Lessons on Prayer

For the past month or more, it's become obvious that God is trying to teach me lessons about prayer. Sure, I prayed sometimes, more often in times of stress, but I could see that my prayer life had slipped a long way from what it was in college. Through references to prayer in several messages and personal conviction, God's still, small voice was calling me to draw closer to Him! A few weeks ago, I finally took some steps to work on improving my prayer time, and trying to make it consistent on a daily basis. I started reading "A Woman's Call to Prayer" by Elizabeth George, and it has been an incredible help and encouragement. I'd highly recommend it!! I appreciate how she encourages you that "something is better than nothing." Even if you can only pray 5 minutes at first, it is still better than going the whole day without praying at all! I still have such a long way to go, but I'm praying again, and I'm thankful for the sweet times to spend with God.

This weekend I was so privileged to be able to attend a Christian leadership conference. My sweet hubby blessed me by keeping Sam for the day so I could go. Every year the theme for this conference is "A Servant Unto All", focusing on the fact that in order to be a leader, you first need to learn to be a servant. I liked what one of the speakers, Dr. Burgraff said: Instead of wanting to be great servants of God, we should want to be servants of our great God. Then, guess what topic came up again in a later session by Dr. Matt Olson? Prayer. Yes, I think I'm seeing a continuing pattern here. :) He spoke of prayer as being the greatest area of neglect in our churches today. Our churches lack power because we don't pray. Wow, it's so true, at least in my own life, and I doubt I'm the only one!

I was also able to attend some good workshops at the conference; one was especially for moms of preschoolers, and the other was an excellent one given by Mrs. Beth Lynch. We were also blessed to enjoy a beautiful concert by Mac and Beth, along with their son Caleb. It was a really wonderful day and I'm thankful I was able to be there!!

Mud Season

It looks like New Hampshire's 5th seaon has finally arrived . . . our road where our new house is, is really nasty during the day whern it warms up. Today it's almost 50 out there, which is a very nice change, but it does make for some bad roads and driveways. Not to mention more stuff gets tracked into the house! Still, it's very nice to see signs that spring is (maybe) just around the corner. It's hard to believe that next Sunday is Easter!

Sam News

Sam is walking more every day and starting to try to talk a little more, too. Besides the "oof oof" that I mentioned earlier, he also now says "bye bye" while waving, although it usually comes out like "babab" or "bee bee". But it's obvious that is what he's saying! He also has a new tooth on the way; it hasn't popped through yet but it appears to be just beneath the surface.

Well, I have more in mind to write about, but I think I will save it for a later entry. I either need to take a nap or do something energetic to wake myself up! Funny how the bright sunshine streaming in the windows on a day like this only serves to make you sleepy . . . :)