Be careful what you pray for...

"I've been praying that the Lord would not abandon our country to our evil minds. That He would bring a revival of Himself to this country. May He start with you and I."

That was the ending sentence I finished my last post with.

This morning I was working on a Bible Study I'm doing with some absolutely inspiring women of God at my church, and Luke 6 was part of the study on building a solid foundation. It is part of a large teaching of Jesus, beginning with the beatttitudes and ending with the parable of the man who builds a house on a strong foundation. So, we studied the whole of the chapter to learn about what Jesus says we should focus on to be building this strong foundation. Make's perfect sense, it's the same sermon.

It has been a long time since I really felt God call me out so directly through Scripture.

Luke 6:43-45 says, "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by the kind of fruit it produces. Figs never grow on thornbushes or grapes on bramble bushes. A good person produces good deeds from a good heart, and an evil person produces evil deeds from an evil heart. Whatever is in your heart determines what you say."

Confession: Yesterday I was extremely and unnecessarily rude to someone on the phone who was part of a larger problem impeding my ability to do my work. I knew it wasn't her fault that paperwork kept getting lost, but still treated her as if it were. I hung up the phone and felt immediately guilty, so I looked her up and apologized. She accepted.

I still felt guilty about it.

"Whatever is in your heart determines what you say."

God wasn't in my heart. My own sin was. My evil mind had taken over.

I prayed that the Lord wouldn't abandon us to our evil minds...

Thank you, sweet, merciful and forgiving Lord, for answering my prayer. For reminding me, for teaching me, for disciplining me.

This needs to be one passage I put to memory.

Prayer for our Nation

I was forwarded Billy Graham's prayer by a friend, and wanted to share it.

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know Your Word says, 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.

We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression. We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and Set us free.

Amen!

Amen, Billy. Amen.

I've been trying to pray with some frequency this verse over America. Romans 1:28-32 says "When they refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every king of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deceeption, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. They are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they go right ahead and do them anyway. And worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too."

I've been praying that the Lord would not abandon our country to our evil minds. That He would bring a revival of Himself to this country. May He start with you and I.

Twitchy

I'm feeling twitchy. Like, jump out of my skin, mind racing so fast it hurts twitchy.

I'm sure it has something to do with the fact that, after 3 weeks of having a cold I finally went to the doctor and was told I have sinusitis and an infection and she wasn't completely convinced I didn't have strep. So, basically, after living with mucous flowing freely from my body from every orifice, my body decided to pack even more of it in any available cavity like those crazy shirtless football fans pack into a stadium.

I know you're all grateful for that mental image.

I'm sure it has to do with the fact that I have been sitting at this god-forsaken desk for months now with what feels like the world crashing about my shoulders. I'm just going to succumb to it and start wearing camo and helmets to work, though I'll leave weapons at home. Trying fiercely to remember that the Lord provides for the sparrows, and He cares more for me than the sparrows. Yes, I have been blessed even during this difficult economic time. Daniel and I both have jobs right now, we have an apartment that we can afford and we can put food on the table.

It's hard to keep my mind on this when I hear that 1 in 50 kids is homeless... what? The Lord cares for those kids more than the sparrows... what are they doing homeless? Lord, where is the justice in that? Poor little kids; I don't get it. I know everyone struggles with these thoughts at times, and I know that God didn't create it this way, that our sin is what destroyed the world. But boy it's hard to reconcile that with a hurting heart. So, I just imagine what His must feel like, because those are His creation... God's heart must hurt a lot right now. For a lot of reasons.

I'm also sure it has to do with the fact that I just want to get away for a while. Away from people, away from noises, away from people depending on me for things. Today has been a real struggle, my head is pounding at the slightest noise and I don't have anything left to give, then I find that a client thought I had been rude. Sigh. I admit, I'm not well versed in "legalese" so when a question was asked regarding it, I took a message. I don't like being definitive about something I don't know about. I also wasn't chatty, I listened, I answered that I was unsure and took a number. Evidently that's bad?

I also need to go to the grocery store... but I just don't feel like facing Wal-Mart or the creepy man that stares in the Food Lion. So, I guess it's PB&J tonight! I don't know though... maybe I'll stop long enough to grab a bottle of Sangria... that and a bath has real possibility. Oh, and I forgot! I have homemade hot fudge, those three things combined will do me some good.

I'm off to clean the tub!

Snow Day!

This is what we woke up to on Monday morning, crazy thing is, it is now Friday and it's supposed to be 70 degrees... I love the south! It was beautiful. Daniel and I both had a day off and I wanted to spend it playing with Maddie, our precious little dog, cleaning the house and lounging around. Well, first thing, we got all dressed up in warm clothes and took Maddie out for a walk and a bit of play. Here is Daniel and Maddie, I think this picture nicely shows the depth of the snow.

There is something so beautiful, quiet and renewing about snow. Especially untouched snow. It makes me feel better about the world to see everything so fresh. Kind of like the new green of spring.

Here's our sweet little Maddie! :) There is something so awesome about dogs. Every time I see her, doesn't matter if I've just stepped into another room, her tail goes nuts! I don't think there is anyone else who is that excited just to see me. It's awesome.

I loved this picture. The ice was so heavy on that tree, I loved the arch that it made. And Maddie and Daniel's footprints. Beautiful.

And here is a picture of the snowball fight we had at Brett and Carrie's. Daniel and I love this family. So, we didn't get all the housework done... it was better!

We had a wonderful day!