Don’t Stop Praying

I am thankful…

~ for Bear.  He’s such a great dog.  He’s been a relatively easy puppy, very smart and learning quickly.  My favorite is how he and Tatum K love each other.  They greet each other each morning with enthusiastic kisses, and just roll all over the floor together.  I’m blown away that Bear clearly recognizes and respects the difference between Tatum and the other children…he is so much more gentle and tender with her, and puts up with her squeezing him and over-loving him.  I can tell they are going to be best friends.  Love to have him riding along in the bus to and from school.  He MAY be just the SLIGHTEST bit spoiled. 

~ for my latest favorite salad recipe: crunchy chickpeas, juicy tomatoes, and creamy avocados tossed with green onions, cilantro, lime, and olive oil!  It is so tasty!

~ for a fun, albeit chilly first baseball game of the season for Cooper.  He had a great game, and was stealing bases left and right!  Great start to the season!

~ for a great tournament for Carson Grace’s softball team.  They traveled to Frisco and won 2 out of 3 games.  We couldn’t make it to watch, but I was super thankful for the ability to follow the game live via an app on my phone!  

~ for my awesome rockstar husband, who was a pacer with Uncle Caleb for the Fresh 15K yesterday morning.  The kids and I loaded up the bus to cheer for him, and after an hour of driving in circles and backtracking around the blocked off streets along the race route, we FINALLY found a place to park and walked A MILE IN THE RAIN, arriving at the Finish Line: 5 minutes before they crossed!!!!!  So proud of Josh, who nailed his goal pace, and persevered through the challenging course despite back and knee injuries.  

~ for another rockstar: our friend Mason who kicked leukemia’s butt and took his very last dose of chemo last week.  Mason is a brave boy who overcame trial after trial and side effect after side effect.   And his family never lost heart or let go of their faith. Such a joy to celebrate these milestones. 

~ for Sawyer’s tender heart during worship.  Today at church, unprompted, he began to raise his hands.  He sang along, and swayed back and forth with his hands in the air.  Then, he abruptly got down on his knees in the aisle of the church, bowing his face to the floor of until worship was over.  It was priceless.  Maybe he was pretending, or copying what he sees others do.  Who knows.  It doesn’t matter.  I know the Lord sees his innocent little heart inclined to Him and is pleased.  I asked Sawyer afterward, and he said simply, “I wanted to make God happy.”  

~ I WAS super excited to share a project that I have been painstakingly working on all week, stripping a unique old end table we’ve had for years.  It had an outdated dark stain that I stripped, planed, sanded, and then bleached to get to a far lighter, almost driftwood look.  Turned out great.  Unfortunately, I guess all the motion and commotion didn’t agree with it, because the day after I moved the completed table into the house and got it all staged cute, all of a sudden, the beautiful glass base of the table shattered!  SO SAD!  But times like these make me extra thankful for my junker’s heart, because we always have random table bases tucked away somewhere, and Josh got it all fixed up.  I sure was bummed about that awesome glass base though. 

~ and I’m so excited for Carson Grace on her latest adventure.  She is currently in Washington DC with her senior class for the week.  I dropped her at the school at 2am, they flew out of Dallas at 7, and hit the ground running in DC taking in the sites.  Praying for the students to have a safe and phenomenal trip, one of the last events they’ll go through together before graduation.  Man, I miss that girl.  

My heart has been heavy this week.  So many people I love are hurting, weighted down by some tremendous burdens.  And I can’t do one thing.  There’s no answer, no fix, no remedy.  I mean, of course, Jesus is the remedy.  If we know Him, we know that.   But when the people we love hurt, we hurt.  There’s just no way to take that away. But we can do the only thing we can do…we pray.  We reach out.  We remember.  And don’t stop praying, and reaching out, and remembering.  We don’t have to have perfect poetic words of encouragement that no one has ever said before.  Or come up with THE ONE SCRIPTURE that is going to enlighten the situation and give a fresh perspective and change everything.  That’s God’s department.  He’s the One in the miracle department.  Keep praying for your friends, friends.  He listens.  Prayer changes things, and it changes us.  Don’t lose heart.  I know you have been praying for Baby Lucas – don’t stop!  My pastor friend received his heavenly healing…he is with Jesus now, right where he wanted to be.  But please keep praying for his family and his church.  And please add another this week.  Brian is my friend’s husband, and his family is eagerly waiting for him to wake up from emergency heart surgery several weeks ago.  You can keep up with the updates here www.caringbridge.org/visit/brianwilhoite

Keep praying and looking for the blessings around you, and let’s lift one another day by day a step closer to the Throne.  Maybe I’ll be strong for you today, and then you’ll be strong for me tomorrow.  And God is always working, even when we cannot see.  And be kinder than you think you have to be.  You never know what someone is walking through.  Thanks for giving thanks with me. 

“Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”  Galatians 6:2 

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.”  Ecclesiastes 4:9-12