"Hi, Dad"

As I was trying to think of a title for this entry. dear Father, the "Hi, Dad!" one grabbed my heart and made me (combination) roll my eyes and close my eyes.  It fits.  Beautifully.  :)

It feels warm and welcoming, like coming home.  I imagine flopping down on the couch and just starting an aimless conversation with You.  I know that we would get to some deep stuff, eventually or maybe even pretty quickly.  I wonder what it would be like to sit there, next to You, with Your arm around my shoulder and maybe my head on Your chest, listening to Your heart.  <deep sigh>

Well:

• Bill, of course, and healing/relief with the cancer and the Alzheimers
• Wanda--also of course!--and her strengthening and stamina.
• Our daughters and protection during the coming storms which have prompted a tornado watch in Berkshire County.
• Joey P and his salvation~and his success at school~and his eventual career choice.

Father, I am going to go sit on the couch now.  :)

Jordan, My Helper

Again, dear Father, I want to commit to praying in actuality when I promise someone I will.  Today, during Bill's chemo treatment, Nicole Patricks asked me to pray for Jordan, her oldest daughter and one of my most beloved helpers in Junior Church.

Father, Jordan has a tremendous heart for You and some cognitive limitations in her brain.  She is so sweet, Lord.  Sometimes, though, she may not keep up with kids of average to above-average intelligence.  So it seems to be at Pineshore Bible Camp in Westminster this week.

At least I think she's at Pineshore.  :)

No matter where she is, her momma reports that Jordan may be struggling not so much with homesickness as with social relationships with her peers.  Please, dear Father, You know Jordan's special and specific needs.  You know that she loves You.  (Remember the story Nicole related about Jordan's sticking up for You when she was in second grade?  She punched a disrespectful boy in the stomach.  Later, when Nicole asked what he said, she replied, "Ungh!"  LOL!!)  She is not quick-witted or sassy or socially comfortable.  Please allow someone strong and sensitive to be led by Your Holy Spirit to see Jordan's awkwardness and to be gentle and welcoming to her.  May a dear one from Your family include Jordan in an understanding and loving way in the banter and fun and especially in the spiritual conversations among the girls, but in a way that doesn't go over Jordan's head.  In Jesus's name~Amen.

Connie's Death



Connie

 Father God, I promised Donna that I would be "praying without ceasing" in response to her request for prayer for Uncle Tom.  I have been trying NOT to promise to pray unless I actually write my commitment down somewhere and then follow up on it in a way that I can confirm.  Hence, this entry.

It's sad to me, Father, that Uncle Tom and Connie probably did not respond favorably to the Good News.  It may be too late for Connie.  It's not too late for Uncle Tom.  So, Father, may I beg You to knock harder on his heart's door?  (Revelation 3:20 "Here I am!  I stand at the door and knock.")  He is very hardened, possibly--probably--in some measure due to his first wife's (may I say it?) "crazy" Christianity.  Tom is an intelligent man.  He doesn't do the emotional thing.  And yet...there is reason, emotion, and relationship in Your message, Your offer.  Please allow the Christians in his family to demonstrate to him Your invitation, Your really-not-crazy love.  Even as I type that, though, I recall the title of Francis Chan's book Crazy Love.  Maybe Your love is crazy.  But it's still real and powerful and important and necessary.

Poor Connie, though, to have lost her mind to Alzheimer's.  She was a very sweet lady, in a spicy kind of way.  :)  Uncle Tom wouldn't have been attracted to someone less feisty, I think.  Mercy, Father!  I know that I really don't know the condition of Connie's heart.  I wish that at the moment of death, or the moment immediately after, You might give each person one final chance to surrender to Your amazing offer of forgiveness and eternal life.  There's nothing in Scripture to tell us that, of course.  Still, there is nothing in Scripture written by anyone who has been at that moment immediately following death, either.  I wish....

Father, death is horrible.  You know that.  That's why You decided to provide a way to beat it.  May we take that provision seriously not only for ourselves but also for those in our worlds who don't understand it yet.  Give us--the Christians in the Nicols family--the chance to show if not to speak to Uncle Tom about it.  In Jesus's name and for His inroads into Uncle Tom's heart~Amen!

