This past weekend the ladies from the church we attend threw a baby shower for the baby and me.  I have had many a baby shower thrown for me and my newborns but this was by far the biggest blessing of them all.  I love these ladies so much!

Everything was perfect!  There was a cute little safari theme with little monkeys,  a dessert made especially for me with my favorite ingredients, and an amazing group of loving ladies to share conversation with!  These ladies are there to share joys and struggles and to offer encouragement.  There were even the adorable little baby gifts!

BUT…….

What I loved most…..

about the day was that this baby shower was not filled with the typical baby shower games.  Those can be fun but that is really all they are.  My friend who organized the shower suggested something completely different.  Instead of playing the usual baby shower games we had a time of group prayer.  I had several prayer requests that I sent to my friend and she shared them with the ladies who attended.  It was so amazing to have such a godly group of ladies praying over me, my newborn son, and the rest of my family!

They prayed for our little Nathan, that he would grow into a strong, godly, young man.  That he would come to know the Lord at an early age and live a life honoring the Lord.  That he would be healthy.  That God would be preparing a godly wife for him even now.  They prayed for me and for my husband as we teach and train him.  That I would be patient even amidst sleepless nights.  That I would have compassion.  That I would not grow weary and that I would rely upon the Lord in the great task of being a parent.  They prayed the same things for my husband as he leads our household.  They prayed for our family with our upcoming move. They prayed for our other children, for our schooling, and for there to be a good relationship cultivated between our newest son and our oldest who has already moved out.

It was such an unbelievably sweet time of prayer!  I do not ever recall people praying for our family in such a way!  It is an amazing blessing that I will always cherish!

I think of all the gifts that we received that day the time of prayer was by far the most special, most desired, and most needed of them all!

As I thank the Lord for my new son and my entire family, I will be thanking him for the church family he has blessed us with.

Thank you Lord for each of those ladies!  Thank you Lord, that we can come before your throne in prayer!

Thank you ladies of Faith PCA Anchorage!  Thank you for showering us with prayer!!!

In the last post, I left you with a list of  things to ponder.  Ways in which we can bring the gospel of Christ to our children.  In the next couple of posts will touch on those.  I will continue to reference the booklet Bringing the Gospel to Covenant Children: In Dependency on the Spirit by Joel R. Beeke.

• Prayer

How should we pray for our children?  We should be praying for them in a habitual way.  Set a specific time aside to pray for them but also be spontaneous and pray for them whenever the need arises.  Pray also for them covenantally, specifically, and earnestly.

I would like to share a few quotes with you about praying for our children.

“A family without prayer is like a house without a roof, open and exposed to all the storms of heaven.  Thomas Brooks.

“You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you can’t do more than pray until after you have prayed.” John Bunyan

“O Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, give us a seed right with Thee!  Smite us and our house with everlasting barrenness rather than that our seed should not be right with Thee.  O God, give us our children.  Give us our children. A second time, and by a far better birth, give us our children to be beside us in Thy holy covenant.  For it had been better we had never been betrothed; it had been better we had sat all our days solitary unless our children are to be right with Thee…..But thou, O God, art Thyself a Father, and thus hast in Thyself a Father’s heart.  Hear us, then, for our children, O our Father…..In season and out of season, we shall not go up into our bed, we shall not give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eyelids till we and all our seed are right with Thee.”  Alexander Whyte

• Family Worship

Beeke mentions four aspects that should be included in family worship and also gives some very practical ideas on incorporating those four aspects.  They are as follows:

1. Scripture reading
2. Biblical instruction
3. Prayer
4. Singing

Let your family worship be regular and sincere.  As Richard Cecil said, “Let family worship be short, savory, simple, tender, heavenly.”  God requires such family worship, the Lord Jesus is worthy of it, Scripture demands it, conscience approves it, and children profit from it.

It has been almost an entire week since I last posted here.  It has been a rough emotional week for me.  I have also been feeling a bit ill.  (I just love it when I go to the hospital healthy to pick up a prescription and come home sick.)  This past week (or so) has really been a big struggle for me.  I am often distracted and to be completely honest I know I am not really good company right now.

