Walls

Have you ever played Minecraft?  I admit I have...only because I'm a really cool mom. Seriously, I've played it a bit the last few years and am thankful I took the time to bond with my kids in this way.  But no worries, friend, I realize this in no way makes me cool among any group of people. haha

In case you haven't had the chance to play this awesome time-sucking game, I'll explain it very briefly.  The whole world is made of blocks.  The ground, the trees, and anything you build is made of 1x1 blocks.  If you want to build something, you need to gather the blocks (either by mining cobblestone, chopping trees, digging dirt, etc) and then build your object (ex: a house) one block at a time. There's more to it than that (which is why it's so addicting and great for developing creativity) but that's the big picture.  There are shortcuts to getting the building supplies (you can "gliche" things) but there's no shortcuts for the actual building process.  Each block has to be placed where you want it.  By placing ONE BLOCK. AT. A. TIME.  My son is a pro wall builder.  He can get things built at a speed that makes my brain (and thumbs) hurt just watching him.

I, on the other hand, am a pro wall builder in a different way.  I can erect emotional walls to protect myself from the outside world faster than any Lego Master Builder (yes, I have 4 kids...this is my world of expertise right now...Legos & Minecraft haha).  

Everyone has these imaginary walls to protect us from hurts, don't we? And they take time to build; most of them don't happen overnight. They are built brick by brick, hurt by hurt. We build them up little by little and if we're not careful we let them get too tall. Then they start to hurt us because they're also holding those hurts, that pain, in and not letting it escape. Being trapped within our walls is not good; studies have shown it can even make us physically sick!

I admit it's scary thinking about these walls coming down. Without them we are exposed, vulnerable. We are REAL. It can be frightening being real with people, showing them who we are, what our burdens are, what we're afraid of. We might get hurt again. Or completely rejected. But if we're not being REAL with the people in our life, we're not really living. He has created each of us to carry out His purpose in a way no one else can.

We're holding back who we are, holding back who God made us to be.

Ephesians 2:10 (NLT)

For we are God's masterpiece.  He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.

Have you built up walls to protect yourself?  Played emotional Minecraft stacking the blocks one by one until you are so protected from the outside world you're actually hurting yourself?  Take one small step today to be more real with someone. Tear down just one brick.   Reach out to someone for help.  God will help you no matter how buried behind walls you are - He is with you there.  

He is with you now.  He is with you always.  

Isaiah 41:10
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God.  I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

And once you've moved a few bricks and are able to see outside your walls, you will find there are people around you who care, people who love you and who will also help you.  Don't be one who falls alone...

Eccelsiastes 4:9-10, 12

Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed.  If one person falls, the other can reach out and help.  But someone who falls alone is in real trouble.  A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer.  Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.

What do you need to do today to tear down a brick in your emotional walls and be more REAL with those around you?

Blessings,

Prayer Journaling: Starting to Pray

If you missed the previous post, click here.


Now that you have your prayer journal set up, it should look like this:
Prayer Schedule
loose-leaf paper
daily pockets w/prayer cards or other prayer starters


The simplest way to begin learning how to pray for an extended period of time and/or for many people is to use the ACTS acronym to help you remember the parts of prayer Jesus taught us in the Lord’s Prayer. I will discuss a more in-depth method later.

In case you’re not familiar with ACTS, we are talking about Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. (I printed out the information listed right below here on a sheet for my 10 yr old so he wouldn’t have to be embarrassed if he had to keep asking what these words meant).



A

Adoration = profound love, admiration, or regard
‘to adore’ means to love

God I love you because… (pick 1 to start prayer)
You are ________________________
You have _______________________
You promised to _____________________


C

Confession = to admit wrongdoing
‘to confess’ means to say yes, I did this (whatever ‘this’ is for the day) wrong

God, I’m sorry I…(pick 1 to start prayer)
didn’t obey when _________________________
didn’t help when __________________________
did this __________________________________


T

Thanksgiving = to express thanks, thankfulness, give thanks
‘to give thanks’ means to say all the things you’re thankful for from the day

God, thank You…(pick 1 to start prayer)
for ________________________
that _______________________
when ______________________


S

Supplication = to humbly ask for help
‘to supplicate’ means to ask in a humble way for help or assistance

God, please help _______________ in this way…




What to do with all this:

Each day you pray you will use a new sheet of loose-leaf paper.

Write the date at the top of the page.

Write the A-C-T-S over in the left margin. My guess is you will find you probably won’t need very much room for A, a little more for C, even more for T and lots for S.

