Xanga

Snow and Ice

 The weatherman predicted a dusting of snow by morning yesterday, and that is pretty much what it looked like.

 The countryside looked like someone dusted it with powder.

 Then last night the snow began, and when we woke up this morning…

 …it was sleeting and raining, making our yard look like a skating rink.

The wooded area behind our house looked pretty, with all the ice-covered trees and bushes.

 All that could be seen of our stone turtle (in the birdbath) was the top of his head.

Little icicles were dripping from everything. 

 The birds had to peck their way through ice to get to the seeds.

 They didn’t even bother trying in this feeder.

 Branches and tiny buds are ice-coated.

 By afternoon the temperature was just above freezing, turning driveways and roads into slush.

 ~~~

 I was glad to stay warm and dry in my comfy office – working on updating addresses for three mailings.

~~~

You won’t believe what I found in my kitchen this morning after Cerwin went to the shop!

I just stood there and laughed – and he read yesterday’s entry!  

You willingly forgive,

and your love is always there

for those who pray to you.

Psalm 86:5 (Contemporary English Version)

~~~

Setting Up a Prayer & Praise Journal

Part 4

Prayer

Today we will be entering the fourth item under prayer. 

This is where I pray for our church and the TFC ministry – in general.  (Personalize this for your church and other ministries  or missions that are a vital part of your life.)

My prayer looks something like this: 

Thank You for our church family – and the love and fellowship we feel there

Give special wisdom and insight to our preachers and Sunday school teachers who are preparing sermons and lessons this week.

Bless our Official Board with wisdom and patience as they serve us, and must at times make difficult decisions.

Undergird our missionaries with grace, wisdom, and power for every situation they face today.

Thank You for the opportunity to serve You, the staff, and truckers through TFC

Give special wisdom and insight to our staff at the International Office today.

Bless them with needed finances

Give our leaders wisdom to adjust to a tighter budget.

Bless our publications: Highway News, Prayer Calendar, The Extra Mile, The Open Road, and each chaplain’s newsletter.

Challenge, encourage, bless, or lead to someone to faith in You by having read one of these publications today.

Undergird our field staff with wisdom and patience – especially those on duty today.

 

Continued tomorrow

Why Can’t He Remember to Put His Shoes Away?

This morning, as I was straightening up the house before going to my office, I noticed Cerwin’s shoes on the kitchen floor.

“Why can’t he remember to put his shoes away?” I inwardly grumbled as I bent over to pick them up.

The moment I had them in my hands, God reminded me to praise Him for the man who wears them.

~~~ 

Cerwin is a “Psalm 1” man, and I am blessed because of his godly character…

He has never walked in the counsel of the wicked
nor stood in a place with sinners.
Sitting with mockers is not something he would consider.

His delight is in the Word of God,
and he meditates on it every day.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, 
which yields its fruit in season 
and whose leaf does not wither. 
Whatever he does prospers.

Added to that…

He has always been faithful to me and our children.

He is kind, funny, talented,

and my best friend.

He loves me and would do anything for me

…except put his shoes away on occasion. 

I am so very blessed!

I will wait for him to answer my prayer.

Micah 7:7 (Contemporary English Version) 

 ~~~

Setting Up a Prayer & Praise Journal

Part 3

Birthdate Prayer

Prayer

Today we will be entering the third item under prayer.  Yesterday we entered:  Personal and Family. 

Family Birthdate is where I pray a special blessing on our immediate family:  (parents, children, inlaws, grandchildren).

Family Birthdate

If the day is a birthday anniversary for Cerwin, our children, their spouses, our grandchildren, or our mothers, I add this prayer for their life.  Some days I have more than one special birth request. 

For instance: Cerwin was born on April 22, so his special request is in the folder numbered 22. I suggest you add this prayer on the master page. It will be easier to delete if not needed, then to add later.  Choose wording you prefer.  Mine is something like this – depending on the age or sex of the person.

Be a special blessing to [name] today – on her birthday anniversary.  Give her special wisdom, guidance, and power as a woman – as a wife – as a mother – as a daughter – as a sister – as a friend

or

Give him special wisdom, guidance and power as a man – as a son – as a brother – as a grandson – as a friend.

I may add personal needs that I know of or that they have asked me to pray about. 

Keep it general at this point – this is only your master.

I suggest you make a paper list of your family’s birthdates – by date.  You will be updating this as you go through the month of February.  Your prayer journal will not be complete until the end of February.  As a matter of fact, it will never be complete.  I make changes almost every day (add, move, delete).

 