Theme from Thoughts

• Our daughters reported that the Christian camp at which they work has experienced some racism among the parents of some campers
• Our oldest daughter's volunteer trip to Tijuana, Mexico, garnered some response from the Mexican consulate this week.
• One of the songs on my Kindle reminded me of the section from Philippians (I think) that talks about Your having "left Your mighty throne in glory" to come to earth for us.

The common theme?  I won't have time to fully explore it tonight, but I see the idea of a parent--the Heavenly Father, the campers' parents, and me--sending or allowing their beloved child to go into a place of possible danger.  In at least two of the examples, the purpose for the journey into potential peril is the rescue of beloved people.  Lord, I embrace this theme for the sake of the Gospel and of the advancement of Your kingdom.  When I become anxious about Amy's time in Tijuana, remind me of this.  Bless her, bless her efforts to pull all this together, and bless her ministry there.  She's doing this for You!  And so am I.  :)  Thank You for this insight.  It helps.

A Quote about Prayer

Frederick Buechner: “Everybody prays whether [you think] of it as praying or not. The odd silence you fall into when something very beautiful is happening or something very good or very bad. The ah-h-h-h! that sometimes floats up out of you as out of a Fourth of July crowd when the sky-rocket bursts over the water. The stammer of pain at somebody else's pain. The stammer of joy at somebody else's joy. Whatever words or sounds you use for sighing with over your own life. These are all prayers in their way. These are all spoken not just to yourself but to something even more familiar than yourself and even more strange than the world.”

 

Father, I don't know a thing about Frederick Buechner other than that he was a Presbyterian minister.  I do like everything about this quote except the end.  "...but to something..." really should be "...but to Someone...."  To YOU.  Amen!

A Few Important Things

1. Father, Christine P. just emailed that she is experiencing some bleeding in her 12th week of pregnancy.  :(   According to her doctor, the baby is still strong and active.  That's good!  Please protect this baby's life and help Christine to be wise in her activity to minimize any risks that her behaviors could affect.
2. Big day for Bill--and Wanda--tomorrow!  Grant them favor in Your eyes, and please have mercy on them by allowing Bill to experience the fewest possible side effects from the chemo.
3. My girls are tired, dear Lord, but they sacrificed so much to be with the Nicols family this weekend.  Would you give them supernatural strength and energy this week along with unusually effective rest?  They are serving You, not that You owe them anything, but You do tend to empower those who are working hard for Your Kingdom.  ???

I need to get ready for bed really soon.  Love You!

Whew

Father...my head is spinning.  Not with pain or ache, but with "stuff."  To think about all the things that are going on, to try to talk to You about them in a meaningful, prayerful way, ah!  That is the challenge!!

Bill: moving forward!  Today I talked with my supervisor and with my human resources coordinator about using the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) to use some time for Bill and Mom.  I'm not sure whether Jackie (my department head) will be as accepting and supportive as the others were, but I am asking You to soften her heart and make her a bit more flexible than she usually is.  I'd like to try the four 10-hour day thing, but I will accept whatever You arrange.  There is an attractiveness about the 4-day work week that I should not deny to You :) since You know everything anyway.  You're the Boss, Lord.  Would you work this out to Your glory and to help Bill and Mom?

My Girls:  I put that in capitals :) because it reminds me of the Temptations' song "My Girl."

I guess you'd say/What can make me feel this way/My girls, my girls, my girls...

I am so thankful for them!  I do not want to make idols of them; I realize that's a risk for some parents, and especially some mothers.  I do want to love and encourage and pray for their blessing.  Father, may I ask that You build Your life into them.  For Amy, I ask that You guide her path to Mexico and beyond to graduate school.  Particularly--I am a mother, after all--I plead with you to keep her safe in that violent city of Tijuana.  For Julie, I ask with gratitude already for fellowship for her.  Thank You for her "job" or perhaps more properly her "ministry" at Lakeside.  Please keep her in Your word and in Your Spirit this summer, enough to carry her through in college where fellowship is much harder to find.

It's almost 10 pm. If I am going to get used to a 10-hour day, I need to have discipline about getting to bed early.

Oh, yes...My husband.  He's not home yet, and I could hear the exhaustion when he called 45 minutes ago.  Please fill him with energy and stamina and alertness to get home safely tonight to me.  Amen!