Happy Friday, friends! I'm linking up with Andrea from Momfessionals and Erika from A Little Bit of Everything for this weekly blog link-up.
Other than the week feeling like when it rains it pours, it was a really good week! We had two things in our home break this week, both of which were pretty significant. The first thing was a cabinet door. Never in the seventeen years that we've been here has anything like this been broken in our house. With four sons, I consider this a miracle. On Monday night, Graham was crouched down in front of a cabinet loving on a dog and when he stood up, the knob got hung on his pants pocket and literally ripped the door apart at the seam in the wood.
I sincerely wish I had a picture of what his face looked like when this happened, but his eyes about bugged out of his head. My husband had it put back on the next night, thankfully the break was clean and he just glued it back together with wood glue and left it clamped tight for almost 24 hours. The other thing that broke, also on Monday, was our washing machine. It stopped spinning and it isn't that old and has already been repaired once. We decided because of that and because Todd found one on sale that we would just buy a new one. Laundry is one of my favorite things that I do in our house, if you didn't know that about me and I particularly love folding clothes. Yes, I'm serious.
We went with another Maytag/Whirlpool, because that's our favorite brand and this one has the least amount of bells and whistles. About that, my husband and I agree that the more fancy a machine like this is, the more stuff that can go wrong on it. We just need it to wash clothes, please. This one is my favorite yet, because though it is high efficiency, you can turn the knob for a deep water wash instead of the auto sensing option that all the newer models have. There also is an option to always double rinse things and there IS NOT AN AUTOMATIC LOCKING LID. Excuse me for yelling, but I was forever dropping socks on the way to the washer. Welcome to adulting 101.
I am excited about new appliances years old.
We also bought a new rug because our old dog Crash was scared to walk on the floor when a fire was going. He thought it was on fire, I suppose and literally would shake violently if he went anywhere near the fireplace.
I went to my favorite store for this purchase (HomeGoods) and love the rug. That led me to reposition the living room furniture some, but I love the new way it is now.
On Sunday I stayed home and livestreamed our church service. All the others were gone and this was me at the end of the service. I love and appreciate our pastor so much! He always gives a call to pray at the end of the service and if I'd been there I'd have gone down to the altar. Since I wasn't, I knelt here at the end of the service and prayed over what he'd just preached on. It was such a great message and I am always so excited to hear him each week. Do you pray for your pastor? If you don't, will you start? I always pray for the Lord to meet him in his quiet times everyday and to give him a clear message for the following week. I always ask Him to fill him a fresh annointing of His Holy Spirit and to guard him in what he says. I always ask the Lord to multiply the time Pastor Chuck spends with Him each day and to speak to him through the Word of God. I also pray for the Lord to protect our pastor from anyone with impure intentions and to help him keep guard over his eyes, ears, mouth and heart.
In my humble opinion, the two kinds of pastors that need fervent prayer the most are the head pastor and the worship pastor, because he is the out front man. Both of these men are prone to lots of complaints, so I always try to show my gratitude to them by prayer.
On a much lighter note, these little bowls are my favorite. I bought them at my favorite store several years ago and I still love them as much as I did back then. They came in a set of four and they're the perfect snack size. Also? These cookies from Trader Joe's are another favorite.
While you see the tv in the background, I should probably confess that I'm still watching Hallmark Christmas movies. I recorded so many! I'm still working through them, but my favorite thing to do if I'm home is to have lunch while I sit and watch a movie.
My sons are grown up these days, but it's still my favorite thing to have their friends over. This was them on Saturday night last weekend as they watched a basketball game while sitting very close to the firepit. It was FREEZING!
Saturday was a fun day doing my favorite thing with a couple of my favorite people—running errands/shopping with my mom and Trish. It was so cold that day, like I already said and I wore this cozy sweatshirt I bought at Marshall's back in the early fall. It's literally the softest thing I own and it's currently my favorite thing to wear, whether I'm at home or out and about. I wore it with jeans and my favorite shoes from Amazon.
These are the most comfortable shoes and when the weather is cold and I need something a little more substantial, I reach for these because they're my favorite.
Bible study is my favorite and we started back in person this week! This is the second study I've had the privilege of helping write—and I never want to take that for granted. It seems like yesterday that I sat and dreamed about this day with my friend Amy and now I'm part of the writing team at my church. If you only knew how long I've prayed for an opportunity like this you'd be amazed, but God's timing is always perfect. I'm so excited about doing this study! We offer it twice on Wednesdays: from 9:30-11:30 and from 6:30-7:30. There is a video that is recorded in the morning sessions that will be sent out each week and you can participate in person, alone or with a group in your home by watching the video, or via a Zoom call. If you're interested in this, let me know! I'd love to have you join in with us and it's not too late.