~~~

Review your master prayer & praise journal at this point.  Proof your wording.  Remember this is your master page.  We will eventually copy and paste this thirty times. 

Continued tomorrow

Sunday Night Bible Study

I rarely begin with a sunset picture, but that is where this entry starts – with last night’s pretty sunset.

I was privileged to be at a Bible study with the youth group girls last night.  

 They also invited their moms.  Anna (in pink) was tonight’s speaker/teacher. 

 After being invited, I decided to attend and get an idea of the flow of the evening – as I was asked to be the speaker/teacher in February.

 They have wonderful attitudes and are truly seeking to follow God.  The evening made me excited to share with them in a few weeks.

When the study was over, we met in small groups to pray and discuss how Anna’s words challenged us.

 After a snack, the girls played games and visited.  Melita is one of the leaders in organizing this Bible study.

 My heart is still glowing from spending an evening with these wonderful girls.

~~~

Monday Morning Mailing

(Back to reality!)

On Saturday morning Inge taught me how to prepare for mailing the single issues of TFC’s monthly publication, Highway News & Good News. 

This mailing was transferred to our office, after TFC’s board and leadership reviewed ministry’s expenses at the end of 2008, seeking for ways to reduce costs. 

Mailing all bulk mailings from my office (Office of Communications) means the headquarters office does not have to pay someone else to prepare their mailings. 

 Don and Alta have been doing the labeling for several years, and were ready for some helpers.  They are delighted that coming to our office is much closer to their house, and that we found some extra helpers.

 We are pleased that Rachel and Glenn are willing to help with this monthly project. 

It took seven of us less than two hours. 

We are looking for others in our neighborhood who are interested in helping with this two-hour project.  It seems that we will need only four people a month – and if we have a pool of helpers, we may only need your help every three or four months.  Call or email me if you would like to help!

 This was a new, stretching project for me, as I have never done this kind of mailing – using labels and bags. 

However, to my delight, it went smoothly.

~~~

Tonight was sobering as we went to the visitation/funeral for the birth father of our “adopted” grandsons, David and Zachary.  His death was caused by an overdose of drugs.  Pray for the boys, as there is so much to work through in their young minds.

Pray like this: 

Our Father in heaven,

may your name be kept holy.

 Matthew 6:9 (New Living Translation)

~~~ 

Setting Up a Prayer & Praise Journal

Part 2

Setting up the master page

 1. Open your blank document named – 01

You should be looking at a blank page, unless you already added notes. 

My outline has three major headlines. 

Praise

Prayer

Insight for the Day

I begin with praise, because it is a good way for me to begin my day.  Choose your outline.  You may want to begin with prayer and close with praise.  You may not want to include insights.  This is your journal – make your outline work for you.

I would love to hear what you have chosen for your outline.

Praise

Enter a praise item for today

I will share some of my favorite excerpts and adaptions from “31 Days of Praise” during the month of February. My journal began as a journal of praise before I began adding prayer concerns. You may adapt this area to your desires and personality.

Prayer

I have five items in my outline under prayer:

Personal, Family, Family Birthdate, Daily Requests, Special Requests.

Personal

This may change as God lays new things on my heart. If I change it, I usually copy and paste the change on all thirty-one days – but not every day has to be the same.

This is my current prayer for myself:

Stay in my face today – compelling me to look in Your face.

Remind me to listen – to think before I answer.

Teach me to grow in mercy.

Teach me to trust You in everything.

I love You.  I love Your Word.  I love being a daughter of “The King.”

Many times the above prayer reminds me of an area where I have not obeyed – causing me to hang my head in shame, making it difficult for me to look in God’s face, or maybe I have not taken time to listen, or have not applied mercy or trust. 

The next part of my prayer outline is my immediate family:

Family

This is where I pray for our mothers (our fathers are deceased), Cerwin, our children, and grandchildren.  I currently open this section with this prayer, before reading their names. 

Thank you for our family. Bless them with Your protection, power, and wisdom today. Let them be a blessing to those they meet, and guide them to people who will bless and encourage them.

Parent (put names in place of these titles)

Husband

Child – Spouse – Grandchild – Grandchild – Grandchild

(We have four children, so I repeat this four times.)

Adapt this prayer and list to your immediate family.

As I bring each name to the Lord, He may remind me of something that Cerwin, a parent, a child, or grandchild is currently facing.  If it is something serious, I may write it here – or at the end where I list special requests.

PS:  Our aunts, uncles, and cousins are listed in the once-a-month alphabetical list – rather than daily. That is your choice. I try to keep this as simple as possible. I am not a person who prays long prayers, but I do want to keep them in my prayer journal.

This journal is just to set the course of my day – to be in a godly attitude – an attitude of prayer – a daily reminder of Who is truly in charge of my life.

 

Continued tomorrow morning.

Don’t try to figure everything out in your life.

 It will confuse you.

 If God doesn’t tell you…

…you don’t need to know.

Trust Him.

The first thing I want you to do is pray.

Pray every way you know how,

for everyone you know. 

1 Timothy 2:1 (The Message)

