praying Scripture part 2

last week i wrote about praying Scripture. if you missed that post, you can look here. each week at Bible study, darla, our wonderful leader, prints out a bunch of verses to pray over our families. this week we are also praying over our church staff. and i think it'd be a good idea to also pray over the staff's spouses... they've got a tough job. satan tends to attack those who are working hard for the Lord, and our church staff and spouses need all the prayer they can get. so the verses from this week are as follows if you'd like to pray along:


1 Peter:
2d; 1:13; 1:15-16; 1:22b; 2:9b; 2:11; 2:23; 3:8-9a; 3:15; 4:2; 4:7; 4:8; 4:9; 4:10; 4:19; 5:5b; 5:6; 5:7; 5:8-9; 5:10

another thing we discussed on here has been thanksgiving. i have tried to make it through ann voskamp's book "one thousand gifts" and still haven't finished...because...once again in case you've forgotten or didn't know...i am a slacker. although i haven't finished it yet, i am still keeping a thankfulness journal. mine has a yard gnome on it. because i'm cool like that. yours could have a yard gnome, too, or flowers or chinese writing...we don't discriminate. and it truly has changed my attitude and how i face each day. something that the devotional "Jesus Calling" has taught me is that this life is not going to be free of struggle and pain. we live in a broken world. so telling God, "i'll be thankful when...." and hoping all brokenness and hurtful situations will dissipate and THEN we'll give thanks is not the way God desires us to be. and it'll never happen. God deserves our praise all the time. no matter what. bad, good, happy, sad, sick, healthy, upbeat, or downtrodden, God is always good. and His Word tells us to pray without ceasing. and to always give thanks. --isn't that hard to do? when my mom had breast cancer, it was hard for me to give thanks. i was ticked. when our youngest was sick and in the hospital so often and he couldn't seem to stay well, it was hard to give thanks. when i see marriages around me that are falling apart, it is so hard to give thanks. when fathers of young children die and leave behind their beautiful families, it is hard to give thanks. but do these hard and at times devastating things mean God is not good? no.

"the Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit." --psalm 34:18.
that is something to be thankful for.
"... God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power." --acts 2:24.
He is powerful.
"...through Him everyone who believes is freed from all things, from which you could not be freed through the law of moses." --acts 13:39
mmm. isn't He good? He has saved us!
"...if God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not with Him freely give us all things?" --romans 8:31-32
He loves us. He gave it all up for us.

the Word of God is rich with promises that we will never be alone, that He loves us, that He redeems, restores, forgives. He is worthy of our thanksgiving and praise.

if you are struggling with pain, suffering, feeling alone, or even discontentedness, here are some verses darla shared with us today about thanksgiving:
                                                    psalm 92:1               ephesians 5:4
                                                    psalm 95:2               phil 4:6-8
                                                    psalm 100:4             col 2:6-7
                                                                     heb 12:28
there's one for each day of the week for yah in case you'd like to start praying Scriptures of thankgiving. when i read these verses, the things i am experiencing seem like "momentary, light affliction" (2 corinthians 4:17).

may i encourage you to join me in praying for our families, church staff, and staff's spouses this week, as well as taking time to thank the Lord for who He is and all the wonderful things He has done for us?

align yourself

so we've discussed on here a few times about the power of prayer, specifically praying Scripture.  we've also discussed being women of influence through prayer for our families. then last week a Bible study started at our church and in the study we focus on praying Scripture. who'd have thunk it? do you think perhaps the Lord is trying to teach me something?

our pastor's wife, darla, is wonderful and encouraging. she has been printing up verses to pray through each week, so i thought i'd give you a glimpse into which ones we're going over this week.


for those of you who might not have ever tried praying Scripture, it goes a little something like this:

1 Corinthians
4:12
when reviled, may ______________ bless. (insert name of husband, child, friend, co-worker, yourself, etc)
when persecuted, may _____________endure.

5:8
help _________________ to celebrate Christ's sacrifice with "sincerity and truth."

6:18
help ________________ to "flee from sexual immorality."


and on it goes. by doing this, we are praying for our families and aligning ourselves with God's will that is presented to us in Scripture. some people at the study said that they usually feel pressure to say the right thing to God or get the wording right and this method took that anxiety away. others said that in the past, this had seemed too rigid but last week they tried it and it was so refreshing to repeat God's Word back to Him.


a complete list of the verses we are praying through is listed below. please join me in praying for those we love and even those that are hard to love.

prayer is powerful. God is mighty. and His Word is true.


verses for this week:
1 Corinthians
4:12, 4:13, 5:8, 6:18, 7:35, 9:22, 9:24, 9:27, 10:8, 10:9, 10:10, 10:14, 10:24, 10:31, 10:32

do i stink?

ephesians 5:1-2
therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. and walk in love, just as Christ loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

this has been my memory verse for the past week.
and here is why:
sometimes i struggle to love people IN ACTION. what i mean is this: i love my children and my husband and my friends and neighbors but sometimes i do not show it. sometimes my emotions get the better of me, better yet, my sin nature gets the better of me, and i am a wild, crazy person who says mean things and yells. (not usually at the neighbors). let me help you envision this by suggesting you imagine a woman with huge eyes and hair that looks as if she's been electrocuted.

