Get Rid of the Dys in Dysfunctional Prayer

I just read a blog post provocatively titled "Why You Should Stop Praying." I think it is worth the read and makes a couple of good points worth noting, but there is some caution required here.

One great point Nicolle makes in this blog post is that we need to inform our prayer life with Scripture. I agree. Scripture shapes the way we pray and even the words we choose. That in and of itself is transformational. Often God will give me pause in my prayer and make me consider why I worded my prayer the way I did. Why did I pray, "Lord, help me be more patient?" First Corinthians 13 states, "Love is patient, love is kind..." If I am lacking patience, it is probably because I lack love. My prayer needs to be that I will surrender to the love of God more and allow it to flow through me more to those around me. Patience is a by-product of love.

Connecting with Easter

Our son, Jacob, is excited about Easter a month ahead of time. Not because of a bunny, eggs or candy. He is excited about a sedar meal! Yes, my son, a seven year old, is excited about a Jewish tradition which we have modified to celebrate Easter weekend.

So, let me get this out of the way. Yes, I am a nerd! But this time, the nerdiness paid off! I was trying to figure out a way for Easter to become more exciting than Christmas for our kids. Our culture has made this extremely difficult. What developed in our house was that we built a tomb and found a crucifix with a removable figurine of Jesus. On Good Friday, the cross is up with Jesus on it until that evening, when he is taken off, wrapped in a cloth and left in the tomb until Sunday morning. Of course, when our son goes to find Jesus in the tomb, he is gone and then he has to search for a "risen" Christ figurine some where in the house. You can see more in this post from before.

But we also added the sedar meal and modified it to be meaningful to Jacob and this morning he was already talking about the rice krispie treat pyramid and finding the hidden bread. He wants to hide bread for Mom and Dad to find this year. He is looking forward to dipping vegetables in salt water (symbolic of the Red Sea and the tears of the Hebrew slaves in Egypt) and cracking the hard-boiled egg (symbolic of our and Pharaoh's hard heart that is softened by Christ) The meal tells the story of both the Passover in Egypt and the "Passover" at the cross. It tells of the salvation at the Red Sea and the tomb. But we want to make the celebration of these things connect even better.

What other suggestions do you have to make the week of Easter more fun, spiritually educational and point us and our children toward the wonderful message of new life in Christ?

Was God Wringing His Hands?

Today I read a blog of a family who has been trying to figure out what is wrong with their child for two and half years. Her symptoms have not clued doctors in to what is happening and she suffers so much. The parents are praying, of course and doing all they can to get some answers.

The pain of the unknown is difficult when it comes to your child's suffering. We were fortunate that it only took us eight months to get a diagnosis for Macayla. Of course we hated the diagnosis, but I often thought how much more difficult it would have been to walk that road 100 years ago. Macayla would have digressed much faster and actually died of starvation since there were no feeding tubes back then. There would have been no medical answer as to why this was happening. So many families all over the world today experience this all the time.

The Counsel of Others - God's Will Part II

As stated in the previous post, we are seeking God's will in the midst of multiple decisions. The major decisions being the move to New Orleans and adoption. Paul wrote of God's will in his letter to the Romans, but what experience did he have in this area? How did Paul's discernment of God's will develop? The Holy Spirit used Paul and his experiences to write this letter, so certainly it would be helpful to know a little more of his background.