Extraordinary Faith for Everyday Life
Thankfulness is never too late right?
Heather and I went up to the hospital today for Dad’s catheter. After only 45 minutes back there, they came to tell us they were done with putting the stent in which we weren’t expecting until tomorrow. He had 85-90% blockage in his main artery but the others looked ok. He is in recovery now and we’re home for a little bit until they get in a room and we can take the girls up. He’s doing really well now, already wanting to come home. That’s when the hard part starts though…taking his medicine every day, exercising and eating right…(right, Dad?!).
Thanks for all the prayers, we appreciate every single one.
I knew the changes were going to come to our youth group but yesterday’s surprised me. I met with K before church yesterday and basically we’re scrapping our entire web site and boiling it down to a one pager. Part of me bristled at the idea. I mean, I worked HARD on the current web site. But part of me knows that it’s not used like it could be and it really could be boiled down to a lot less than it is. I should look at it as on opportunity to develop a web site, learn something new and move on.
Under the advisement of G who has helped take over the band, we’re going to scrap the live band and sing to tracks for awhile while the band practices until they are more sure of themselves. I’m good with this as it needs done but it will be kind of weird doing it. Last night I didn’t sing as a new youth visitor has stepped in since last week and she has an AWESOME voice. Besides timing issues, they were great last night. I felt like the mother bird in the back of the room pushing them out of my nest.
Looks like there’s changes in the horizon on the Sunday School front as well but they may not come until the fall with the new church year.
I always like to say I’m progressive and don’t mind change a bit but I’d say my gut reaction to yesterday told a different story.
My dad just got out of the dr’s office. They are almost sure he has a blockage and will have a catheter tomorrow and probably a stint put in on Friday. This is coming out of nowhere as I just found out this morning he was having chest pains recently. Y’all say a prayer for him, k?
Those are the three words I wrote when I turned my lamp on last night when my brain wouldn’t quite shut down enough to go to sleep at 2am. Is anyone seeing a trend here..I drink caffeine, can’t go to sleep and God gives me a word. Caffeine is from God!! I jest. Sort Of.
So “Ask the Lord”. What does that have to do with anything? You may correctly guess something in the Old Testament since that’s what I’ve been reading every night. Last night we just about finished 1 Samuel and reading about Saul and how he’s chasing poor David everywhere. But what I’ve noticed is every time you turn around, the men of God, including David, are saying “I asked the Lord such and such”. At every turn when they didn’t know what to do, they asked the Lord. And most of the time, God answered and it says something like so David did what the Lord said (up until now anyway).
The part that has me mesmerized though is how much they ask the Lord about what to do or what’s going to happen. And not only how many times they ask, but how many times they obey and then look back and see it turns out exactly as the Lord said it would. Why does that have me mesmerized? The times I have directly asked the Lord what to do, listened for an answer and followed through are few and far between. Of course I keep his commands close and try to obey but in those moments where we don’t know what to do, where it’s not written in the Bible what to do, do we really ask the Lord what to do? Yes, we may in passing ask for an answer in a passing prayer but do we wait on the Holy Spirit in quiet to give us that clarity as the Israelites had so we know when it unfolds that it was the Lord that guided us through it?
God doesn’t only get glory through miracles and wonders or His creations. He also gets glory when we simply “ask the Lord”.
I’m certainly not known for my frugalness but certain money wasters do bother me. Are you familiar with the Antibacterial Soaps from Bath and Body Works? I’m assuming yes because, I mean who isn’t. Well, it REALLY IRRITATES me to pay so much for a bottle of soap and then when there is an inch of soap left in the bottom, it completely quits pumping the soap and all that soap is wasted. Please someone, tell me this happens to them too.
Anyway, at first I started just removing the pump altogether and shaking down the soap to try to use all that was possible then that just started being a pain to do every. time. I had to wash my hands. And with two potty training girls, I was doing that a lot.
Just recently I had my husband take a sharp blade of some sort (I don’t know, it disappeared into the garage and came back the way I wanted it) and cut the bottle down to right above where the soap was. Then, I had a little bowl of soap to sit on my counter. I put this one in my personal bathroom where no one else goes so our guests weren’t forced to use this. But, we used it up like this. And the soap didn’t even dry out without a top. If that freaks you out, I’m sure a layer of saran wrap would do well.
I’m sure the REAL frugal people would do something fantastic like actually make their own soap with all those yummy scents and never spend so much on Bath and Body Works but this works for me!
It’s here! My new theme is up and looking so very cute! I have a few things to tweak but my new design is in!! Much thanks to Jess at Cuppycake Designs. She was so incredibly easy to work with. She took my ideas and ran with them. And so quickly! She just started this weekend and I already have it on my site! Unreal!
I am in UTTER SHOCK over Heath Ledger. Really. I welled up when I found out. I feel so bad. He just had a baby and he was such a talented actor.