~~~

Setting up a Prayer & Praise Journal

After mentioning my Prayer & Praise Journal the other day, several of you commented that you were challenged to start a prayer & praise journal on your computer.  Some of you asked me to walk you through the setup.

(If you prefer a regular notebook or journal, just adjust the notes to fit your needs.)

I plan to spend every morning this week giving you helpful hints that I have learned over the years, but you will want to set up a journal that works for you.  This coming Saturday is not only the end of the week, it is the end of the month, meaning you will be ready with your praise & prayer journal by February 1.

I think it would be interesting to hear from others who already use a prayer journal or list, because the Bible says, “iron sharpens iron”, meaning we can encourage and sharpen each other.

~~~

Getting Started

Open a new folder in your computer.

I use my desktop, because I am the only one who uses this computer.  If you have several users, and have a personal space or folder, you will want to go there.

I use Microsoft.  If you have an Apple computer, you will follow directions for that setup for folders and documents.

~~~ 

I assume you know how to set up a new folder, but if not

1. Go to your desktop or the space where you are setting up your journal

2. Right click on your mouse

3. Highlight new and click on folder.

4. You should see a new folder on your desktop or area that says new folder.

5. You can probably name it immediately.  If not, right click on the folder – click rename – type Prayer & Praise – Prayer Journal – or whatever you want to name your journal.

 

~~~

The next thing you will want to do is set up a master document to put inside this folder.

Setting up a Master Document

1. I use Microsoft Word, so the directions will be for Word.  If you have something else, follow directions for setting up a document. 

You can “cheat” by copying an old Word document and pasting it in this folder.

(Directions for copying and pasting an old document)

1. Highlight the document that you want to copy.

2. Hold the control (ctrl) key down – then click on the C key.  Release both.

3. Open your Prayer & Praise Journal.

4. Hold the control key down – then click on the V key.  The old document should be there.

5. Rename folder 01

6. Open and clear the contents.

(Directions for setting up a new document)

1. You can probably access Word on the left when you open your new folder, others will have to click on Start – Programs – Microsoft – Word, to open a new document.

2. Name the master page 01.  This will be your journal for the 1st day of every month.  If you insert the zero in front of the 1, this will eventually keep the dates in order.

 

~~~

Tomorrow we will set up the master page. 

If you want to do more today, begin organizing your general prayer requests on paper – the people and situations you want to pray for at least one time a month.  

Remember:  Do not include people here who you will be praying for every day:  spouse, children, etc.

If you will be using a church directory for everyone under A, there is no need to write every name.  I use the directory itself because we are part of a very large church.

I do these in alphabetical order.  (friends, church, ministry friends, government, etc.) because it helps me know where to add new names or situations. 

Begin your paper setup by writing every letter of the alphabet on the left side of a piece leaving a few inches between each letter.  You will need several pieces of paper.

Begin putting names under the letters.  I find it easer to go by last name, but if first name works for you – that’s fine.

For instance:

Sue Anderson (put her name under A)

If you want to be reminded to pray for you postman once a month, and don’t know his name, put Postman under the letter P.

Remember, we will be setting up thirty-one documents, so twenty-seven through thirty-one will not be done by a letter of the alphabet.  You will be the one who decides what names and situations to put in these five folders.  I use these days for situations – rather than names of people.

It is also nice to have five days that are lighter in prayer requests. 

This should keep you busy for awhile.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy Birthday Jake

 We were honored to participate in Jake’s “Birthday Bash” tonight.

He is a TFC staff chaplain and a trucker.

Blessings Jake!

rtr