Prayer Solves a Vast Load of Problems

In all things pray and be grateful.

if my people, … shall humble themselves, and pray, … then I will hear from heaven, … and will heal their land.
II Chron. 7:14

As I read the Philosophies of Strawberry Shortcake this morning, I realized how contented I am with my life. Jodi shared her thoughts of home and how her home should be a haven of love and acceptance.

Home, the place, hasn’t always been a haven for me.

That probably comes as no surprise to most people who know me. There have been many times when the world crashed in on my comfort zone and I felt frightened and scared. Those times happen occasionally during life, but the most important parts of those times are what I’ve done about them.

I remember summer days as a child when the trees hung so far over our small town street that they met in the middle and no sunshine got through the dense foliage. And the summer morning when I was 9 and my grandmother came home from Camp Meeting to find my hair had been cut to shoulder length. She hugged me, cried and went home without saying another word to me. That moment changed me.

Inside, I hadn’t changed, but my hair was shorter and that made me imperfect.

It wasn’t the first time I realized that life wasn’t always perfect, but it was the first time it really made a difference to me.

During that time, I realized that I wanted the sanctity of a life filled with love and compassion, whether or not I was perfect. Home up until then had been hot chocolate and cinnamon rolls on cold winter days, tulips blooming in the springtime and shaded back roads where every day included love and pleasant memories along with the sticks and stones that never quite got around to being a problem in my life.

Prayer had been part of my life for many years back then, but it became a greater part of my life. I realized that through prayer and faith, my life could be filled up with love and compassion. I could accept the imperfections that surrounded me and still feel like I was walking in sunshine. It felt good, and I understood the concept.

At 49, I was introduced to a candidate for U.S. Senate and once again, reminded that prayer offers a solution. The 2010 election offers our best hope for solution to the current political unrest in this country. And yet, I know that there’s one thing greater than the 2010 election.

God said, “If my people, will humble themselves in prayer, I will hear them from heaven and will heal their land.”

People, we’re imperfect. We have problems, and we can’t fix these problems alone. We need God. We need God to heal our land and fix the problems we’ve created.

It’s time to get on our knees and pray for forgiveness and mercy. “God, please bless America again.”

An Instigator? Who me? Nah…

When people insinuate that I’m an instigator, I wonder why they’d say such a thing… But then… I know.

Yesterday, I was reading a facebook page that belongs to a friend of mine and offered her a great deal on creating a website (for profit), that would make an awesome blog online. She didn’t have enough cash to cover the program and instead started a blog on wordpress. I have a couple here too, so that’s not a big issue. In fact, if you’re thinking about blogging and don’t know what you want to do, I recommend it. One of the most profitable bloggers I know has a free site. Seth Godin started his website on typepad.com and it became so popular that he decided not to change the domain for his blog. Other bloggers have had similar experiences.

Then, there are those who believe their personalized domain name has made a tremendous difference in the popularity of their blog.

For my friend “Strawberry Shortcake” putting her thoughts into print wasn’t such a serious thing as to need a domain. She simply wanted a plac

Meltdown – Making the Move Happen

Somewhere through the process of relocating “the move” got messed up and the housing situation shifted from questionable to crisis. Who knew moving into a house could become such a difficult task?

When purchasing a 5 bedroom house became more difficult by the square foot, I started looking at options. After a couple of trips to a local realtor, I took a tour of the 495th house and wondered when I’d find a house big enough, with enough personality to suite me and the kids, with enough space for any additional activities we wanted to host, and with enough energy to absorb the lives of a family bent on living every moment. Would I ever find such a house?

I’d designed several over the years, but none seemed to fit now. In fact, several of the homes I had designed actually seemed to fall far short of the requirements on my list, and nothing else worked either.

My son jokingly suggested that we buy a high-rise motel and turn the penthouse into our house. Ahem… Sure… When planes no longer fly over Denver – the twin towers isn’t my idea of a way to fall… er… fly. But, honestly, it sounds like a great idea.

When we find the perfect house, the reality is it won’t be the walls or the floor or even the roof that make it perfect. But, it will be what’s inside, who lives there, the things we do and the people we invite in the door that make our home perfect.

We have the wonderful blessing of having a lot of things going on in our home. Besides the fact that I work from home, we home school, the kids have many friends and we have a lot of family and friends who visit, we really like to LIVE in our home. That means we need a lot of space and plenty of storage for those things we aren’t using every day but do use frequently.

That’s why it’s so hard to find a good home.