Prayer...What is it?

I struggle with prayer, what is it,what does it look like, what do we really do with it.  I know this sounds crazy but I am on a search of what is prayer from the biblical stand point, not humans or how I was taught as a child. But what does real prayer look like from God's point of view.  We pray if it be your will, what exactly does that mean to you or to God.  We pray over and over again like God didn't hear us the first time. We pray for safety, health, travel, our children, our friends, money, grandchildren, our church, missionaries, food, sleep, but doesn't God already know these things in our life and what exactly are we praying about these things.  I am taking a look at prayer and what it means to me so I will let you know what I learn on this journey. I pay alot of attention to how people pray, you can tell alot of things about them.  We have this man at our church, he is Audrey's boss alot of the time when she is not cleaning teeth.  He is a true Yankee, a man after my own heart, he can be rude, short tempered, and extremely caring. I listen to him pray during the college Sunday school class.  He is very humble, very thankful in his praying and I started paying attention to how he prayed the other week.  He does pray for people and their needs but there is a thankfulness in each request.
Thanks when I started thinking more on why and how I pray, truly I feel I am a horrible prayer warrior, Joey on the other hand is great at it.  So as I start my journey...Pray I figure it out!HA!!!!!

A few Christmas photos

Our Santa Baby

              We always take a family picture each year, one day I will compare pictures.

2011 Family Photo

Hospital visit

Today I went to the hospital to visit my friend Myra who went in on Christmas Day. I was so surprised when I got there she was alert and sitting upright talking to a girl from her church. These last few months she has been on so much medicine and in such pain that she really has not felt like talking. they have put her on a pain patch and started her on steroids and even though her cheeks are a little puffy she looked the best I have seen in months.  Some dear friend from high school drove all the way down from Pittsburgh just to say hey and Gray took him and his wife to lunch. I was glad to be able to see John  it has been about 10 years for me he was Gray's best man at their wedding. Myra and I had a few laughs about the past, growing up and staying at each others house when we were small. I was glad to have a few moments of smiles with her and not see her in such pain.  She has had alot of visitors from her church, while they are there she tries very hard to be there for them.  You probably wouldn't know how bad she feels or how tired she really is. She keeps doing the Pastor thing.  Gray and I got to have a serious talk out in the hall, and he reminded me once again to live for the day. To pay attention to what is going on around me, to love the people around me and to enjoy them. Sometimes we take the small things for grant it and assume it will be there tomorrow and you never know what a day holds.

Another Christmas

Wow!  whats with all the lights.

Another Christmas is here and I do think back over the last 12 months since the last Christmas. Joey and I are very blessed people.  We have our health this year, only 2 kidney stone attacks I don't consider these non-health just very irritating. Our children are growing and maturing probably further ahead than we were at their age. They both are starting out with new jobs, Audrey a hygienist  who loves to clean the YUK on peoples teeth, God Bless her somebody has to do it. Audrey's cancer on her foot we found early so that is being handle quickly and she is learning she can't stay in the sun much, she is not happy about that.   Josh whose Real Estate company has sold about  4 houses in the last 4 months in this slow economy, with that his construction company has remodeled a couple of these homes and he loves the creativity and  he is ADD and needs constant change so this works well for him.  Josh and Abby have that funny little girl in the picture who is more of a blessing that we can all believe.  It is fun to watch your children become parents, it changes some of their perspective on you. To see your son hug and kiss on that little bald head and see her smile at her Daddy brings tears to your eyes. Once again we are blessed.
We have been in our new church since August, and it has grown from regular attendance of 250 to last week we had 370, Praise the Lord.  We knew there was a need in that area for a church that ministers to children with all the young couples living around there. We have a great pastor who lets us be us.  When I am mad and fuss with him, I know he loves me and my family. We have a great young youth pastor that is spiritually way ahead of alot of youth pastors I have worked with.
We have the greatest friends in the world, new and old.  Once again I say we are very blessed!
So this Christmas thank the Lord for your Blessings and see what God has done in your life this last year.