Then write out your ‘prayers’ for each step as you go through them.

When you get to the 'S', use your Prayer Schedule to determine who you're supplicating for that day.



An example prayer sheet could look like this:

A God Almighty you are powerful beyond what I can imagine. You can create winds of hundreds of miles an hour. You can shake the earth to a magnitude of total destruction. You can create whatever You want.

C Lord, I am sorry for spending too much time on the computer today. (had to put this in here – haha) Please forgive me for neglecting my kids and not being a good steward and taking care of all that you have given me. Please forgive me for not using my mouth today to bring glory to you.

T Father, thank you for: a washing machine that works, for friends who care enough to call/write, for living close to family, for eyes that can see Your beauty in everything around me, for a godly husband.

S I lift up my friends who are having troubled marriages. May You draw them closer to You through their pain. I pray for the health of a teacher who is battling breast cancer. Please give the doctors wisdom to treat the cancer and strength to her to get through the chemo.



The biggest thing about prayer is to not give up if you miss a day (or two or three). The devil would just LOVE if you started prayer journaling and then after missing a week, you gave up on it completely because it wasn’t perfect. The reason I have loose-leaf paper and not preprinted paper in there is because then you can write whatever the date happens to be when you come before God in prayer. Then you don’t get all stressed out when you miss a few days because you feel ‘behind’ (like you would when you missed a few days in a bible-reading plan).

This is a sress-free way to record your conversations with God. WHEN YOU ARE ABLE, sit down and record your thoughts/concerns/worries. And then as the weeks and months go by, you can look back and see what you have been praying about. You can see how God has answered your prayers. Or you can see that you still need to be patient because God has not answered a prayer yet.

Prayer journaling is a wonderful way to record your walk with God. Sometimes we get so focused on how much further we have to climb that we forget how far we’ve already climbed. Your prayer journal isn’t for anyone else but you and God. And He doesn’t expect you to do it perfectly. He just expects you to pray. Period.



May your conversations with God have renewed purpose and clarity now that you have a plan and something to guide your thoughts as you spend time with your Father in prayer.

Glory to God!
Amy

Prayer Journaling: So Easy a Kid Could Do It!

Is it bad to laugh at your own post title? Because, seriously, I will explain a way to do prayer journaling below that IS easy enough for a kid to do. I actually designed it for my 10 year old. But we all know that a spiritual discipline like prayer REALLY isn't that easy, is it? And I don't want you to be offended or think that I think you're a doof if it doesn't end up being easy for you all the time.

Because I can already tell you that it won't always be a piece of cake and that I most certainly won't think you're a doof.  Prayer, like any spiritual discipline, takes the help of the Spirit in order to be at all succesful.  And by successful, I don't mean you're winning the Nobel Prize or Pulitzer Prize because of your journaling expertise.  I mean that you're growing closer to God and better at knowing His will for you through the conversation and connectedness of prayer.

But, getting to the subject at hand. If you have never tried prayer journaling before, I have an easy way for you to get started with it. Or, if you have been journaling for awhile and need new ideas, scan below and use what you can. I love reading others' ideas about a topic and taking what I can, what works for me, and adapting it to fit my personality and my strengths. I encourage you to do that with these suggestions as well.  Fit them into YOU and who you are. 

So what has kept you from prayer journaling? Weren't sure where to start? Weren't sure what you should pray for? Didn't know how it should be different from a regular journal, or even a diary?  The idea in this post is for a basic prayer journal. Something that could be used for starting a junior high or high school student on journaling.  Or for someone who has been intimidated by prayer journaling.  Or even to refresh journaling for someone who has been walking with Christ for many years but has maybe grown a bit stale in their discipline.

Supplies needed:
3-ring binder (yeah, you binder-lovers just let out a shout of joy, didn't you??)
loose-leaf paper
page protectors (1, maybe 3)
binder pockets, tabbed (7-8)
Bible
pen
other prayer resources

1.  Prepare your prayer keeper.  Choose/purchase a 3-ring binder (at least 1" or 1-1/2" as it will eventually get pretty full) and label it as your prayer journal.  For those who are more creative, you can get one of those fancy binders that have the option of inserting a paper on the front of the binder...giving you the opportunity to add some flare to your journal by showcasing your artistic skills to inspire yourself each time you look at the binder.

