Time with Mom and Sisters

During the month of March, Bev traveled from Texas, Kaye from Arkansas and I from the southeast corner of Kansas to spend a few days with Mom in Girard.  This usually only happens once a year that we spend time together in our hometown (without our families).  We had big plans to do a lot of things for Mom but time got away from us.  We were able to assemble a couple of bathroom shelving units for her and do a thorough cleaning on her refrigerator.  Hopefully, there will be another time to do some other things.  We had a lot of fun being together, playing games, eating at Chicken Mary's with some of our Brunk relatives, etc.  This picture was taken at Mom's house.

 After spending 3 days in Girard, we then traveled to NWA to visit Crystal Bridges Museum.  Our cousin Holly Viets accompanied us.  This is a really neat "free" museum funded by Sam Walton's daughter.  We highly recommend you visiting when you are in the area.  They have a great little restuarant with delicious food there as well.  Here we are eating lunch....

 For a period of time, they have the Norman Rockwall exhibit.  It does cost to go through it, but it was very interesting and worth the money.  We were not allowed to take any pictures in this exhibit.  The pictures below were in the "free" part of the museum that has more "contemporary" art.

Waiting on Kaye to bring the car to get us.

After a fun day there, we met some of our kids for dinner that evening and then stayed the night at Kaye and Rob's lakehouse in Bella Vista before heading different directions to our homes on Friday.

 

It was a memorable week!

My Continuing Journey in Prayer

As a pastor’s wife for over 39 years, one of the passions that has developed in my life is an appreciation for the great privilege of prayer.  I am so thankful that I do not have to go to someone here on earth to ask him or her to present my heart’s petitions to the Lord.  Someone once said that as children of God, just as our children do, we can enter right into the presence of our Lord, crawl up into His lap, and pour our hearts out to Him.  What an honor!  What a joy!

 However, as much as I appreciate that I can do that, I found myself having such a hard time spending quality time in prayer (and still do!).  Satan makes sure of that.  A little over 20 years ago, I attended a women’s retreat.  I don’t even remember the speaker’s name but the words of wisdom she shared with me has greatly impacted my prayer life!  She talked about “organizing” our prayer life with creating a prayer book and journaling.  I want to use this blog posting to talk about those things.  The picture below was my first prayer book.  A group of the gals at my church (Calvary Baptist, Mesquite, TX) got together and made covers for our books. 

This was in the days before digital cameras and the ease of putting pictures into documents. So we cut up pictures and glued to the papers, which is always an option for you if you do not have a computer. The lady at the retreat also suggested we trace handprints on our pages and then when we prayed for that person, we laid our hand on their handprint, which just made it even more personal.

 Jeff's page -- yes he made his hand look so handsome :-)

 Rachel also finished out her hand....she was about 9 years old here

I saw this quote a while back from Beth Moore, “Kids need their Mom to pray in secret WITH the door open!”  I thought that was so good!!  Moms/wives – your family needs to know you are a prayer warrior.  It will be an example they will always remember (and treasure!).  Just an added note:  They also need to see you reading and studying your Bible.  I also encourage you, if at all possible, to start your day off in prayer.  I know that is not easy and will require sacrifice of time and most probably sleep.  But how can we expect God to bless our day if we don’t start that day off with Him.  My prayer book has helped me in so many ways. 

1.      To focus and not chase rabbits or fall asleep!
2.      To remember so many requests that I would otherwise forget
3.      And to rejoice as time goes by where I see how God answered prayer after prayer

As the years went by and my computer expertise grew and also digital pictures became an option, I switched from that older handmade prayer book, to a binder and I printed off pages for each family member, friend, our church family, etc.

 This is the first page in my prayer book

 Jeff's page

 Rachel's page....I am sharing Rach's page and not the boys as I am confident she won't mind :-) (Rachel has her own prayer book as well)

  And then I got my IPad and so now, I created the Publisher document on my computer, save it as a PDF in my Dropbox and it is put on my IPad when I sync it.  So much easier and saves all the ink of printing those pages.

