Precious Prayers

God has given me the opportunity to sponsor a couple of women through our church's Step study, which is a very intense 16-week study for people that want to get to the bottom of any kind of issue: abuse, divorce, addictions, hurts, depression, anger, discontentment, you name it. I met with one of my sponsee's today, and as we were finishing up, Daniel came in and wanted to talk (there's a big surprise). We were about to pray, and he piped up that he wanted to pray. So I granted his request, and he led out:

"Father God, thank you for taking away our dirty hearts and giving us clean hearts. And thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross. And thank you that He took the punishment that we deserved for our sin. Thank you for loving us."
I'm sure he's heard these prayers over and over in Little Village (and hopefully at home...by God's grace!). What a joy to hear these words come from his little heart! He has the most earnest praises.

The other night he had the job of doing the "praise" prayer. (We often assign one child to one type of prayer - praise, thanks, confession, and request). He prayed quite earnestly, and when he stopped, he would start again as he would think of attributes to praise God for. "God thank you that you are so good. And thank you that you are so loving. And I praise you that you are so powerful, you can do anything. And you know everything. And you are wise."

And You reveal Yourself to little children. And that's our hope and prayer. That You would take these four little souls and reveal Your goodness and beauty to them, and give them Life.

More Laughs with the Dan Man

Daniel saw a friend of mine today, and she asked him for a hug.
"No, I'm not going to hug you," he told her.
"Why not? You hugged me last time I saw you. You gave me a big hug. Why don't you give me a big hug today?"
"I'm not going to hug you today," (with a big smile, of course).
I took the little guy gently and turned him to look me in the face, and tried to gently coax him into giving her a hug.
"No, I'm not going to hug her."
"Why not, Daniel?" I asked.
"Because I'm doing a pattern," he says.
"A pattern?"
"Yes. I hugged her last time. I'm not going to hug her today. Then, next time I see her, I'll hug her again. Then the next time I won't. It's a pattern."

We got a good laugh out of that one. Then he asked her what that line was on her chest. Cleavage! Funny boy. He keeps us laughing, for sure!

Go to the Ant (with guns?)

We've been working on memorizing some passages of scripture as a family, and we recently began working on Proverbs 6:6-11. Kris was helping out at church one evening while I was doing "Bible time" with the kids, and we thought it would be fun to make up motions to surprise him the next night. We had a blast.
The next night, we gathered around for Bible time and excitement built as we anticipated performing our motions for Daddy. When the time came, the three boys left the room.
Kris was baffled as to why they suddenly left, and one of them said he needed to get a gun.
"How could they possibly need a gun for their Bible verse?"
I sank a bit lower in my chair, looking guilty. "Actually, they kind of do need a gun. We made up motions. You'll see."

So we did them.
"Go to the ant, O sluggard; (Crawl fingers of one hand along the other hard, like a tiny ant, walking)
consider her ways, and be wise. (Stroke your beard)
Without having any chief, officer, or ruler, (Salute)
she prepares her bread in summer (Knead bread)
and gathers her food in harvest. (Gather food off the ground)
How long will you lie there, O sluggard? (Tap your watch)
When will you arise from your sleep? (Pretend to sleep)
A little sleep, a little slumber, (Continue to sleep)
a little folding of the hands to rest, (Fold hands/twiddle thumbs)
and poverty will come upon you like a robber, (Cry out in surprise)
and want like an armed man." (Aim your weapon of choice - they boys' favorite part!)

What a fun verse this was to memorize!

Symbolic Stones

Our journey to Coram Deo Academy takes us through a neighborhood, and last October on the way home from school, Thomas called my attention to a particular yard.

"Mom! Look! That's really neat!!"

"What do you see, Thomas?"

"Mommy, that person who owns that house put up the Ten Commandments in their yard!"

Halloween.

Tombstones.

I'm glad that the things of God were on Thomas's mind, anyway! I think it's interesting that the Ten Commandments do loom large like tombstones in that they point out our complete inability to attain acceptance before God. No one in all the world, except Jesus Christ, has ever obeyed them perfectly. They are a bit symbolic of our doom, like tombstones, if we take Christ out of the picture.

Updates

These next few posts are several things I've been wanting to write down from the last few months...