MORE PRAYING NAMES

Each month I create prayers for people we love based on the meaning of their names. These additional names are then added to the ongoing list at the tab to the right titled, "PRAYING NAMES."

If you don’t find the name of your loved one listed, please leave a comment below. I’ll research it and create a prayer for a future month.

Adelle: noble, kind

Heavenly Father, I pray that Adelle will live the meaning of her name. I pray that in all things, her character will be both noble and kind and that she will dwell upon only things that are praiseworthy. Amen.

Clark: clerk

Heavenly Father, I pray that Clark will live the meaning of his name. I pray that in all areas of life, he will take on the mantle of good stewardship over the things you have entrusted to his care. I pray also that he will give ready and good assistance where you show him there is a need. Amen.

Lester: from Leicester, England

Heavenly Father, I pray that Lester will live the meaning of his name. I pray that he understands that—like each person on earth—regardless of where he makes his earthly home, his true home is in heaven with you. I pray that he will always keep an eye upon his eternal home and live his live with that in mind. Amen.

Rhonda: noisy

Heavenly Father, I pray that Rhonda will live the meaning of her name. I pray that all her life she will cry out to worship you in song so that, like Psalm 98, she will make a joyful noise unto you, Lord.

FINDING COURAGE IN TRYING TIMES

This is a guest post by Joseph Lalonde. He is a youth leader at Oak Crest Church of God and leadership blogger at JMLalonde.com. Joseph shares leadership tools and encourages you to become a better leader. Connect with him on Twitter or at his blog.

Courage is an amazing tool. It allows us to move forward even when we're fearful of what's ahead. It allows us to overcome the obstacles that we set up for ourselves.

I want you to think about the last time you had to use your courage. Can you think back to a time when you had to do this?

Put yourself into that position again and examine what you had to do to build up the courage to take the action and defeat the fear.

Relive the moment. Let the situation sink in. I bet you'll discover you had to find the courage deep within yourself. 

Why Courage is Important

Courage is important for many reasons. When we have courage you're able to face difficult situations. We're also able to move ahead when we are unsure of what is ahead.

Without courage we might never take the actions to move forward in life. We'd also never take the steps God wants us to take.

His ways are beyond our understanding. You'll find yourself wondering what you should be doing next.

But when we have courage, we can move forward with the confidence that we can overcome the dangers ahead.

Finding Courage

Not everyone has an easy time finding courage to move ahead in life. I'm one of those people at times.

I look at situations around me and feel like there's no hope. No chance of coming out on top.

The times are trying and I'm not sure what to do.

This is what happens when I lack the courage and cannot find it. I'm brought down and become discouraged.

Yet when I find courage my outlook changes. I feel confident. I feel energized. I see excitement and adventure ahead.

I believe there's a way to find courage when we need it in trying times. I know I have and know you can as well.

There's two things that bring us courage:

Experience: There's nothing like having experience in a situation. When you've experienced an issue before and overcome it, you can see that there is hope for the future.

The hope then brings courage to face trying times. You can recall the moments of success and use those as stepping stones to take the next steps you need to take.

God: The other thing that can bring courage is God. We know He's going to call us to do BIG things. He does that to people. Sometimes I think it's to test us. Other times it's to show the world that God uses the least of these and the unqualified.

How can this give us courage when I just said He calls the unqualified? It's easy when we begin to look through the Bible and see what God has done.

He's called men like Moses. What movies like the 10 Commandments and the cute Bible stories overlook is the fact that Moses was a stutterer and had to rely on Aaron to relay God's message to Pharaoh.

Or take a look at Joseph. His brothers beat him up, threw him in a pit, had a woman accuse him of assault, and more. Joseph could easily have given up and lost courage. Instead he kept going because he knew God had a plan. He was able to stay courageous.

Focus on God's goodness and the fact that He wants you to be courageous.

Question: How have you been courageous in the past? Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.

STREET SIGNS AND MANHOLE COVERS: THE LIVING WATER

We have heard the stories of how the early Christians were persecuted. Many people met in secret, using hand drawn or carved signs as a signal. A shepherd’s crook or a fish, often identified members of “the Way”—groups of Christians who met in seclusion.