2.  Prepare a prayer schedule.  Make a list of everyone you are going to pray for...you will organize them all in a bit.  Just get them written down.  Your immediate family, parents, siblings (& their families), cousins, work colleagues, church ministries, friends, political people, etc.  Once you have everyone listed, then start organizing them into days of the week.  Your immediate family should be listed every day.  Try to spread out people over all the days of the week so you don't have one night that has a bunch of people and other nights that don't hardly have anyone.  Or, if that is what would work for your schedule, then do that.  Whatever works best for you right now is what we're shooting for.  Not for perfection.  A perfect prayer list doesn't do anyone any good if it's not used because too much time was spent trying to get it perfect.
Here is the list for my 10 year old once we organized it into days (I removed names and generalized for anonymity on here, but on his list everyone is listed by name so he can pray for them by NAME):

Monday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
Grandparents (listed individually)
Uncle & Aunt 1, cousin 1, cousin 2, cousin 3
Uncle & Aunt 2, cousin 4, cousin 5, cousin 6, cousin 7
Uncle & Aunt 3, cousin 8, cousin 9
Tuesday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
teacher at school, principal at school
teacher for Sunday School, AWANA leader
pastors at church
Wednesday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
(Wednesday is a short night as we have AWANA and later bedtimes on that night)
Thursday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
President Obama
Senators John Thune & Tim Johnson
Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Mayor Mike Heuther
city council, police department, fire department, etc.
Friday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
friends
missionaries
world problems

An adult version of this could look like:

Monday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Parents (listed individually)
Grandparents (listed individually)
Sibling 1 & Wife, neices and nephew
Sibling 2 & Wife, nephews and neice
Sibling 3 & Wife, nephews
Tuesday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
teachers at kids' school, principal at school
teachers for Sunday School, AWANA leaders
pastors at church (we pray for pastors on Tuesday, especially as Head Pastor starts preparations for Sunday's sermon)
Wednesday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Business, employees, tenants
Church ministries involved in or that need prayer
Thursday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
President Obama
Senators John Thune & Tim Johnson
Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Mayor Mike Heuther
city council, police department, fire department, etc.
Friday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
friends
missionaries
world problems
Saturday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Worship service on Sunday
Anything else left from week


Now this is just a plan of who to pray for and when so you don't habitually miss someone every week.  This is not to say that you couldn't pray for things on different days if a situation arose that warranted prayer!  If we'd had this in place back in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit on Monday, August 29th we would NOT have waited until Friday to pray for those in New Orleans and the Gulf who were affected by the hurricane just because 'world problems' were scheduled for Fridays.  Flexibility is the key to this plan as it is to any plan.  The plan is supposed to help you be as consistent as you can be and to help you remember to pray for everyone who is important to you.  The plan is not there to make you feel guilty when you get behind or to be something you get held up on.  You are the one controlling who you're praying for!  So if you find yourself getting overwhelmed quite a bit, break your schedule down into a 2 week rotation.  Then you can eventually build up to the every week layout once you get the hang of it.

Once you have your prayer schedule determined, type it up on the computer, write it out in calligraphy.  Whatever you need to do to satisfy your Type A or creative personality - but make a copy of it, put it in a page protector and put it in the front of your binder.


3.  Prepare your resources.  Grab your binder pockets and label them for each day of your prayer schedule.  Also label one as 'Every Day'.  Then, gather various prayer resources to use as you pray for all these people on your list.  The Navigators (or Navpress) has many prayer cards for different topics that are useful.  Voice of the Martyrs is a good resource for praying for those being martyred for their beliefs around the world.  Does your church support missionaries?  They usually have letters from the missionaries - or, you can get email updates directly from the missionaries to be up-to-date on their prayer needs.  Above all, there are MANY prayer resources out there.  Use them.  And, when you grow tired of them, find new ones.

Or, you can create your own prayer resources by writing Scripture in a notebook, organized by subject to refer to.  For example, a friend of yours is struggling on being a godly wife to her husband who is not a believer.  If you had all the Scriptures on 'struggle' and 'wife' organized, you could refer to those and pray those for your friend.  Some people also call this a 'Concordance' and if you would like the immediate organization of all Scripture by topic, I would suggest getting one that corresponds with whatever version of the bible you have.  I have copies of my own Navigators cards in my son's binder for him to use as he prays. 

Once you have your prayer resources gathered, put them in the corresponding pocket so you can find them easily on the day you need them.