This morning in worship was a sweet time as it always is but I was very distracted despite my prayers to be focused.  I heard most of the sermon.  I drew my attention back to it over and over again.  I remember listening.  I really only remember one line really sinking in.  I also remember being a little annoyed that God brought it to the forefront of my mind.  After all, I KNEW this.  I already KNEW I was struggling with this.  Did I really need the reminder?  Obviously, I did, I just didn’t really want it.  Even when we know our troubles sometimes it seems easier to try and ignore them that to face them.

The line went something along these lines……

It is easy to trust God when things are going well but when times are hard trusting God can become difficult.

I know this to be true.  I have dealt with this many times.  It is a lesson that always brings about growth but often pain and struggle in the process. Usually in the end though the outcome is better than I ever would have imagined.  And I find myself amazed and a little annoyed at how much I fought it.

I think maybe that is where I am.  Not that I question God or even distrust him.  Sometimes it just takes a little more trust than we are used to investing.  Sometimes it seems easier to focus on our struggles than to surrender them.  It is hard, especially for someone like me who likes to have things under control, to relinquish that control.  Maybe that is a big part of my struggles these past few weeks.  My level of trust in the Lord is being stretched.  I am being called to place more and more trust in him.  I am questioning whether my more of my struggle is with the many circumstances that are bringing bucket loads of stress into my life right now or if it is because I am trying to hold it all together on my own.  Do not get me wrong, I am praying every day and depending on the Lord.  But maybe, just maybe I am trying too hard to hold things together that I am not really receiving the strength, grace, and power from the Lord to really hold things together.  Does that make any sense?

Well, if you have kept with my pathetic ramblings thus far please pray that I would surrender everything to the Lord.  That I would be relying on his strength and not my own.  That I would not play tug of war with God over my stresses, fears, and struggles but that I would let him carry me through.

This will be good for my blog readers too……maybe my posts won’t be such a downer anymore!  )

It is the Lord’s delight to grant us what we ask of him in prayer. Like David, we all ought to pray, “O God, hear my prayer; give ear to the words of my mouth” (Psalm 54:2). If Christians did not believe in the effectiveness of prayer, there would be no reason for us to ask anything of God. He is the one who tells us that we can have confidence that our prayers ascend to him. “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him” (1 John 5:14,15). While as Christians we pay lip-service to the superlatives in that sentence (“whatever” and “anything”), how often do we really believe it?

The fact is that our prayers are often hindered. There are times when it feels like our prayers are reaching the ceiling and going no further; times when we are lying face-down on the floor and feel that our prayers are rising no higher than the fibers of the carpet. While we can be sure that God does hear our prayers, there are times when he chooses not to heed or answer them. The Bible gives us at least six reasons God may not heed our prayers.

To finish this great article just follow the link! Then come back and tell me what you think!

How to Pray Badly | Challies Dot Com.

OK, I can’t keep quiet any longer!

I have known for a whole week!   The news has leaked out here in Alaska but now we are going public.  I found out two days AFTER my hubby left.  It would have been nice to celebrate together. I would have known sooner but just misread the physical symptoms as pre-deployment stress.   Obviously, that was not the case.  I can now literally say my I have my hands full.

Baby number ten is on the way.

I am feeling pretty good so far considering how sick I usually am.  I am nauseous, sleepy, having a few migraines, and I can no longer stand the taste of my regular diet coke, but thankfully that is all.  Of course, that is ALWAYS open to change!  I would love not to have months of the usual vomiting and dry heaving though!

We already have a boy’s name and have narrowed our girl name down to three.  Due date as of now is November 23.  We will be having a very thankful Thanksgiving!

Psalm 127:1a Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.

Psalm 127:3 Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward.

Psalm 139:13-16 For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works;my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret,intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed substance;in your book were written, every one of them,the days that were formed for me,when as yet there was none of them.

Praise the Lord with us! And please pray for our family.

Several months ago as I began to anticipate and prepare for this deployment, I began to pray for a meaningful way to count the days away.   On our first deployment we put up a paper chain.  One link for each day and took one off each evening.  That was a visible way to do things and one that the younger children can easily understand.  The chain worked pretty well but was draped all over the house and sometimes was too much of a reminder.  It was however easy to adjust the number of rings in case the dates changed.  It didn’t serve much of a purpose other than counting down though and I wanted something more substantial.