What a divine night!

Enable or not?

Last night I had a major anger attack at my pastor and youth pastor.  We have neighbor children that we pick up sometimes for events at our church.  They like coming and their parents don't and won't attend.  I know as a church we are to help the needy, poor and widowed.  We are to be a shining light to the world.  But I questioned the youth pastor this morning on when and where do they (the children and their parents) have to take responsibility.   Are we the church teaching and training them in responsibility or we enabling them to expect to be taken care of without any participation on their part.  They don't ever have to work for the trips and events that they participate in.  The don't pay, someone else gives money for the church to that they can go and we never expect anything from them.  Are we teaching yet another generation to be taken care of, to be entitled to  and  some sense of disrespect and ungratefulness. We can look at their home life and say they have no idea how to live a responsible life, when their parents have no idea at the age of 10, 11, 12 who they are with or how they get there as long as they are out of their hair for a few hours. We as a church are to be a shining light to the needy, we are to teach them God's love.  But in the Word it says no work, no food.The Word teaches giving not taking.  We need to help them understand how to grow up to be responsible adults, different from how they are being raised, so that they can in turn help another child one day.

Complain or not complain that is the answer.

Do I complain, find fault in everything and everyone.  Am I never happy with things, is there always a I like this with a bit "but' that follows.  These are questions I am asking myself today.  I catch myself after being with others who are finding fault following in their footsteps.I have to look at my life and realize that I have absolutely nothing to complain about or find fault with.  I need to keep an account of my thoughts and criticism. I need to be more appreciative of others and find peace in this Christmas season with all that is great in my life.

Happy Anniversary

Here they are dating some 7 years ago

and how the time has flown

Now they are a old married couple

A sweet start to a big new happy family

                                                                    Happy 5th Anniversary

One of my all time favorites

Tragedy struck both the nation and the Longfellow family in 1861. Confederate Gen. Pierre G. T. Beauregard fired the opening salvos of the American Civil War on April 12th, and Fanny Longfellow was fatally burned in an accident in the library of Craigie House on July 10th. "Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away" (James 4:14). The day before the accident, Fanny Longfellow recorded in her journal: "We are all sighing for the good sea breeze instead of this stifling land one filled with dust. Poor Allegra is very droopy with heat, and Edie has to get her hair in a net to free her neck from the weight."  . After trimming some of seven year old Edith's beautiful curls, Fanny decided to preserve the clippings in sealing wax. Melting a bar of sealing wax with a candle, a few drops fell unnoticed upon her dress. The longed for sea breeze gusted through the window, igniting the light material of Fanny's dress-- immediately wrapping her in flames. In her attempt to protect Edith and Allegra, she ran to Henry's study in the next room, where Henry frantically attempted to extinguish the flames with a nearby, but undersized throw rug. Failing to stop the fire with the rug, he tried to smother the flames by throwing his arms around Frances-- severely burning his face, arms, and hands. Fanny Longfellow died the next morning. Too ill from his burns and grief, Henry did not attend her funeral.
The first Christmas after Fanny's death, Longfellow wrote, "How inexpressibly sad are all holidays." A year after the incident, he wrote, "I can make no record of these days. Better leave them wrapped in silence. Perhaps someday God will give me peace." Longfellow's journal entry for December 25th 1862 reads: "'A merry Christmas' say the children, but that is no more for me." Almost a year later, Longfellow received word that his oldest son Charles, a lieutenant in the Army of the Potomac, had been severely wounded with a bullet passing under his shoulder blades and taking off one of the spinal processes. The Christmas of 1863 was silent in Longfellow's journal. Finally, on Christmas Day of 1864, he wrote the words of the poem, "Christmas Bells." The reelection of Abraham Lincoln or the possible end of the terrible war may have been the occasion for the poem. . Lt. Charles Longfellow did not die that Christmas, but lived. So, contrary to popular belief, the occasion of writing that much loved Christmas carol was not due to Charles' death. "
Longfellow's Christmas bells loudly proclaimed, "God is not dead." Even more, the bells announced, "Nor doth He sleep." God's Truth, Power, and Justice are affirmed, when Longfellow wrote: "The wrong shall fail, the right prevail." The message that the Living God is a God of Peace is proclaimed in the close of the carol: "Of peace on Earth, good will to men." "For it pleased the Father that in [Jesus] should all fulness dwell; and, having made peace through the Blood of His Cross, by Him to reconcile all things unto Himself" (Colossians 1:19-20).

