You Don't See That Every Day

I ran away from home last weekend. My family helped me pack. Now before you think about staging intervention - it was actually a good thing. Every 10 years or so, I go away to a women's retreat. Yeah, 10 years! It took me that long to recover from the last women's retreat I went on. Back in 2004, I managed to make it to 2 different retreats ... and at/during both of them, something tragic happened. One involved the death of a neighbor's child, the other involved my miscarriage. So, maybe way down deep inside I had subconscious reservations about going again. Or maybe life just got busy with babies and school kids and health issues. And beyond that, my fears kept me home. Some of you know about my chronic hives story. They are better; but lately I have been having gut reactions to some foods, not just hives reactions. So when I first heard about the retreat, which was going to be held at the coast, I was excited! because I love going to the beach. Even the cold, Oregon b...

There were many different options to title this post. The title is such an important piece of the writing. Get the wrong title, and nobody reads it. Most English teachers might tell you the opening sentence needs to be the grabber, but I think the title needs to grab you first. And this is why I didn't put one on this post. Because there are so many I could have used! Here's a few for you to pick from: Transitions; Ch-ch-ch-changes; Wonder twins - activate ! Transformers! A New Life Goodbye 15 And there was much rejoicing . So can you tell we're going through something big around here? Did the titles tell you anything? For two years or so, we have been praying for a change in job for the Mr. His weeks and weeks of traveling for work were getting really old; along with some other headaches that his job brought. We had a taste of a possible new job last summer, but that one fell through and we really wrestled with accepting God's will at that point. But we kep...

I saw this on another blog I read and it sums up much of what I am feeling. I couldn't even make it through saying grace at supper tonight. My Christmas is most likely going to be very special, and yet my heart hurts, really hurts for the people who are facing a very painful holiday. As I was praying last night for those families, others were brought to mind: The emergency responders, those who had to go into the school and take care of the bodies; those who have to perform the funerals; those who have to deal with the paperwork and details that death brings; those who have to clean up the school building before the children return. Please remember to pray for them too.

5 Then Joshua said to the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do wonders among you."  Our pastor had a sermon on the passage of Chapter 3 of the book of Joshua. Good stuff about being prepared. My favorite verse from the whole passage was verse 5. To paraphrase: Prepare yourself and God will do great things! So am I preparing? Am I getting ready? For what? What am I spending my time on? Some great books have also crossed my radar this week; one on Prayer by Philip Yancey; another on burdens called The bumps are what you climb on ; a third called Grace Based Parenting, by Tim Kimmel. I'm focusing on prayer and consistency this new year. For so long I have felt a little overwhelmed by the whole idea of prayer and how/if/why/where/when it works. I've read Stormie O'Martian's books on prayer; and What Happens When Women Pray in the past. But I am a work in progress, so I go to other books on prayer. But then a verse from my Bible study...