This quote came up on my Timehop this week and it's still a favorite. It's so true! We are so quick to need God when things are hard, but the truth is, we should always need Him. I try to live like this and I try to be grateful each and every day. I don't always succeed, but I give it my best try.
I'll end this post with one last thing and it's something I don't like to talk about much, because I don't ever want to come across here as boastful. I said earlier this week that most of you should know my heart and intentions by now and I only want to boast in the Lord Jesus, because He is who made me who I am today. My favorite part of every week comes at 3:00 a.m. every Thursday morning. We have a full 24 hours of prayer one day each week at my church and that's the slot I purposefully chose. There was a need for someone at that time, so I simply filled the need, but I've come to love this hour so much! I have to go bed early on Wednesday nights each week and I always ask the Lord to wake me up at 2:58 a.m., right before my alarm goes off. Would you believe that He does just that every single week? I also pray for my prayer partner who is awake with me at that time praying at her house.
Here is how it works: the person who prays from 2:30-3:00 texts me and then I reply to let them know I'm awake. I pray for my 30 minutes, then I text the next person. It's like tag, but with prayer. Sometime on Wednesday during the day, I also text my prayer partner to tell her I'm praying for her and I ask the Lord to wake the four of us up for our time slots, because they all directly affect me. I always go to a room where I know I won't disturb anyone and I start praying. I pray for my pastor and worship pastor specifically each time and if I remember, I pray for the staff. I pray that the Lord would always give us opportunities to serve Him through serving in our community and that He would keep inspiring us to do this outside of our own walls. I pray for my own family under my roof and I pray for our country. If I still have time left over after all of that, I go to the church website's prayer wall and I begin to pray for those submissions. When I go back to bed, I can't ever just fall back to sleep, so usually I keep praying for at least another half hour.
Friends, I want to encourage you to pray diligently. Pray fervently! And pray often, all that you can. There is nothing quite like prayer that will form a bond between you and another person (of the same sex, I need to add) and it's how I've become close to a few of my best friends. As much as I trust that this chair I'm sitting in will support my body weight, I am that certain that there is a very real, very jealous enemy who is after those of us who belong to Jesus. He comes to steal, kill and destroy, we're told in the book of John and he is after our families, our marriages, our time and our minds.
If we don't stay rooted in the Word of God and in constant prayer, he will have his way with us and if we're not careful, we could easily fall prey to him. There is a battle raging around us in the spiritual realm and the Bible refers to satan (he doesn't deserve a capitol s) as the prince of the world (or air). He may be the prince, but I am a daughter of the Most High King and greater is HE that is in me, than he that is in the world. The only way we can adequately fight the enemy is through prayer and through being suited up for battle in our spiritual armor that Paul wrote of in Ephesians 6. (Read that chapter.) Prayer is crucial in fighting the battle and so is a mind that is renewed daily in the Word of God. If you're not serving Jesus and living your life for Him, you're serving and living for the enemy.
Do you know Jesus? Do you pray? Do you read the Bible? If your answer is no, what is stopping you? Dear friend, we are not promised tomorrow. If you feel Him drawing you, take a leap of faith and trust Him! One of the friends' who hangs out here always says that when he comes in, he feels peaceful. It's the Holy Spirit that he feels and the peace that He brings. I urge you, don't wait. If you died today, would you go to Heaven? The reality is if you don't end up in Heaven, you'll end up in Hell.
Our world is so lost right now and things won't get much better, maybe ever again. The world needs Jesus. He is our only hope and salvation. I pray that if you're reading this and you're feeling an internal tug, would you respond? That may be the Lord drawing you to Him. The Bible says that all we have to do is believe to have faith, but we also need to acknowledge our sin and ask the Lord's forgiveness for being a sinner. When you acknowledge that you need a Savior, you've asked forgiveness from your sin and you believe in your heart, that's all you have to do! If you died today, you'd be in Heaven with me someday and I want you there! God wants you there too, His Word tells us that it's not His desire that even one should perish without knowing Him. All of Heaven rejoices over one lost person who is saved.
(You can read about that in the story in the Gospels of the prodigal son.)
Thanks for reading my blog, know that I've prayed for you as you read. Love to all.