Merry Christmas! And, may the Prince of Peace grant you His peace!

Pap-paw and Harper

Yesterday Joey came home early to play with Harper we haven't seen her much since last Tuesday.  I cannot believe how much love there is for this little girl. You love your children but with that comes responsibility and worry because you are young and don't know what your are doing

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But with grandbabies your can just play and love on them.  She thinks her Pops, Grandpa, Pap-paw or what ever he is called is weird, but she likes her feet kissed...

Another great song from this CD

I am a Toby Mac Fan....

I like Michael

Don't you wish someone would sing to you every night with a voice like this 

In a Funk!

I am in a what you call spiritual funk....I don't care to read much, listen much, or pray much..I know to many of you, most people who are Christians don't like to tell others they are just not feeling it.  We had a couple over Saturday night for dinner and we were all discussing our ups and downs with Christ.  You know that for the last 3 years our life has had its ups and downs, serious and heavy duty thinking and depending on God every moment of every second of every day.  I told Keith, this last Bible study I taught has bored me to death, it was good, but I did not connect with it.  I told the group it is hard to teach something that you are not a all connecting with.  Keith's mother has been coming to our group, she is a wise and godly woman who I trust and am sometime intimidated by, so this made me even more nervous about not being as prepared for them as I could be.  He laughed and told me how much his mother as really enjoyed the class, and that maybe God was preparing me, I told him I hoped not.  It was on Jonah and running from God, and having a bad attitude about people.  I told him I think alot of my problem is that because I am such a thinker, that God knows I need a mental rest.  I need to be light hearted, carefree and not so responsible.  I am looking at all I do at church and what really matters, what needs changing, and what new things I might need to look at.  So I am on a rest period you could say and as a southern woman, I can't guilt myself into thinking that rest is a bad thing, saying no is bad.  We all need to rest and stop and look at our life and sometimes reconstruct and to do that you have to stop and look.

My snow baby

There is something that is so sweet about this picture, It like she is say, "Do What?"
I just want to kiss that cute  face....

Another great song of the season

I love this CD

I love this CD.....

What is in a day?

Joey and I discussed last night how our days fly by and somethings just don't matter anymore.  Like what my car says about me, our how I am trying to stay in style with my clothes.  I would rather buy clothes that I like the way they feel then if it is the newest trend.  How when it all comes down to things we have just one life to live, how our daily choices effect today and sometimes ten years from now.  How we need not worry over the little things, enjoy the family and friends we have and loosen up a bit.
For you out there who are a little ridged, up tight, orderly and precise.  When at the end of your life will that be the thing on your heart and mind at the time.  With the death of a precious young woman this past weekend and with visiting with Myra again yesterday.  I watched her sleep and thought how fast life can be and me worrying about all the dumb things I worry about.  How I get uptight over things that don't really matter in this world, like time, a clean house, and crazy drivers. How I think things should go a certain way and be done a certain way. Our friend Katie became a grandmother yesterday to a little boy named Cooper and Myra said I wish I felt good enough to  visit and enjoy her happiness.  That's when it hit me square between the eyes.  Life is for today, not yesterday which I have never been a big "past" type person, I have a tendency to live for the future and miss today.
So enjoy today, don't fret over yesterday, last week or last year and don't plan to far in the future you never know what it will hold.