  So with my Bible app (You Version) and my prayer book all right on my IPad, it is very accessible to me and such a blessing during my quiet time.  As I was updating some of my pages the last couple of days, I decided to blog about the importance of a prayer book.  Perhaps you are not like me and have a great memory, but I just can’t remember all the things I want to pray about.  My prayer book is very meaningful and special to me.  It constitutes over 40 pages.  The first several pages are different thoughts on prayer, Scriptures on prayer, etc.  Then I walk through the “ACTS” method:  A:  Adoration/Praise ….. What better way to get your heart in tuned with Him as you begin your prayer time, but to praise our great and mighty God.  We sometimes think that praise and thanksgiving are the same, but they aren’t. Praise is ALL ABOUT GOD – WHO HE IS and Thanksgiving is THANKING HIM FOR ALL HE HAS GIVEN ME!

I have a page where I have Scriptures that teach us to praise the Lord and then another page where I have listed many of God’s attributes that I praise Him for.

I also have a page of choruses that I like to sing aloud in preparation for truly praising and praying.  Singing a chorus or two really adds to my prayer time.  I sure can’t carry a tune, but thankfully no one hears me but God and maybe the cat (smile).

The next section is “C” of ACTS of Prayer – Confession: Definitely the hardest section, at least for me.  I have a Scripture page concerning confessing our sins.  And I have listed many of my “known” sins on this page that I commit way too often!  It’s never any fun to have God’s spotlight search your heart and show you the areas of sin that is there…..but needful in order for me to confess and ask forgiveness.

The next section is the “T” of ACTS of Prayer – Thanksgiving.  My list is long on this page and much longer in my Gratefulness Journal (separate from my Prayer Book).  I am so blessed and have so much to be thankful for.   Another great thought that I heard someone say, “What if I woke up today with only the things I thanked God for yesterday?”  Whew!  So many times, I would wake up with hardly nothing!  Please “focus” on thanksgiving when praying thru this section.  So often I will be thanking the Lord for my husband or one of my children and will start chasing rabbits as to a specific need in their life.  Try to stay with “thankfulness” and then later in your prayer time, you can focus on that need.  There are so many things that we just take for granted, so hopefully by listing many of those things, we will become more grateful for all that God gives us! 

  The last section and the “longest” section will be the “S” of Acts of Prayer – Supplication ….praying for others and myself.  Before using my prayer book, this of course was where the majority of my time was spent, praying for others or for personal needs in my life.  That made my prayer time very out of balance.  Always “asking” but never praising, confessing, or thanking God!  If you use your prayer book wisely, then hopefully you will find balance in your time in God’s presence.

  There are many pages after Supplication for each family member, extended family, for our church, our friends, our country, etc.  I took pictures on my Ipad of some of the pages that I thought might be of benefit to you, if you aren’t sure what to pray for specifically for your family.  I realize these pictures are a little blurry—sorry!  But hopefully it will give you some idea of things to pray for.

I like to pray "Scripture" over my family.....here I am using the armour of God, personalizing it and using it in praying for us.

Another great Scripture to pray over your family

And I just recently added this page of specific things in our lives.  Since the majority of them apply to Jeff and I, our kids, their spouses and the grandchildren, I created a page for that.

As I said earlier, I do have a page for each one as well, with pictures and on the flip side with specific needs for that person.  Again, Jeff's page on the IPad....

And Rachel's page.....

  I was given this guide for praying for children years ago when I attended Bible Study Fellowship.  I faithfully used it for my kids and now for my grandchildren:

In addition to my Prayer Book, I also like to journal.  I usually only do that once a week (instead of using the prayer book).  It’s just writing out my prayers and life happenings, like a letter, to the Lord.  It includes all the good, bad, ugly, sweet, happy and sad times in my life.  These journals (I have stacks of them from the time I started in 1990) are, of course, my private collection.  Although, I do hope that after I die, they may be of special meaning to Jeff, my kids and/or my grandchildren.