This morning I discovered the sign of the fish, right there on the curb above the underground runoff drain in front of our house. The note carved into the concrete accompanying it says: Flows to river.

The sign is a warning not to throw pollutants into the drain. It identifies the underground runoff drain that leads to a water source filled with living critters. In other words, the sign of the fish points to living water.

Jesus said:

“Whoever believes in me, as Scripture has said, rivers of living water will flow from within them.” (John 7:38)

After more than 2,000 years, the sign of the fish still reminds us of Jesus—the source of spiritual living water. I’m happy to see our local government using our tax dollars to remind us of that.

Thank you, Jesus.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the reminders around us of your love and plan. Thank you for giving us a thirst to know you more and for being the true living water that will satisfy that thirst. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you have similar fish signs on the curbs in your town?

STREET SIGNS AND MANHOLE COVERS: THE SLIMY PIT

Puppydog and I go for walks in the morning. Usually I pray as we walk along. Sometimes I sing. Every once in a while I stop and pick up a lucky penny. This morning I noticed something I’d never seen before:  crosses surrounding the manhole covers on our street.

There are dozens of bible verses related to pits. Caution about going down into pits. Praise for God rescuing us from pits. The dangers and horrors of pits in general.

One of my favorite pit scriptures is Psalm 40:2:

He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

Man, that's a great verse! He lifted me out of the slimy pit. How much slimier a pit could there be than the sewer? And right there, on the manhole cover that keeps me from falling into the pit, like a protective force field, is a circle of crosses, reminding me that Christ paid the price to keep me out of the eternal pit. Crosses reminding me that it was Christ who gave me a firm place to stand, both on this earth and in the heavenly realms with Him.

For once I was happy to see how my tax dollars and utility payments have been used. I love that our local government and public utility companies have paid to decorate our pit covers with reminders of what Christ did for us more than 2,000 years ago.

Thank you, Jesus.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the reminders in this world of your love and plan. Thank you for lifting me up from the slimy pit and giving me a firm place to stand in your love. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? Do you have crosses trailing the edges of manhole covers in your town?

FAMILY LOOK ALIKES

I have my mother’s eyes.

I have my father’s temperament.

I have my grandmother’s feet, my aunt’s sense of humor, my grandpa’s smile.

It’s fun to look at people and find family resemblances. Sometimes traits and characteristics are learned; sometimes they’re inherited. We look and act like other members in our family.

And that’s cool.

How much though do I resemble Jesus? I’ve been adopted into his family. I probably will never look like him physically. But I can learn his character traits. I can grow into his likeness.

This morning, Oswald Chambers whacked me upside the head with this statement:

“The resounding evidence of the Holy Spirit in a person’s life is the unmistakable family likeness to Jesus Christ, and the freedom from everything which is not like Him.”

When will I fully take on my appearance as the daughter of My King?

And almost as importantly—when will those character traits become so strong that people around me recognize the family resemblance? So that I’ll not only have my earthly father’s temperament but my Heavenly Father’s temperament as well.

That’ll be cool.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for adopting us into your family. Thank you for giving us time to grow and learn your character traits. Please help us become recognizable as members of your family. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What physical and character traits have you inherited?

NOTE: Today’s post is based on the February 8 devotional from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest.

How Does 10 + 1 = 7 ?

Please welcome my blogging friend, Chris Vonada, as he finishes up his series on the 10 + 1 Building Blocks of Relationships. You can catch up with him over at www.chrisvonada.com.

Well, if you've followed the 10 + 1 series over the past year you may realize that I have reworked the material into The 7 Essentials Of Extraordinary Relationships, the subtitle of my new book that will be released tomorrow, May 15th. There are, in fact, 11 chapters to the book, but only 7 of the building blocks were strong enough, IMHO, to make the list. (IMHO is just added to entertain Carol - hee hee!!). Anyway, it all adds up to love because love is the twine that ties this all together. You know, the cord of three strands? Yep, it's a Jesus thing!

Here's a glimpse of "All Sorts And Conditions Of People"...

",,, and they lived happily ever after..."