4.  Prepare your writing tools.  Add the loose-leaf paper sheets between your schedule and your pockets.  Put your journaling pen in the front pocket (or wherever else you want to).  I really don't care where you put the pen, as long as you know you have a pen to use when you journal.  You'd hate to spoil all this hard work with the excuse "I don't have a pen handy" now, would you?? 


Your prayer journal is almost ready...

4 Worship Fridays: Can We Even Sing in the Same Room?

Bob Kauflin of Sovereign Grace Ministries is speaking in this clip about the discrepency of how can we teach biblical values of worship if we can't even sing in the same room together.  Our church DOES sing in the same room together....meaning, we have a blend of traditional and contemporary worship styles mixed into each of our services and don't split them out into a traditional service and a contemporary service.  But we still struggle as a church with people relying more on their own personal preferences than on biblical examples of worship that encompass the preferences of all our members.





Why do I blog? 

Short answer - I'm not really sure yet!  haha  Still trying to get this all figured out.  :)

Long answer - I think I started this blog because I had more that I wanted to say than what would fit in a Facebook status update.  Information to share.  Ideas to ponder.  Grace to give.  Kinda like when you're waiting in line a looooong time and start visiting with those in front of or behind you to help pass the time.

Ooo, that almost sounds like something there....

 'Worshipping While I Wait' is like waiting in the Express Lane for someone who decided to ignore the "12 Items or Less" sign and plop their whole, overflowing cart full of stuff on the conveyor belt.  We're waiting for His glorious return...and in the meantime, we're chatting while we stand in line.

Join me if you'd like!  :)

For more posts in this series click here.

4 Worship Fridays: Teaching Children to Worship God

Here is an excellent resource for teaching children how to worship God from Sovereign Grace Minisries. And, really, it would be good for all of us as we're all 'children of God', yes??

Training Children to Worship God



For more posts in this series click here.

Bloom Where You're Planted

We finally got rid of it.  The towering blossom I've been nursing along since April.  It was as tall as my kitchen window.  And, it could barely stand up by itself anymore because its base was too small with not enough room to grow out its roots; a tiny hand-painted pot that would have been better suited for some other flower, and by 'other' I really mean shorter. 

But this flower of ours, this leaning-tower-of-daisies, definitely gets an A+ for effort.  It grew and grew and grew AND GREW...and then finally bloomed some time in the beginning of July.  Despite the undersized pot it had been planted in.  What kind of teacher plants tall daisies in a mini-pot for a 2nd grade Mother's Day project?  At least we were successful in getting blooms this year - last year's Mother's Day project never bloomed because my daughter had unfortunately planted the seeds too deeply under the dirt.

But back to this year's flower  - it definitely bloomed where it was planted!  Now, maybe you've heard that phrase before but my daily reminder of it for the past 4+ months has made me think of some interesting reflections on this phrase and what it means to us as children of God. 

You see, God refers to us as flowers a few times:
- In Matthew 6:28 we're told to not worry about clothing because God clothes the lillies of the field, and does so with more glory than Solomon was ever clothed in.

- Hosea 14:5 refers to Israel as blossoming like lillies if they return to God and repent.

- In Psalm 103:15 God says we flourish as flowers of the field, but once the flowers are gone, the place they once were acknowledges them no more.

What insights did my summertime window decor give me?

1)  Our flower didn't think "If I can't grow in the most beautiful garden, I'm not gonna grow at all."
How many of us Christians think we have to be going to a beautifully decorated and wonderfully managed church or have a charasmatic preacher or have to do a study by a well-known author in order to grow in God's word?  Or, how many of us fall into the trap of saying things like "Someday when this or that happens I'll do better with my daily devotions" or "If I only had this or that I could be more devoted in my walk."  When we do these things we're acting just like a brazen flower bold enough to say to God "I'm not gonna grow here!"

2)  Our flower didn't worry about its water supply, sunlight, or dirt.  It relied on us for its daily needs.
God's grace is given to us on a daily basis, on an as-needed basis.  Why do we think God should give us an advance on the grace we will receive from Him in the days ahead?  Would it have made sense for me to give the flower all it's supply of water for the summer back in the month April?  Why do we then think God should give us any more grace than what we need for getting through TODAY.  2 Corinthians 12:9 says "His grace is sufficient"...and that means sufficient for today.  This also means we need to be close to God each day to fill up on His 'dose' of grace for us.

