Only over the dead...
That's what went through my head when I received my "challenge," tonight. The pastor was focusing on couples and challenged each husband in the congregation - directly by name - to "pray over your wife."
Now, that's not something I normally do ever. In fact, the only time I could even remember praying over someone was when that someone was quite literally on their deathbed. Praying over someone perfectly healthy? Hmmm...
We pray at meals, together. We pray as part of the congregation. Me praying directly over her? Sounded like a great idea, for some reason... although, I admit I cannot put words to WHY this sounds like a good idea. It sounded so good, at the time, I decided I'd pray over my children, too.
I'll be sure to post how that goes.
The ants and Jesus.
Living in Georgia in the Summertime introduces certain challenges. One of them is the battle with ants. Fire ants are considered the worst, but what many of us call "sweet ants" or "sugar ants" present their own brand of havoc. These little buggers do sting, but aren't as ornery as their fiery cousins. Unlike their cousins, though, they just LOVE to live with humans. Almost Georgian who bakes an a regular basis has opened a bag Dixie Crystals only to find it full of either living sweet ants or peppered with their little dead bodies. They also love to hang out in your kitchen or bathrooms for water.
Anyhow... we went to church, this morning in a loaned pick up truck. The family we'd borrowed it from was using our mini-van, and we'd planned to swap vehicles at church. During the swap, the lady who we'd borrowed the truck from mentioned, "Oh, you know you have ants in this van? Well, actually we did know. But, I figured she was referring to the normal appearance of ants that randomly pop up in odd places in their never ending quest to annoy.... er... find food.
After the service, as we chatted with other people inside, I picked up a pamphlet or two I wanted to read later on and stuck them in my Bible. We came home, left the Bible in the van, did some cleaning, and later climbed back in the van for evening worship at church. I left the Bible in the van again...
When evening worship was over, we decided to go to Arby's for dinner. 5 for $5. Mmmm. As we went through the routine of unloading a 3 year old, 9 month old, and all their trappings, I decided to grab my Bible so I could read those pamphlets. I reached over the driver's seat, groped for the Bible, found it, and by the time I'd gotten it half way out of the van, realized it was covered in ants!
Ahh... the sweet word of the Lord. Even the critters and creatures cannot deny its pull. Well, the shock of having ants all over my hand sent the Bible flying to the ground - ants splattering like debris. In the short time between the end of morning service and dinner, they had set up shop in my Bible! I'm not talking about a few ants, here. I'm talking about hundreds and hundreds of ants along with their eggs. Yuck!
Perhaps there's a lesson here about not unloading the car... about leaving the Bible behind... who knows. Of course, there is this gem:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Each day has enough trouble of its own... ain't that the truth!
Anyhow... we went to church, this morning in a loaned pick up truck. The family we'd borrowed it from was using our mini-van, and we'd planned to swap vehicles at church. During the swap, the lady who we'd borrowed the truck from mentioned, "Oh, you know you have ants in this van? Well, actually we did know. But, I figured she was referring to the normal appearance of ants that randomly pop up in odd places in their never ending quest to annoy.... er... find food.
After the service, as we chatted with other people inside, I picked up a pamphlet or two I wanted to read later on and stuck them in my Bible. We came home, left the Bible in the van, did some cleaning, and later climbed back in the van for evening worship at church. I left the Bible in the van again...
When evening worship was over, we decided to go to Arby's for dinner. 5 for $5. Mmmm. As we went through the routine of unloading a 3 year old, 9 month old, and all their trappings, I decided to grab my Bible so I could read those pamphlets. I reached over the driver's seat, groped for the Bible, found it, and by the time I'd gotten it half way out of the van, realized it was covered in ants!
Ahh... the sweet word of the Lord. Even the critters and creatures cannot deny its pull. Well, the shock of having ants all over my hand sent the Bible flying to the ground - ants splattering like debris. In the short time between the end of morning service and dinner, they had set up shop in my Bible! I'm not talking about a few ants, here. I'm talking about hundreds and hundreds of ants along with their eggs. Yuck!
Perhaps there's a lesson here about not unloading the car... about leaving the Bible behind... who knows. Of course, there is this gem:
“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?
Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life ?
“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.
Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.
If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Each day has enough trouble of its own... ain't that the truth!
Starting off...
Today, I wanted to post a little story about ants invading my van on my Facebook page, but the tiny status window didn't give enough room. The story, at the time, seemed ripe for comedy & maybe even a little "message." But, by the time I'd fiddled with it to get it to fit, it stank. Frustrated, I went to Bing.com and searched for a place to start a blog... ironically, it led me to Bing's competitor, Google. Go figure.
Anyhow, here it is... my first post. Awesome. More to come, of course. I figured I'd best just throw something on here to test the waters & say hi before I dove right in.
Anyhow, here it is... my first post. Awesome. More to come, of course. I figured I'd best just throw something on here to test the waters & say hi before I dove right in.
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