Ang Grams: 24 Hours With NO Agenda

Hayden

Ian

Riley

Clayton

These are the pictures I wanted to post last week.

This week was fuller than full. Basketball meeting, MOPS, four work shifts, a day at Mobius with my MOPS table, three of four other meetings of one sort or another, homeschooling, birthday party, Riley's class party at our house, etc, etc, etc. I have been going, and going, and going, kind of like the Energizer Bunny, except with not so much energy. One afternoon, I literally found myself running in my house - darting to the kitchen, back to the computer, down to switch laundry, check my daytimer, back to the kitchen. UGGH!

Which is why the last 24 hours have been so glorious. When I got off work yesterday, and the last snow-covered, hot chocolate mustached little munchkin left our house, I realized that we had absolutely no plans until Monday morning. We have played games, built legos, watched movies, made cookies, helped the kids with their Bible study homework, and made three real meals! I worked on my prayer box, caught up with a few friends on the phone, snuggled with a couple of my little men, took a nap. That is what Sundays are supposed to be like!

The Treasure of Answered Prayers
About my prayer box....I used to keep a recipe box with prayer requests written on color-coded 3x5 cards. I haven't used it for awhile, as some systems work better in some seasons than in others. But I decide this week, that I wanted to get it ready again. So I made tabs for each day of the week, as well as "urgent", "daily", and "verses"...since I like 3x5 cards for verses, too! I have a few things I feel God has told me to pray for daily: immediate family, certain kingdom issues, pressing needs, post partum moms, etc. But for many others, I've decided to set aside a certain day of the week to pray for: extended family, certain issues, national/government issues, etc. This is for intentional prayer. Other prayers are offered continually. As God lays things on my heart, I simply pray for them. Anyway, it was really fun to pull old cards out of my box today and see the things I was praying for "way back when" and know that God had come through.

The whole idea came from a story I read some time back about a family who was going through a lot. At Thanksgiving the adult children were having a hard time finding things to be Thankful for, and couldn't understand why their mom was making such a big to do over Thanksgiving. It had been a horrible year. They about got in a fight at the table over how God had not been there for them and asked the mom what on earth she had to be thankful for. The mom left the table and returned with a "treasure box". She dumped the contents on the table. Cards. A whole pile of them. On each card was a prayer she'd written out. The treasure box was full of her answered prayers. That was her treasure, and her reason for gratefulness.

Bill bought me a treasure box some years ago, and that is what I decided to use it for. It is time to dust it off, and get with it again. :D

Last year, I did a study on the Good Shepherd, which taught how the shepherd folds his sheep. There are so many lessons there, but one that stood out to me was how the shepherd is the one who decides when the sheep need to be in the pen with him, sectioned off in the area where they will get the care they need; and when they can be out of the pen doing other things. I've needed to focus on that this week as the urgency of life situations have kept me from being able to be on top of much of anything at all. I've really had a great time this week watching God come through, as I lay things at His feet, and just ask Him to show me what I need to do next. If I only have 10 minutes a day to make phone calls, who do I need to call? If I only have 15 minutes to work on MOPS details, which ones do I work on? He has prompted over and over again putting people on my heart to check in with...and then sometimes He just asks me to pray and trust that He can accomplish the details when I just ask Him too - He doesn't need me to be Wonder Woman.

So back to the prayer thing...I've had so much fun this week watching God answer prayers. When I lost all the info for a MOPS mom, I prayed God would bring her anyway, even though I never called her. She did. When a mom needed a miracle to get to a dying Father-in-law, we prayed, and God got her there. I could go on and on. It has been amazing, and I'm reminded over and over, how little God needs me. I'm the one that needs Him. I'm simply a vessel. He only needs me to be empty. Sometimes I'm so busy trying to make sure I'm full, I'm too full to be of any use. God can do so much more when I'm simply empty.

In other news...
My mom had an emergency apendectomy today in Springfield. She is recovering peacefully, and should be able to go home from the hospital tomorrow. Thankfully, they caught it in time, and it all went without complication.