Worship Wednesday

Some of you enjoyed the prayers for Lent I was posting a few weeks ago, so this Wednesday, I am sharing a week's worth of Lenten prayers. It will get you through next Wednesday! Come back then for some more!

A Lenten Prayer for Wednesday
Loving and merciful God, 
I am so aware of my sins and weaknesses.
But as painfully aware of my faults as I am,
Let me also remember your tender love,
your gentle and limitless forgiveness.
I come before you filled with pain and guilt
but look into your eyes and see the forgiving love
I so long for in my life.
Help me to forgive the same way.
Teach me to love as you love. 


A Lenten Prayer for Thursday
Merciful Father/ Loving Mother, 
I know that the tiny sacrifices I make this Lent 
can never serve as a real penance in my life. 
But help me to make my whole life 
one of following your Son. 
I am filled with your love. 
Let your love shine out from within me 
and guide my life in this sacred journey 
toward the Easter joy you offer me. 


A Lenten Prayer for Friday
Loving God of forgiveness, 
I come before you humbled and sad 
in the face of my own repeated failings. 
I hold out my hands as a petitioner would, 
asking for mercy. 
It is then that I feel you reach out and take my hand 
in your loving grasp. 
Thank you for the love you pour out on me
so lavishly. 
Help me to follow more closely 
in the path you have set for me, 
the path of your Son. 


A Lenten Prayer for Saturday
Lord, 
what you ask of my life seems so right. 
It is how I want to live, 
following your Son, Jesus, so closely. 
And yet I fail so often to stay on that path. 
I cannot do it alone, loving Lord. 
I need your help and guidance. 
I need to remember your love for me 
and I want to remember 
how very much I need you in my life. 


A Lenten Prayer for Sunday
My loving Lord, 
it's so hard to love the world sometimes 
and to love it the way Jesus did seems impossible. 
Help me to be inspired by his love and 
guided by his example. 
Most of all, I want to accept that I can't do it alone, 
and that trying is an arrogance of self-centeredness. 
I need you, dear God, to give me support in this journey. 
Show me how to unlock my heart 
so that I am less selfish. 
Let me be less fearful of the pain and darkness 
that will be transformed by you into Easter joy. 


A Lenten Prayer for Monday
God of love, 
I know that you are the source of all
that is good and graced in my life.
Help me to move from the life of sin
to which I so often cling,
into the new life of grace you offer me.
You know what I need to prepare for your kingdom.
Bless me with those gifts. 


A Lenten Prayer for Tuesday

Loving God, 
You have heard my complaints, my impatience.
Sometimes I become frightened
when I move away from you.
Guide my heart back to you.
Help me to think beyond my own wants
and to desire only to do you will.

Thank you for the many blessings in my life
and for the ways I feel your presence.

tuesday things

Hey, friends! How are you? Ok, a few things today! 

1. I realized I never posted about my change in sponsorship status! Whoops! You can find all the details here, but quickly, I am now charging for ad space. I will no longer be accepting swap sponsors. I have some very reasonable rates for monthly ads. You DO NOT have to be a blogger to advertise with me. Own a shop? Scentsy consultant? Want to advertise a service? You can do that here! I am on track to hit 100,000+ pageviews this month and I have some prime real estate for you! 

2. Mad man Tony Horton just about killed me last night....in a good way. He lives in my TV and he makes me workout. It's glorious. 

3. Pinterest inspired nails! Dark plum with a chunky glitter top coat.

And now, continuing with our Lent tradition:

A Lenten Prayer for Tuesday

Father of my soul,

Mother of my heart, 

I know your love for me is limitless beyond imagining. 

You care for me as a loving parent. 

Through my smallest Lenten sacrifices, 

help me to become less selfish 

and more aware of your ways. 

Fan the flame of my desire 

to draw ever closer to you. 

Guide me to seek your love.

A Lenten Prayer for Monday

Hi, friends! If you are participating in Lent, how is it going? As you know, I have given up sweets and negative words. I shared this story on Facebook this weekend.