I had someone tell me that what they did was get a large jar and put enough Hershey’s Kisses in them for each child to have one each day.  When the jar was empty, dad should be home.  It was also easy to adjust the number if days changed.  I have so many people in our household that I would need to buy stock in Hershey’s to make it worth while!  That would be A LOT of chocolate (even for me).  A kiss for daddy has a little more meaning than just paper chains I suppose but it isn’t what I was longing for.

I continued to prayer that the Lord would show me what to do.  I am not the most creative person in the world and nothing was coming to mind!

Then one night the Lord woke me from a sound sleep and this idea was running through my mind.  For several minutes I willed myself to not forget in the morning.  Sadly, I often do forget things by morning.  I did remember but forgot to mention to hubby and eventually over the following days the thought vanished from my mind.  I knew I had forgotten something great and prayed that I would remember.  The Lord woke me a few more times from sleep in the following weeks and reminded me of the same idea.

I mentioned this to my hubby and he thought it was a wonderful idea too.   So we went with it.  Let me explain how we are counting away the days.

One thing I would like to mention is that one of the ways daddy will be greatly missed around here is at bedtime.  Bedtime is daddy’s job.  He prays with each child before bed.  That is just daddy’s job.

What we have done is purchased enough die cut stars for each day that daddy will be gone.  They will be easy to adjust if the dates change a bit.  They do not take up too much room and are neatly stuck on the wall in the corner of the hallway.  They are visible but not “in your face” for a too constant reminder.  We will take one down each night before bedtime for our countdown.  Here is the blessing part.  Since daddy is the one who prayers with the children at bedtime and that will be sorely missed, we have written a prayer on the back of each one.  Daddy wrote some before he left and I wrote some.  They are prayers for him, for us, for leaders, for giving thanks, for the cars to not break down, and just about anything we could think of that we would need prayer for during this separation.  There is meaning and substance now included rather than just counting the days away.  It helps to fill a void that is there because daddy is gone.  The Lord is so good to show us this.

So here is a photo of our hallway corner with approximately 200 prayer filled stars.

A while back I mentioned a friend who is dealing with a brain tumor.  Here is an update and I ask that you lift their family up in prayer.  Her tumor is back and about half the size it was when she had surgery.  Her strange symptoms are returning and the cancer is also into the brain now not just the tumor.  They are looking at last resort medicines now.  Her family has also been very sick lately with her son being admitted to the hospital for a short time.  Please lift them up in prayer and all of those whose lives they touch.

I find that fear is a constant battle for me.  I tend to worry about so many things that I shouldn’t.  I fully acknowledge that this is a major weakness.  It is one that can only be overcome by the working of the Lord in my life.  I need to continually seek him for healing from fear.  I came across a quote today that slapped me upside the head!  It is something I already knew but when you come face to face with the bare bones of the issue it often makes your head spin.

Our fears are grounded in either a failure to believe in God’s strength or a failure to believe His gospel. — RC Sproul Jr

Lord,

I praise you Lord, Creator of all, You are God!  Mold me into your image, may I be surrendered, softened, and easy to mold.  Cleanse me, heal me, create in me a clean heart, one that is absent of fear and clings to you.  I know that worry can not add a single day so let me not waste the ones you have given.  Draw me closer to you that I may never fail to believe and rely upon you.  Remove my self-reliant tendencies.  May you be glorified in my life!

Amen

O lover of the loveless,
It is thy will that I should love thee with heart, soul, mind, strength, and my neighbour as myself.
But I am not sufficient for these things.
There is by nature no pure love in my soul;
Every effection in me is turned from thee;
I am bound, as a slave to lust, I cannot love thee, lovely as thou art, until thou dost set me free.
By grace I am thy freeman and would serve thee, for I believe thou art my God in Jesus, and that through him I am redeemed, and my sins are forgiven.
With this freedom I would always obey thee, but I cannot walk in liberty, any more than I could first attain it, of myself.
May thy Spirit draw me nearer to thee and thy ways.
Thou art the end of all means, for if they lead not to thee, I go away empty.
Order all my ways by thy holy Word and make thy commandments the joy of my heart, that by them I may have happy converse with thee.
May I grow in thy love and manifest it to mankind.
Spirit of love, make me like the loving Jesus; give me his benevolent temper, his beneficent actions, that I may shine before men to thy glory.
The more thou doest in love in me and by me, humble me the more; keep me meek, lowly, and always ready to give the honour.