3)  On days when sunlight was scarce our flower didn't start growing towards our indoor lighting and give up completely on sunlight.  Even though it was a cloudy and subdued-sun day, our flower knew sunlight was still best for its growth.
The only thing that will help us grow is His Light, His Son.  And we need to rely on Him even when we feel (or it may appear) that something else would be better for us, something of this world.  Like a large savings account to save us when we lose our job.  Or a TV show to make us feel like we have meaningful relationships.  Alcohol or drugs to soothe our worries.  Busyness to drown out the lonliness.  Nothing will help us except for Jesus Christ.  Nothing will fill the emptiness like Jesus Christ.  Nothing will satisfy us but Him.  He is our source of life, just as sunlight and water are life to a flower. 

Photo Credit

Just like the flowers in the field obey His command,

we should be blooming wherever HE has planted us.

 

Whatever season we are in right now,
God expects us to turn our faces toward Him,  

just as a flower turns towards the sun, 

to receive our life and strength.  

Then others around us can enjoy our beauty;

beauty that reflects the care of our Creator, 

the power of our Maker,

the faithfulness of our Sustainer.

Bloom, sister, bloom

and bring glory to your Father.

Here's my little flower holding her flower. :)

Would've Beens

I am thinking about some people this week who are mourning a family member lost in '02.  Maybe they are saying things like "He would have been this old; he would have been married by now; he maybe would have been a father by now."

Most of us have someone who we remember, either at the anniversary of their death or when their birthday rolls around, that we go through the Would've Beens with.  I have some grandparents and a father.  My mom has parents and a husband.  My cousins have a brother.  My in-laws have a son. 

Maybe you don't have someone to think about yet; you will someday.  Did you know that 100% of people on earth die?   :)

But what about ourselves?  Do we ever go through the Would've Beens with ourselves?  Like, I would've been 20 lbs lighter by now if I'd have started that weight loss program last year.  Or, the basement would've been done by now if we weren't so busy.  Or better yet, my kids would've been healthier by now if I had been more consistent with exercise and cooking healthy meals this last year.

The Would've Beens are good for reminiscing about those we've lost - it's our way to remember them and keep their memory alive.  But on the other hand, maybe the would've beens wouldn't have been because we don't know where their life path would have gone if they were still alive.   We don't know and we won't ever know because it wasn't part of God's plan.

Photo Credit

The difference between them and us is we ARE still here...we CAN still make a difference in what would have been, in what could be.  Because if we're still here, that means God has something for us to do. 

But sometimes we get stuck so much in the past and weighed down so much by our guilt of what could have been if we'd just done this or that, we can't get moving in the right direction. 

Instead, we need to focus on what COULD be, on where we can start TODAY to start on the path of where we'd like to go, of where we feel God pulling us.  Taking baby steps towards the goals and plans we make and adjusting along the way as God shows us His will.

Then, a year from now, or maybe two or three, our Would've Beens have become our realities instead of our missed opportunities. 

With God's strength, guidance, and grace we can make it happen!

Travis Cottrell book on worship

You can preorder a book by my favorite worship leader to be released on October 8, 2010. 

Click on the pic to get yours!

Having Fun and Ruminatin'

I have been having fun playing around with design on here - creating buttons, grabbing buttons, making headers, etc. etc.  But I realized I haven't gotten anything with any 'meat' on here for you to chew on in awhile. 

That reminds me of this horrible steak I once had.  I only had a fairly 'small' piece of it.  But once I got it in my mouth it felt GINORMOUS and boy, was it tough.  And by tough, I mean like chewing on a piece of leather kind of tough! 

I chewed and chewed and chewed and CHEWED on that piece of meat until I felt like my jaw was going to lock shut!  Do you know what ruminate means?  It's what cows do when they're chewing their cuds. 

It's what I was doing to that piece of tough meat. 

It's also what we're supposed to do with God's word. 

We're supposed to ruminate on God's words and turn them over and over in our heads.  You know, like how you do when you're obsessed with a problem you have with someone, replaying conversations with them over and over in your head.  Or when you can't stop thinking about a trial someone is facing.  Or maybe when YOU'RE in the trial and it's all you can see, covering over you like a heavy wool blanket, making it hard to breath. 

Meditating on God's word is not an emptying of the mind like Eastern Meditation is, but is instead a filling of the mind with the things God wants us to remember when the going gets tough.  Focusing on things like His character, His promises, and His works helps us take the focus off ourselves and our own temporary struggles.

So why not grab a piece of 'meat' in God's Word and chew on it today!



What do you find troublesome about meditating on God's Word? 
What takes up most of your thoughts during the day and how can you take steps to meditate more on God?