Loving God,
you call us back to you with all of our hearts.
I feel your call for me deep in my heart
and I know you want me back
as much as I want to return. 

Please, Lord,
give me the wisdom to know how to return.
Make my journey back to you this Lent
one of grace, forgiveness and gentle love.

A Lenten Prayer for Thursday

A fine prayer from this great Lenten resource at Creighton University

Lord,  
Let everything I do this day and in this season of Lent
come from you, be inspired by you.

I long to be closer to you.
Help me to remember that nothing is important in my life
unless it glorifies you in some way.

It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of my life and keep saying,
"Tomorrow, I will spend more time in prayer,"
but now my longing meets your love and I want to do it now. 
Help me to rely on you for help.

The prayer asks you that I reach perfection.
Please, Lord, remind me that "perfection"
isn't the crazy, "successful" way I try to live my life,
but a perfection of my most authentic, real self.
My "perfection" might be holding my many flaws in my open hands,
asking you to help me accept them.

Heal me, Lord, and help me to find you in the darkness of my life. 
Let me reach out in this darkness and feel your hand and love there to guide me

Worship Wednesday

I recently started another YouVersion reading plan: ESV Study Bible. Day 1 was killer. There were three verses to read and the one below was the first one. It really spoke to me and honestly, had a lovely calming effect...or maybe that was the ocean sound sleep app I had playing on the iPad. I am so weird.

Ecclesiastes 3

A Time for Everything

1 For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

2  a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;3  a time to kill, and a time to heal;
a time to break down, and a time to build up;4  a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;5  a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;6  a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;7  a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;8  a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

Have an outstanding day, friends. 

Psalm 109:4 {Worship Wednesday}

One of my many reading plans on YouVersion is the Active Word Daily Devotional. I haven't been doing great with my reading plans recently and I really need to work on that. I know my relationship with the Lord is not based on how many days I have missed my reading plan, but more times than not, they provide prayer and thought provoking view like the one below.

I preface this by saying, I am in NO WAY, SHAPE, OR FORM looking for sympathy when I share this with..well, the world. I have found more and more in my adult years that I really don't "fit in" any kind of group of people. I find myself as the outsider, the joke, or just plain fool. I have shared before, that I desperately want and pray for a good group of girlfriends. Christ minded women and mothers who are walking though life the same way I am. I group to lift each other up, not judge. That's hard to find with women. Really, it is. Women are mean...and dramatic...and catty. One of my consistent prayers with God is one in which I ask for a friend. Really, just one would be enough.

Since diving head first into blogging, I have met some of the most amazing women. I do feel like I "fit in." Women bloggers just want to be themselves. We don't fit in an about me box, we need a whole corner of the internet to express and share our lives. I have met a few women that really do "get it." This gives me hope and quite honestly, something to look forward to.

In the times (past and present), I don't fit in, don't say the right things, or learn I have become a source of hatred, I hope to remember Psalm 109:4.


Psalm 109:4

4 In return for my friendship they accuse me,

but I am a man of prayer.




When you pull back and look at Psalm 109 in its totality, it becomes painfully clear that it's one of David's most heart-breaking compositions. Obviously, he wrote it during a time of unparalleled difficulty and distress, when everything that could possibly go wrong did. Maybe it was when the sting of Ahithophel's betrayal was still fresh, or on the heels of some unrecorded conflict. Whatever the exact circumstances were, they took David to the brink of his breaking point.

And yet, there's a star that shines through all this darkness. Notice that in this state of extreme misery, David gave himself to prayer. All around him there was nothing but heartache, and so he looked up. He looked in that one direction, the only direction in which he could trust there would be a loving heart to receive him.

Sometimes, our lives parallel David's. Our enemies are multiplied and threaten to utterly overwhelm us, and even those we trusted betray us. We're attacked from every angle, except one: from above. The avenue of prayer is still open to us and unlimited resources of God's love, joy, peace, wisdom, and faith are made available to us.

