Visual Prayer--Tears in God's Bottle

Rough days are inevitable. Seems like they come in conjunction with some of the biggest blessings. Which I suppose is par for the course.

What makes rough days worse is stupid people. Or stupid mean people. Or just plain ole people.
It might not be that way for you. I walk a tightrope between introvert and extrovert so while some days being with people energizes me, other days, it exhausts me to a disturbing point.

I continually read on of Oswald Chambers' devotionals about exhaustion. You're doing yourself a huge disservice if you relate to what I'm saying but don't read this. It's short.

I was feeling pressure from so many areas (some of them self-induced) so I decided to take a bath with some lavender bath salts, listen to Jeremy Camp on the iPod dock, and have some quiet time with God. I covered my eyes with a washcloth and asked the Holy Spirit to quiet my soul.

It took awhile. I think my mind naturally resists being still and quiet. The song Letting Go came on and behind my washcloth covered closed eyes, I clearly saw a jar with tears in it.

And I cried.

Then I put on my big girl panties and decided I could trust God to handle these mounting problems of mine. If he could store my tears in a jar, he could certainly take care of some insignificant people that were bothering me. Besides, what they do shouldn't be my concern, right?

I hurried to my easel and painted a jar.

Then I decided I needed to know where that verse was and in what context it was written. Turns out, it was smack in the middle of a Psalm. Psalm 56.


And what a wonderful Psalm it is for someone in the position I had been complaining about being in.

By creating prayer, renewal washed over me.

My spirit calmed and then soared.

The urge to crawl into bed and hide away from the world for weeks on end was gone.

Restored.

Not alone in misery and wandering, but every tear recorded and kept in God's bottle.

Wordless Wednesday--Visual Prayers

David Meigs

I just got an email, David Meigs lost his home to a fire. Thank God everyone (pets included) got out. You might know him as Curmudgeon.

David has touched so many people with his kindness and prayer, me included. When I decided to write full time a few years ago, I asked a question on a message board about finding a free version of Microsoft Word. I received several responses about Open Office and one email from David asking for my address. He had an extra copy of Word and had prayed that God would give him someone who could use it.

It's nothing huge in the grand scheme of things, but it was grand to me. I feel horrible about his family's loss, but so terribly grateful they're alive.




Here's the email I received:

This morning ACFW member (and CFBA member) David Meigs and his family lost their home to a fire. Thankfully, the family and the pets all got out safely. However, the Meigs family has basically lost everything. I've set up a special fund through Paypal. If you'd like to contribute to the Meigs Family fund go to Paypal.com and send your donation to dancingword@gmail.com (put "For the Meigs Family" under the comments). I'll ensure David gets the funds.

If you have questions or comments, please contact me privately. Blessings!

Annie McDonald
ACFW Northwest Zone Director
Greater Puget Sound Area Coordinator

Since I am also a Zone Director for ACFW, I am passing this along to our CFBA membership and let them join in the same general fund rather than create separate entities!

God bless you all.

Bonnie Calhoun

Dir.- CFBA Founder/Owner - CFOM

Praying In Color

For Linda, Rebecca, Mair, Toni, and Mari






More about Praying In Color here or at Praying In Color.

See all of my prayers here.

Molly.

She didn't let me take too many pictures of her because she thought the flash was lightning.


She's been gone 5 days now and I'm trying not to talk about it because as much as she frustrated me rolling in dead stuff, well, I don't want to believe she might be dead somewhere.


This morning, Kimmie was taking Sarah to school. Kimmie is my best friend and Sarah is Zane's.

Kimmie handed her a dollar for chapel and Sarah said, "Did Molly come back?"


(This is hard for me to talk about.)


We're guessing that the reason Sarah asked (when handed the dollar for chapel) is that she must be praying for Molly in chapel. Which we have been, too. Every.single.morning before Phil leaves for work.

It has changed from, "Please bring her back." to "If she's not coming home, please don't let her be suffering."

It's hard enough for me to accept. Sarah's cat Sturdy, who was 15, just ran away a couple of months ago.

Now Molly.

If feels like 9 is too early for a little girl to learn that sometimes our prayers don't get answered the way we want.

At 37, it's hard to learn that prayers don't always get answered the way I want.