is calling you to prayer in your daily life. He's gotten my attention lately. I have tried to explain it in a few blog posts, but I wonder if people get how meaningful it is to have God snag your attention with something, show you what it means and then give you a unique, just for you way to keep connected with His heart, to see the people He is seeing and preparing and longing for.

Something Lisa said today really summed it up for me, "God does miraculous things in ordinary moments." And what is more ordinary for a busy mom to be driving all over town? Not only does God want to do miraculous things through our prayers for people we encounter during our day, but He's really done something very miraculous in my life.... getting me to listen to His leading, recognize His plan and that He uses me in this process. All it takes an attentive mind and a willingness to pray for those miraculous things.

Here is my journey

It's 4:44
Crazy or cool?
Game On

I hope it inspires you to pay attention more closely to what God is showing you each day.....because He is showing you.

Game on!

Today as I was driving along, zoning out, I noticed something in the SUV in front of me.

Two tiny arms and hands went up into the air from a car seat in that back of that car and I smiled and prayed for that little child and their family. It was my first time to try out my new little game with the Maker of little hands.

I'm going to love this game. :)

Am I crazy or is this pretty cool?

My themes for the past couple of weeks:

-People waving from their cars. I guess I am driving a lot these days because this is when I've noticed all of these themes. I don't think the people were waving at me, but I have never seen so many people waving out of their car windows before. It's kind of hard to notice who they are waving to while I'm trying to drive.

A couple of days ago, Emma and I pulled up behind a car at a light and the driver waved out the window. It looked like they were waving behind them.... to us. I pointed it out to Emma, asking if she knew them and then telling her about my waving theme. She laughed and just then, the passenger of the same car stuck out their arm really high and waved too! There were no people on the street no one was looking at them from another car by us. It was so interesting. Later I saw someone put their arm out like you do when you are making your hand ride the air current, but it was an exaggerated, whole arm air riding dramatic motion. It was almost like they were raising their hand to volunteer for some unknown (at the time) need.

-Bike trailers. People all over Phoenix are hauling things around behind their bikes. I've even seen one homely-made trailer that was set up on extra bicycle wheels. I started laughing out loud the other day with Emma in the car and had to tell her about the trailer theme. She thinks I'm a little strange, but she was entertained, especially when we kept seeing them. I must add though, that when you are a very scruffy, maybe even sketchy looking old man, you should not use a baby carrier as your bike trailer. It is disturbing. I know you probably do not have a baby in that carrier, most likely it's just your laundry, but it sure does make my insides feel goofy for a few seconds.

-Pillows. I keep seeing throw pillows on the street. I know they fall off of vehicles when people move their belongings, but I have never seen so many throw pillows on the streets before. So far, I've seen a rust colored one, seafoam green (they were lucky to be rid of it, imho), one striped and one very dusty, long forgotten floral.

-Kidney stones. There have been people from all areas of my life suffering with these lately. This includes me, unfortunately.

After a very bad bout of kidney stones and laser and lithotripsy treatment two weeks ago, I am finally free from pain and able to resume some normal amounts of activity. In fact, I'm feeling more spunky than I have in months and maybe longer. I didn't realize they were affecting my general health so much. But I am really thankful to finally be feeling normal again. (yeah, I know I know...you are hilarious...I just mean normal for ME)

In January, I wrote about VWs and number patterns that I kept seeing. I don't know about the VW's .....unless it was because their advertising motto when I looked it up was "There is power in numbers," which gave me a short surge in adrenaline when I saw it. It was Hannah's idea to look on the VW page and see if anything struck me. I was like.....weird!....cool.....hmmmm. Over the next few days, as I pondered this, I decided to pray for people who were on my mind when I saw the number patterns.

And I keep seeing the patterns. It is so fun and cool to be reminded by God several times a day to pray. It's like we have a little game, a code, a plan, we are taking action. There is power in numbers.....there is power in prayer too,  I reckon, so there you have it.

SomeOne knows how to get my attention and interest.

It's fun to think of what the current themes mean...if they mean anything. Maybe the people who are waving are in need of prayer. (Yes, me! Oooo, ooo, choose me! Pray for meeeee!)  Prayer is the way to help people who need to be picked up and carried by God (bike trailer), so that they can rest in Him (pillows). And maybe specifically because they have kidney stones?  Oh the possibilities....

Spring in Phoenix

I wish you could all stop by to sit on the patio today and have some iced tea with me. The weather here lately....beautiful. And the air smells like orange blossom....especially as the sun goes down. It's my favorite time of year to live in Phoenix.



When the orange blossoms come out, Spring is here....