The Power of Prayer

Today was yet another cloudy day, but this time warmer going up into the low 60's. Daddy had the day off and we kicked back with nothing on the agenda. One thing I did with J was watching some Sesame Street video clips on counting 1-10. I'm trying to teach him how to count on his fingers but he doesn't get that yet. I think he liked our fireman game last night as he put on his fireman's hat and ran around rescuing kitty. This time daddy got a picture of it. He also liked dancing around with his musical toy that sings "wheels on the bus". He did that over and over. Of course, we also read some books.

During my devotional time, I continued in Luke 7, Jesus and the widow's son. He and his disciples and a large crowd went to the town of Nain. It seems now wherever Jesus goes there is a crowd. In this town, he saw a widow whose dead son was being carried out of the town. This was the widow's only son. His heart went out to her and he told her not to cry. Here I read this as Jesus isn't saying don't cry, there there, it'll be OK, he's saying don't cry for there won't be a need for sorrow. He touched the boy's coffin and commanded him to get up and he did. Jesus reached out in his compassion and raised him to life. The people were filled with awe and praised God. (I would too!) This news about Jesus spread throughout the countryside. As I'm reading this, I just notice how many short stories there are of Jesus and his healing that I don't remember. Some of them just aren't talked about very often. It has been really good to read this slowly and let them soak in.

Daddy had some rare alone time with J while I went to my women's bible study. We had a good discussion on chapter 2 of Ecclesiastes about the meaningless pursuit of pleasure. To sum up the pursuit of pleasure, we discussed how pleasure is fleeting. Nothing lasts. Yet there is a pleasure and contentment that does last, and it is only found in Christ. It is from the hand of God. I shared with the group that before I found Christ, I remember having this thought that my life will just add up to be a long series of events; one after another and one memory after another with no meaning. That changed when I found the Lord. Instead I have this peace, this contentment in knowing that this life is but a stage and I am just passing through; that my real life begins in eternity when I will see God face to face. That to me is inspiring. We also discussed how Solomon concludes that wisdom is better than folly, but both share the same fate of death so he finds the pursuit meaningless.

We had Dave, one of our babysitters, over for dinner tonight. We got to use J's new scoop bib since we had messy spaghetti and it did a great job of catching the spills. Dave will stay with J while we go to an equipping session at church. We were invited to be prayer givers as the church enters a forgiveness sermon series. If anyone wants prayer after the service, we will be at tables in the back to pray with them. For a couple years, we were part of a prayer group that met at 6am Tuesday mornings to pray for the church. Since the group ended, they haven't had a prayer ministry but now they will be laying a foundation for the prayer ministry through this. It was a good reminder of the power of prayer in a person's life. I can still remember clearly a time I went up for prayer and what an impact it had on me what the person shared. I'm thankful to be a part of it yet I'm battling some feelings of nervousness too. Thoughts like, what if my mind goes blank or I can't think of anything to pray. I know this is another opportunity to just trust the Lord and he will do the work through me so when the thoughts come I just lay them down and won't dwell on them. I saw some familiar faces at the training session, a couple of whom I hadn't seen since J was born but they had partnered in prayer for me and L during that time. They were so happy to see I was doing well and it was so good to see them.

When we got home, J was waiting at the door with his huge smile and quickly took me to where he was playing and showed me his cars. When Dave left, J wanted to go outside so I showed him it was dark but he really wanted to so we waved goodbye to Dave, got a little fresh air then tucked J into bed. Mommy may be able to tuck herself in before 10:30 tonight so I better wrap up here.