Freedom is Only For Those That Have the Guts to Defend It

Prayer is...

"The effect of prayer is union with God, and, if someone is with God, he is separated from the enemy. Through prayer we guard our chastity, control our temper and rid ourselves of vanity. It makes us forget injuries, overcomes envy, defeats injustice and makes amends for sin. Through prayer we obtain physical well-being, a happy home, and a strong, well-ordered society. Prayer is the seal of virginity and a pledge of faithfulness in marriage. It shields the wayfarer, protects the sleeper, and gives courage to those who keep vigil. It will refresh you when you are weary and comfort you when you are sorrowful. Prayer is the delight of the joyful as well as the solace of the afflicted. Prayer is intimacy with God and contemplation of the invisible. Prayer is the enjoyment of things present and the substance of things to come."

- Gregory of Nyssa

12 of 12 - January 2009

7:18am - Gluing on a patch to Amanda's school uniform pants.


7:26am - I write a goofy poem/rhyme on Amanda's lunch napkin each morning. Here is today's offering.


7:57am - Amanda playing Nintendo before it's time to leave for school.


8:36am - I oversee the Jr. High character development curriculum program at Amanda's school. A group of three students does a short presentation during Monday morning assemblies. Here is today's group. I spent about 45 minutes with them one-on-one Friday, and today's presentation was a definite improvement.


11:55am - Ran by my Pastor's house to feed their dog Zoey at lunch time today.


3:50pm - Amanda being goofy with a mailing label on her nose. She put mailing labels and stamps on 80+ postcards to help out today.


5:19pm - Dinner with the Fam.


7:49pm - Started rolling the ceiling tonight working on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project. Others call it painting...I call it a three month project!


8:35pm - The mess is getting to be more than I can handle as I paint my office. If I had room someplace else in the house I would move everything out until I finish painting. But there isn't space, so that's not an option.


8:27pm - Can you see the stripes? No, those are not shadows...those are areas I missed when I was painting the ceiling tonight! I'm going to have to get all that mess out again to finish. I found out bright lights pointed at the ceiling don't really help when using bright white paint.


9:29pm - Watching DVR'd 24. Two nights, two hours of 24 each night...why can't every week be like this?


11:54pm - I could not handle the mess in my office, so I had to make more room. I moved the brown book case into the living room until I am done with my painting. Wonder what Brooke is going to say when she wakes up in the morning and sees it?

How Awesome Would This Be?

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

Living in Chaos

The work on my "Three Month Office Remodeling" project continues. This afternoon I painted all of the trim (except what I have not taken off from behind the desks and from behind the big bookshelf). I really like the look of the black glossy trim. I think it will set off the white walls nicely. This evening, I caulked a few cracks where the paneling joins, put spackle on two ceiling spots and used a brush to cut out almost half of my ceiling. Until I get done, my office is in total chaos. I am not one of those people who can do well in chaos!

Sometime between homework and watching the next two hours of 24, I hope to paint the entire ceiling in my office tomorrow night. This week, I would also like to get the final coat of paint on my closet doors and the one wall that has white Kilz on it right now. That's my goal. Would I be surprised if I got nothing more than the ceiling painted this week? No.

No Arks for Me

There are MANY things the Lord does that my little mind cannot understand, but there is one thing I totally understand. I know why God did not arrange for me to be born back in Noah's time and task me with the responsibility of building the ark. The main reason is the time factor. Had I been born back then and given that responsibility, you never would have heard the story of the Flood because it would not be in the Bible...for the simple reason that I'd still be working on the ark today!

If you are wondering where I came up with this interesting take on this old Bible classic, I'll give you a hint...I've been working on my "three month office remodeling project" tonight. You could change the task, but this story is repeated OVER and OVER and OVER again every time I attempt a "home improvement" project.

I already blogged about my venture to repaint my office. Here's how it's going:

• I have ONE wall completely painted...with Kilz (which means I still have a top coat to go)
• All the trim is taken down
• I painted some of the trim only to find out the black paint I had was too flat, so along with the 600 other pieces of trim I have, I get to repaint that first batch
• I have water damage in a couple places on my ceiling. I have no experience (nor desire to gain experience) with taping and bedding. My solution: scrape off the damaged "popcorn" texture and paint from the ceiling thus exposing the UGLY sheet rock and cracks between the sheet rock, caulk the cracks between the sheet rock and spray some of this canned popcorn ceiling texture stuff on the ceiling; paint.
• I tried the above procedure tonight only to find out that the spray texture idea is a ABYSMAL failure! First of all, one can supposedly covers six square feet of ceiling. For some reason, in my mind, that meant six feet by six feet squared. (Thank you, I now realize that would have been 36 square feet so need to comment on that!). This miscalculation was fortunate for me because I would have WASTED so much more money buying enough to cover my bare spots. Anyway, I prepped the area (sorta) and sprayed. When I was done, everything but the ceiling had texture on it....my carpet, the couch, my bean bag chair, the paneling that was supposed to stay brown, my vacuum cleaner and, of course, ME.
• I also tried this procedure in my bathroom which has the worst water damage. Besides the texture being sprayed on everything in there, my ceiling now looks much worse. So, when I finally do get my office finished, I get to repaint the ceiling in my bathroom. How much fun is that?
• Oh yes, I almost forgot the primer coat I put on all the closet doors last week. For some really dumb reason, I thought taking the doors off the hinges would make it easier to paint them. WRONG! I guess if I had a workshop to put them/paint them in, it would have been OK. But it was NOT a good idea to lay them flat across the back of two chairs and try to paint them in my office. The doors took up too much space which made it a real pain to get to the bathroom to wet the washcloth and keep walking back and forth wiping up the paint I kept splattering on the carpet.
  

So, near as I can tell, here is all I have left to do:

• Put primer coat on three more walls
• Put top coat on all four walls
• Paint ceiling
• Paint trim
• Put trim (all 600 pieces) back on the walls
• Top coat on closet doors and put door knobs back on (except for the one door that had the door knob GLUED ON by the previous owner...no joke)
• Buy and hang blinds (to replace the towel now nailed to the window frame)
• Repaint bathroom

At this rate, I'm fairly certain I can be done by the end of March!

When God Says "It's All Good" it Really Is

WHAT CAUGHT MY ATTENTION
Gen 1:4 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 10 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 12 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 18 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 21 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 25 - ...And God saw that it was good. v. 31 - Then God looked over all he had made, and he saw that it was excellent in every way.

WHAT GOD WAS SPEAKING TO ME
EVERYTHING God does is good...everything. Even something as simple as separating light from darkness was good (it was part of his bigger plan). EVERYTHING God does is good.

WHAT I NEED TO DO
I want to be a part of the GOOD God is doing in my life, in my family, in my church and in the world. I want to turn God loose in my life and I want to remove anything that would hinder the GOOD he wants to do.

PRAYER FOR SELF/SPIRITUAL LIFE
That I would not hinder the good that God wants to do in my life; that I would be a part of the good God is doing in the lives of those around me.

PRAYER FOR OTHERS
(I listed those God brought to my heart and prayed that the GOOD God has planned for them would be released in their lives and that I would be a part of that)

ANSWERED PRAYER/WHAT I AM THANKFUL FOR
Thank you Lord that you are GOOD and everything you want to do in my life is GOOD

(the six parts IN BOLD are the six topics/questions I use in my Bible reading and prayer time each day)