Hallowed Be Your Name

One of mine and hubby's favourite reads is John Piper. Hubby reads his books, I read his website. This week on Desiring God, John Piper's website, he had this article on prayer:

Pray like this

I wanted to pass it along. Prayer is something that I have struggled with a lot. Not only to be more disciplined with it but also to understand just what the point is, and exactly what is the right way to pray. When I saw his headline 'Pray Like This' it got my attention right away. I love how straightforward it is. Say it like it is, right? :) Here are a couple small quotes from the link I gave you just to wet the appetite again.

“You do not have because you do not ask” means prayer causes things to happen that do not happen if the prayers don’t happen.

If your joy in God is small, this may be part of the reason. Pray . . . that your joy may be full.

The first thing that Jesus tells us to ask God to do—mark this! The first thing. The head of the list. Above all others. Most central. Most supreme. Most overarching. Most all-encompassing—the first thing he tells us to ask God to do is that God would cause his name to be hallowed. The first, and all-pervasive, all-influencing, all-controlling concern in prayer is to plead with God that God would make his name supremely valuable in the minds and hearts of people.

This stuff is important. I know that if I left a link to a gorgeous picture or an awesome recipe you would all check it, but I have my doubts for a link on prayer. That's the way it is most of the time. Let this not be one of those times. :) In this new year of 2008 let's get down to business and start pray without ceasing and just see what the Lord will do!

Reminder

*If you read my blog but don't do BRF and don't care to, please skip first paragraph, but I may need your help in the second one. :)

This is a friendly little reminder to all of you out there who are part of Book Review Friday, or wish to be, that Friday is coming soon. Philemon is such a little book that even if you haven't gotten around to reading it yet you could still read it at least 6 times before Friday if you wanted to. Seriously. (For my others 'serious' statements see the previous posts. :) And also, if you read along with us but do not have a blog feel free to email a review to me and I'll post it for you, with or without your name as you choose. You see, I have this Wordpress blog that is just sitting there and they won't let me delete it so I figure it's still good for something. I'll just post non-blogger BRF posts on it... if you want. :)

Is there anyone out there in my little bloggy world that would have a clue about good math programs for children with dyslexia? Many dyslexics do well in math, we're not one of those people, and we would appreciate any help in pointing us in the right direction. Thanks so much.

3 Random things

I don't have much to blog about but feel like posting something. So here are 3 random things I'll share with you all. :)

1. Last week we were waiting for the 'heavy snowfall warning' to actually produce some snow. The kids love snow. My daughter loves potatoes too, a lot. So when I told her it was finally snowing she asked me this, "Are the snowflakes as big as the hash browns I had yet?"
She was perfectly serious.

2. Today at lunch my youngest boy asked the blessing. His prayers always have a lot of 'And I pray that....' in it. The very last request of his was, "And I pray that daddy & Uncle J will shoot a grizzly bear. Amen."
He was perfectly serious.

3. Hubby took a trek up in the attic this morning and found a bunch of these....


Our home is almost 200 years old and this wood is the same age. It looks like the wood is wet but it's just got a bit of paint or something on the end. They were too long to try to get downstairs and out the door. He's thinking of making some cool stuff out of it.
Any orders???? I'm serious.

The Rebelution's latest post.

These guys have more on the ball than most people. I thought I'd pass their latest article for ya'll to read and if you want you can go from there and read the previous postings from the series. If you've never heard of The Rebelution... where have you been?!?! :)
Here is a tiny little snippet from the post. I'm quoting a quote that they used. It's good don't you think?

This is what G.K. Chesterton was talking about when he wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting, it has been found difficult and left untried.”

Anyway, I hope that wets your appetite for more. Here's the link for you:

Why do hard things?

What's on your table?

My daughter was the first one to claim my new puzzle table after Christmas. All the kids were given a puzzle in the stocking and we've been working on hers off and on since Boxing day.
Working on it....


And if you look very closely you'll see part of the wing missing on one of the birds.


Don't ya hate that!?
So we'll be cutting the vacuum bag open and sifting through all the dirt in there to see if we can find it. If it wasn't for the fact that it's a brand new puzzle and it is loved so much by it's owner I wouldn't go to such great lengths as that. But surely it can't be that hard to find a puzzle piece inside my vacuum.

Tell me, what's been on your table??

Book Review Friday: Exodus

First things first, we'll read Philemon every day until next Friday. It's very very short so maybe we could even read it a couple times a day. :) I was kind of shocked to look at my list and find out we haven't done this book yet.

We have a sick little boy in the house and it's taken me this long to get to the computer. And even then many breaks in between typing to get a glass of water help the little guy in the bathroom and tuck blankets around him. But here we go with Exodus. :)

My, it's good to be back. Book review Friday is good for me. But as you will see in my review I really don't have very much to say. But I caught up with ya'll and read the whole thing.
I'm jealous of Moses. "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend." 33:11 "Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai,... that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him." 34:29 Someday I'll get to speak with God face to face too. Meanwhile I'll be reading and praying and getting closer to him that people will see the glory of the Lord shining through in my life.
I loved how the book of Exodus ended. There were a lot of mistakes and sin throughout the whole story but it ends with the glory of the Lord filling and surrounding them. "Then the cloud covered the tabernacle of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle." 40:34 " Whenever the cloud was taken up from above the tabernacle, the children of Israel would go onward in all their journeys." 40:36 There was no doubting that God was ever present for the Israelites now. They had showed that this is exactly what they needed, just as a toddler needs to have their mommy with them 24/7 for teaching, training & discipline. They also knew exactly when to be moving along. Clear concise direction from the Lord and a constant reminder of His presence, care, and also judgement if they did not heed his voice. I have often wished for such readable signs to be put in place for me.
Exodus was good, I wish I had been more diligent. I will be looking forward to some reviews showing up on Mr.Linky as the day passes.

If you don't know what Book Review Friday is just check out the info on my sidebar and feel free to jump in wherever we are! :)

Getting prepared for the new year.

It's a blustery snowy day out there and I'm glad to have an afternoon to just chill out. Our Christmas is every bit as busy as yours. :) Then New Year's eve is a big party at The Homeplace to bring in the new year. Games, way too much food, hot apple cider, The Andy Griffith show for the kids to watch, and waiting for the clock to strike midnight, and then lots of sparklers. It makes for some pretty tired kids on Jan 1st but we wouldn't miss it for anything (except the flu, which did happen one year, ewwww).
Growing up we didn't stay up to bring in the new year... ever. But Grammie & Grampie have everyone over every year now. We love reasons to party. And the very next day after the big bash is a birthday party for one of my chillins. Yep, he was the first baby born for our town that year. And I now have a birthday party to get ready for when everyone is sick of partying and gift giving, and concerts, and mommy just happens to be a little extra tired after it all. I could, and I say could because I would never do it for real:), go crazy and get a little overwhelmed with it all. You would think I'd remember to get prepared for a New Years birthday, especially if it happens every single year, but I haven't caught on yet.
Forget all other resolutions for this year. The ones from last year just didn't work out. They are dead and gone, and I'm okay with that. :) But this year I want to keep a close eye on my calander and be prepared for EVERYTHING, right up to that Jan.1st birthday for 2009. Oh yeah, and I also want to keep a close eye on the budget. My, we are seeing God's blessing on our attempts at being frugal. We want to continue down that road. So calanders & budgets are on the list this year.
So what have you got planned for the new year?