When our lives seem to be racing out of control at breakneck speed, prayer is the brake that saves us. We need to use it. We need to do as David did and give ourselves to prayer when the battle appears hopeless and the floodwaters are at their highest. Don't surrender or roll over in defeat. Don't succumb to the rising tide. Dig deep, call out to God, pray! Take advantage of the one avenue that is and always will be open to you no matter what. 

Hearer of our hearts, may we always and ever pursue the pathway of prayer to You.

When you pull back and look at Psalm 109 in its totality, it becomes painfully clear that it's one of David's most heart-breaking compositions.

Our Weekend

Now that life is slowly returning to normal, I can think again. Wow, its November! 

Last Friday, we jumped into super psycho productive mode. The lists of task we wanted and needed to complete was huge.


Throughout the weekend, we were going nonstop. Saturday we were on the hunt for office furniture for my office and a few pieces for my husband's "hobby room." We found some fabulous items at a few antique and vintage stores.

The girl who worked here, crashed into a shelf full of ceramic dishes and sent them straight to the floor. I was mortified for her....

A little lot of Greek House for lunch. Seriously so much food. Not to mention we smelled like Athens all day. Ick. Worth it? Yes.

Cruising around a furniture store. I found about 67 items that I needed while looking at new furniture. I came home with one. 

Sunday was psycho clean day. We went through so much stuff in our house and got rid of an entire truck load of donations and trash. It was ridiculous. Where did all that stuff come from and WHY did we think we needed it?? 

Throwback to my childhood. Saw this at Wal-Mart. My aunt bought me these and the Christmas ornaments every year! Still looking fab, Barbie.

Monday was Austin's surgery. When all was said and done, he came out just fine. I think we were the ones who felt worse. The day started very early. He was not allowed to eat or drink anything after midnight but his surgery wasn't until 12:30pm. Anyone who has been around a 1 year old who hasn't eaten in an hour knows this was going to be a disaster. He actually did really well. They let me go back with him when it was time to put him under and I'm pretty sure  they all think I was a nut case. They were really great in explaining to me what was going to happen and how it was going to happen, but seeing your child scared and unsure of what is going on and then going completely limp with their eyes in the back of their head is awful. Just awful. 

They called me back as soon as he was being moved to the recovery room. When I arrived, he was hysterical. Seeing someone come off anesthesia is unlike anything I have ever seen. He was so disoriented and confused...and in a lot of pain. Horrible. In his fit of confused and foggy rage, he burst a blood vessel under the incision which then started to get bigger...and bigger....and bigger...to the point of concern. We thought for a while he would have to go back into surgery. Ugh. Long story short, we kept it from growing any more and we were finally released 3 hours later. He seems to be doing well. Not sleeping great which reminds me of those glorious newborn days, but he is playing and eating well. 

:( 

My mother-in law came to stay with us and take care of Austin this week. I am so grateful. Take off work is just not an option for me right now and he can't go back to daycare for at least a few days. 

The emotional toll of all of this hit yesterday. I seriously felt like death. Death with a migraine and no sleep, that is. I got some decent sleep last night but my migraine is still lingering a bit. Ugh. Ok, enough complaining. 

I'm excited to share my November sponsors with you! And guess what? They are all fellow Oklahomans! 

Prayer Donor {Worship Wednesday}

I literally just came across something that can and will change the world.

Scott Williams was a campus pastor at a branch of our church that we were a part of for a few years. He has since moved on to other things, but I regularly read many of his posts. Yesterday he shared an organization that's sole purpose is to unite the church and the world through prayer, PrayerDonor.org.

Through their site you can share your own prayers and pray for others all around the world. This is a great reminder of the power of prayer. The power that we most often promise others, but then forget to follow through with that promise.

How many times have you told someone I'll pray for you, only to go right back to your self absorbed life. Me? Too many to count.

I have decided to donate my prayers. Please join me!

Luke 18:1 "Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up."


Prayer Donor from Matthew Sloop on Vimeo.