PRAYER is such a blessed privilege that no one can take from us.  Thank you, Lord, for wanting us to communicate with you….for loving us so much that you want to spend time daily with us!

 

A February visit from Lainey-Bug

Jeff and I were thrilled when the kids asked us to watch Laine for a few days so that they could attend a marriage conference in Springfield.  We originally were suppose to get the Bug on Thursday, but because we had an inch of sleet here, we had to posptone until Friday.  Jeff and I met Carman and the girls halfway Friday morning.  Here Laine is just after putting her in our vehicle.  She seemed as excited as we were for the time together!  We would have gladly taken Ellie too, but she is still nursing and still dealing with ear infections, so she went with Momma and Daddy to the conference (they hired a local babysitter to watch her while at the meeting).

 She was excited to see Tiger (although he didn't share the excitement - ha)

 Playing with DeDe's toys (most of which were generously given to us by NiNi....aka Leigh Ryan)

 A little big for the Mickey airplane, but she still loves to fly on it

 While DeDe exercised, Laine watched some of her recorded Disney shows

 She wanted to exercise too, but DeDe made sure the power button was off so we had no accidents!

 Laine walked up to Jeff during that second day of being at our house and said: 

"My name is Laine, what is your name?" Jeff replied: "My name is Papa." Laine responded with hand extended: "Nice to meet you Papa, shake my hand!" Too cute!

 

Yep, she got spoiled and ate in the living room while watching Rapzunel

 The next morning, watching her favorite Disney cartoon, "Little Einsteins"

 Bedtime, getting some snuggle time with DeDe

 And Papa

 Saturday evening, we went to Red Lobster to eat with our friends, Paul and Mary Mooney and Missionary Friends, Doyle and Linda Moore.  Mary is coloring with the Bug:

 And because dessert came free with DeDe's meal, but she wasn't allowed to eat it since she's on a diet, Lainey-Bug got to eat it.....ice cream is her favorite!

 I put this little story on Facebook as well, but wanted to share on my blog too:

Sunday mornings are always busy but even more so when you have a two year old to feed, dress, etc. However, after dressing Laine in her little sweater dress and then her saying she is a princess and asking her DeDe to dance with her -- how could I resist!?! (especially with that sad scene from the movie, Courageous, in my memory). So yes, this almost 60 year old grandma danced with her precious princess!!

 Sunday School at First Baptist

 After church, we enjoyed a delicious meal with the Hall family.  So thankful to Judy & Bill Hall and their family for including us every other Sunday in delicious meals and sweet fellowship (and the other Sundays, eating with the French/Shoemaker families...no wonder I've gained weight since moving here!):

 Our missionaries, the Moores, also were included in that wonderful meal

Laine had a ball because of the other children that were there.  Dave and Leigh had the Meier twins for the day and also Donna Langford had her granddaughter, Aubri.  The kiddos got their own special table.  Laine also loved the food....chicken and lots of fruit, her favorites!

 Judy got out her "grandbaby" toys as well.....

  It was very heartwarming for me personally for my granddaughter to play with my late beloved friend, Karen's grandsons!  I can't help but think Karen might have been smiling at the fun!  Aubri was a great big sis to these three active little kiddos (you can only imagine how hard it was to get the 3 youngest ones to sit still long enough to get a picture)! 

 Sunday afternoon, Andy, Carman and Ellie Kate came up.  Andy spoke at First Baptist that evening and did an excellent job.  I wish I would have got a picture of the family all dressed.  But didn't think to get my camera out again till we got home and everyone had put on their pj's.  Here is sweet Ellie.....smiling, but my camera was too slow and only got the end result--too cute!

 Almost got the smile this time......

 The kids all spent the night and so we had a few precious hours this morning with the girls before they had to go home.  Yes, once again, Laine was spoiled and got to eat her breakfast in the living room while she watched Beauty and the Beast:

 She shares her DeDe's love for this movie!

The time went quickly and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute.  Already looking forward in a few weeks to enjoying time with the family again!

Thank you, Andy & Carman, for blessing us with your girl!