so when my accountability partner and i decided what our verses would be last week, i chose this one. i want to imitate God. i want to be like Him, love like Him, forgive like Him. Christ loves us so much that He gave Himself up for us. and i can't even be bothered to do an extra dish, wake up a little early, pick up an extra toy. i act like it's an insult to my person to be asked to give anything above what i am already giving (because apparently i think of myself as quite the sacrificial lady). i want to give myself up for HIM. because HE deserves my everything, my all.

and are you ready for the kicker? when i read "an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma," i thought to myself... i'm holding back, often giving God my leftovers, and sacrificing little. and i'm pretty sure that instead of a fragrant aroma, i stink. my offerings stink. --of leftover minutes, last fruits, and little sacrifice.

so with this conviction came a lot of prayer. --that in the minutes when kids are yelling, crying, hurting one another again and again with their words and wrestling, i would be an imitator of God. that i would WALK in love when my husband asks me to sacrifice "my" time and effort to help him with something. -- not begrudging what my family or friends ask of me when i don't feel like doing it. i want to sacrifice myself for others and do so joyfully for the glory of my King, willingly because it's the least i can do when He's given up so much. i want it to be out of love and not out of obligation.
no stink here. i desire for the love that i act out on a daily basis to be a fragrant aroma to God.

and i'm putting this out there so that y'all can hold me accountable.
friends, share with me how you are walking in love this week, offering and sacrificing your life to God as a fragrant aroma...

19 hours of driving...

sorry to have been away so long.

the boys, my mom, my sis, and i all drove up to kentucky to visit my brother and his family.

it's a long drive.

19 hours.

but worth it.

these lovely hydrangeas were just sittin' here waiting for me when i got home. 

--courtesy of the romantic hubs.

while i wash dishes i thought i'd remind myself of my new focus verse while gazing upon purple loveliness.

i'll be back soon to tell you all about our travels.

even while picking out curtains

i've been looking for the perfect curtains for our living/dining room for a few months now.
i don't think of myself as a picky person, but apparently i'm quite the high-maintenance broad when it comes to panels of fabric flanking my windows. who knew? and yes, i'm aware there are children starving in southeast asia. my flanking cotton-blends are a first world issue.

i won't bore you with the details, but there were several things that were keeping me from finding the perfect "window treatment," which in my day was simply called "curtains." the basic problem being that every curtain i could find was too small.

so a lady came out to our home today with samples and helped me decide on our custom order. and wouldn't you know it, we picked something totally different than what i had in mind. and the hubs likes it, too, which never happens.

this is the fabric. it turned out to be much more expensive than we originally thought, but it's neutral colors that looks awesome with our living room. and as previously mentioned, the store-bought stuff wasn't cuttin' it this time.
anywho, during this little visit from our curtain fairy, linda (a magical name, eh?), we started talking about her walk with Christ. and then we talked a little about my walk with Christ. and then we talked about Scripture. and sons growing up to be godly men. and husbands. and praying for them. and great Bible studies. and art by my friend who is restoring a 100 year old home to minister to people. it was an amazing conversation. and all of a sudden our visit that was supposed to be curtains and hardware galore turned into a 2.5 hour lovely conversation where we found encouragement, a listening ear, and wisdom.
how crazy is that? God can use our day-to-day activities to remind us of Him and show us more of who He is as well as what He desires for us, even while picking out curtains.

poo hits the fan

and now it's time for foster files with marge:

i just made up that name just this minute, and i guess that's what we'll be calling these times in between catastrophes and huge triumphs where i fill you in after the fact.



now that things have died down a bit, i will bring you up to speed on the fostering situation.



for those of you who don't know (since there are only 4 people reading my blog, i think you all know), we have a foster son. he's a cutie patootie.


this last week was drama. and i can't go into too much detail. but i can tell you that i have amazing friends who, when alerted to what was going on, started praying like mad women and God really must've heard us all, because within 24 hours of the ickiness and panic, the situation had been resolved. i've learned through this process and the process of adopting our other son that you only tell a small number of people when the poo hits the fan, because you have to keep calling these people as the situation progresses. you don't want to have to call 10 people to tell them everything's hunky-dorey or that you're losing your mind.

our casemanager, who is AMAZING, kicked booty and dealt with the situation quickly and efficiently.


this is a little difficult to blog about because this all has to be pretty vague. i can't just start blogging about names and dates and people and all the issues the bio parents have and why they aren't with their son...because he's a foster kid and there's regulations about that. so use your imagination.


we desperately want our foster son's bio parents to come to faith in Christ. and we want our foster son to be safe and loved, and at this point, they don't seem like they're ready to care for themselves, let alone a whole other human. and that's not just me thinking no one would ever, in a million years, be good enough for our little boy. because, like i always say, he's on loan from the state. ;) he technically and legally does not belong to us. and we are made aware of that daily. but we love him and would love more than anything for him to stay.


so if you're the praying kind, please keep my little man in your prayers. time is slowly ticking and it's almost time for some deadlines to occur. there is a lot that is unknown to us, but God knows it all. so i'm just gonna keep on keepin' on and trust. which is surpringly easy to do when you know you can do nothing but pray. and that ain't no small thing.

i quote this all the time because it's one of the few verses i've had memorized forever:

"trust in the Lord with all your heart. lean not upon your own understanding. seek His will in all you do, and He will direct your paths." -prov 3:5-6



"trust in Him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to Him, for God is our refuge." psalm 62:8