Praises and Prayers

Praise God. I woke up today...alive! It was at 4am, but I was alive, nonetheless! Not much to watch on TV in the wee hours of the morning, so I popped in my Mary Tyler Moore DVD and watched a bit of season 2. It lulled me back to sleep for awhile. Praise God for sleep!

I am very sleepy today, but at least I didn't have to get up early (ha ha) and run kids to school. Praise God for Easter and spring (sort of ) break!

Steve came home from work a little under the weather today, but I had our room all picked up and he was able to just go and relax. The girls are up cleaning their rooms, and I'll head up to supervise. We're thankful we're just a little tired and stuffy, and not super sick! Praise God for that too.

We didn't get tons of snow today! Praise the Lord for that too! I wouldn't have cared, but I do worry about drivers out there sliding around.

I could go on and on about praises. I have so many!

I've been reading another Joyce book, down on my shelf there to the right. It's about the power of simple prayer (thus titled). It's amazing how easy prayer can be! I'm learning about praying in my own and praying in the Spirit. One is where I lead, and the other is where I allow God to put things on my heart to pray about. One could be a prayer where I'm searching for words, the other, a prayer where the words just flow. God hears them all, yes, but an effective prayer is one that is asking God to work inside us, not just provide jobs, health issues, and other "surface" things, for lack of a better word. It's not that those things are insignificant to God. He cares about everything about you! It's just that our prayers can be more effective if we are asking God to help us pray. One line in Joyce's book that she suggests as a prayer is simple, "Lord, teach me to pray." How simple is that?

We all have a long list of prayer requests. People in need of a physical touch, a spiritual healing, a job situation, etc... the list just grows. Joyce explains that while it's important to pray for situations and people around you, there are some that you will no longer feel burdened to pray for. You shouldn't feel guilty when this happens. It's probably that God has placed it in someone else's hands for now. That opens you up to let God place someone or something new on your heart to pray about.

I really don't like to paraphrase this book. It is rich in information and should be read slowly. There are many references to praying in the Bible as well. We can learn from those around us, however, we should never compare our praying style to someone else's. God enjoys hearing from all of us as long as it's coming from our hearts!

Joyce gave some good examples of praying through frustration that will most likely save me today! My girls have started cleaning, and the arguments have begun! Instead of whining and complaining to God about it, I will have to ask for his love to guide me, and for wisdom in handling the situation. This will prevent me from yelling, which will make us all more productive.

Thank God for everything, and pray about everything! AMEN!