It's the standard ending to fairy tales, or stories that imply the good characters were blessed with happiness or joy. Happily ever after suggests we've found the right person or people to share life with. The saying also implies that the journey is ending. That's cool in fairy tales. In our lives that's just when things get exciting, and real. I'll outline how finding the right people is where the journey begins, and the 7 Essentials that I will share with you will then put you on the right track to having extraordinary relationships.

Sound interesting? Just look for this title on Amazon, starting tomorrow.

A special thank you to Carol P. for hosting this series over the past year. I had no idea when we started this what it would turn into... a 144 page book that is by far my best one yet! Thanks Carol for all of your encouragement and friendship!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

This Sunday is Mother’s Day.  I’ll be driving home from Idaho; ten and a half hours in a car. Mother’s Day lunch will be at a drive-through in Winnemucca or maybe just a handful of junk food from the gas station along the way. 

But it’ll be a wonderful Mother’s Day because we’ll be returning home from son-in-law’s graduation from pharmacy college—celebrating one more loved kid’s dream about to begin.

Happy Mother’s Day!

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for our mothers. Thank you for putting us together in families. We ask that you would lift up the mothers in our lives--encourage them and lead them to care for the children you have placed in their lives. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? What's your favorite way to honor the mothers in your life?

OZ AND I: PLACES FOR PRAYER

Oswald Chambers' My Utmost for His Highest

As I've internalized the realization that my writing is my ministry, I've noticed that my prayer life has changed.

But not entirely in a good way.

Accepting my role as a member of God’s writing team, has occasionally morphed my prayer time into something that resembles a phone call with my editor—talking over structure and content, rather than humbling myself before His throne and worshiping Him for the King of the universe that He is.

How quickly it became all about me.

Yes, I’m praying more.

Yes, my prayers feel more naturally as coming from my soul.

Yes, I approach the throne with confidence.

But maybe with too much familiarity.

What happened to the praise and worship part of prayer? Why am I standing before the throne, when I should be kneeling?

That’s where Oswald Chambers came in this morning. 

“Beware of getting ahead of God by your very desire to do His will.”

And “If a burden and its resulting pressure come upon us while we are not in an attitude of worship, it will only produce a hardness toward God and despair in our own souls.”

I don’t want hardness toward God. I don’t want despair in my soul. Yes, I desire to do God’s will, but at His pace. Really, I do want that.

This morning was a reminder to spend more time in the worship and praise part of prayer. God knows my needs and wants even without me rushing straight to the point. He knows.

He also knows that what I need—even more than getting to the point of my prayers—is that the real point of prayer is understanding my need to recognize my place in His realm. That place is the firm, comforting and beautiful place of worship.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for creating prayer so that we can communicate with you. Please show us more of your glory and help us find more ways to worship and praise you more. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? How do you worship and praise God in prayer?

*The devotional this post was based on was from April 1.

CAROL'S GEMS: MAY—THE EMERALD

Every month has a birthstone. The birthstone for the month of May is the emerald. And it reminds me of Jesus.

The gorgeous green emerald symbolizes rebirth, reminding us of Jesus’ resurrection as well as our rebirth into God’s family when we come to Christ.

Several healing properties have been mythically associated with the emerald. The one that makes me smile is that gazing upon an emerald soothes the eyes. Well, of course it does. It’s just that beautiful. As is our Lord when we gaze upon Him.

Ancient Greeks and Romans, associated emeralds with Aphrodite/Venus—their goddess of love. Our Heavenly Father—the one true God of love—proved His love by the physical act of becoming human and dying for our sake. In Christian symbolism then, the emerald stands for rebirth in Christ, faith and hope and love.

So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)

Sort of makes you want to go find an emerald and gaze upon its beauty, doesn’t it?

Happy birthday to everyone born in the month of May.

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, thank you for the extravagant beauty you have spread throughout this world. Thank you for even hiding bits of your glory underneath the surface of the world for us to find and enjoy. Thank you that everything in the universe provides us with an opportunity to thank you and exclaim your glory. Amen.

WHAT ABOUT YOU? This is the final post in the Carol’s Gems series. Have you followed the monthly birthstone blogs? Which birthstone most reminds you of Jesus?