FROM: Christian Love, Valley of Vision

I am not so sure it is considered in good form or not to repost an entire blog post from somewhere else but I thought that this was definitely worth sharing. It was posted on the Ligonier Ministry Blog today.  That is a great place for solid, toe-stepping yet encouraging Biblical guidance.  This is one I read today that I think everyone should read often.  (I am not thinking of anyone in particular, I was too busy rubbing my own sore toes).  We often take our sin more lightly than we should.  It is easy to point fingers and say we are not as bad as so and so.  That is an easy way to justify our own actions but it is not what we are called to do.  We are called to a higher standard than each other.  We are called to repent.

Lord, forgive me for where I have failed you, for thinking more highly of myself than I ought, for focusing on the apologies I should receive (and may never get) and remember to give the ones I owe.  May I bring honor and glory to your name.  Amen

Now for the article.  Watch your toes!

Repent, For the Kingdom of God

December 4, 2009 @ 6:40 AM | Posted By: Tim Challies
by R.C. Sproul, Jr.

How quick are you to repent? If you're anything like me, you've just this moment added several more things to repent of. First, pride. I suspect that you, if you are like me, think yourself a pretty decent repenter. You likely wish that others would learn from your wonderful example, and do likewise. Indeed, now that I mention it, you can think of several people that owe you an apology, and aren't you the one for being so gracious about it up until now?

Second, lying. I suspect that you, if you are like me, have in thinking all of the above, lied to yourself in an egregious way. You are deluded, your delusions springing forth from your deceitful heart like so many dandelions on a spring day. Third, pride again. Here your pride is less about you and more about Jesus. That is, our failure to understand what failures we are is in turn a reflection on the work of Christ. We diminish His work on our behalf when we diminish the scope of our own sin. Fourth, unrepentance. That is, because you are a bigger sinner, like me, than you are willing to face, you have not repented for your sins like you ought. You have repented lightly for dark sins.

What should you do? You could get mad at me for pointing this all out. Or, you could repent.

You could ask that God would forgive you for thinking too highly of yourself. Ask that He would empower you to be swift to see your own sins, and swift in turn to confess them both to Him and to those that we wrong. You could ask that you might have earned the right to have etched on your gravestone, “He was quick to repent.” And you could thank God for His provision of His Son, so that we can be forgiven. You could ask Him to gently remind you, each time you find yourself unhappy about the sins of your family, your neighbors, your fellow parishioners from your church, your parents, your elders, that such would be a prompt to you to honestly assess your own weaknesses. That we are sinners is a problem solved by the coming of Jesus the Savior. That we don't know we are sinners, that is a problem for the Holy Spirit, who convicts, and sanctifies.

The answer to every problem is simple–repent and believe the gospel.

As frustrating as our own blindness might be, the light has come into the world. As maddening as our weaknesses might be, the Sovereign One has come and dwelt among us. As embarrassing as our pride might be, the one who is poor in Spirit has sent the Spirit to lead us into all truth, including the ugly truth about ourselves.

The coming year is likely to bring political unrest. Were I a betting man, I would guess in turn that it will be a year filled to the brim with economic hardship. We can expect to see more cultural decline. All of which will be for nothing if we do not learn the first lesson, to repent and believe.

Before we take over the levers of power, before we dominion our way back to prosperity, before we press the crown rights of King Jesus over the culture, may we remember the crown of thorns, and repent. And when we have repented, let us repent again for the anemia of our repentance. Then, let us believe that He is at work in us, both to do and to will His good pleasure. And all these things will be added unto us.

via Repent, For the Kingdom of God | Ligonier Ministries.