Please Pray

Hey all!

I was hoping to write a bit more of an interesting post, but today we've reached the make-or-break point in business negotiations, which means we're right in the balance between having another crap three or four months and actually seeing our problems solved.

Obviously, we're hoping these negotiations swing in the latter direction, so please pray that they go well.

In the meantime, I'm in for the most stressful wait of my life.

Misha

A to Z of Things I Learned in 2014: Understanding

I've been trying to find a nice, upbeat everything-is-possible way of saying this, but I can't, so this post is short. (This post will be themed around Christianity, so feel free to not read on if you don't want to.)

Sometimes, things happen that we don't understand. Sometimes, those things change our lives. Sometimes they make our lives horrible. Sometimes they make us so happy and come so suddenly that we can't understand what the heck is going on.

Even if we see God in the equation, things are still so confusing. Is what I'm going through God's will? Really? If it is, why? 

Why? 
Why? 
Why? 

Our human characteristics make that we always want neat answers and to put everything, even our lives into a box. In doing so, we often want to submit God to the same treatment.

And it just doesn't work that way. God is infinite and all-knowing, and often the things He does defies our understanding. Even an explanation won't help, because our perspectives are so limited that even if He explained everything step by step, He'd lose us along the way.

So if we can't understand, what then?

Then we pray. Then we have faith. Then we trust. 

Goodness. It's so hard even to write. Because even now, things are going on in my life that I don't understand and can't control, and those three things aren't easy for me to do. Okay no praying is easy. The trust bit? Not so much.

Our faith falters and as I mentioned in last week's post, we often forget to trust. So it's a fortunate thing that God loves us anyway, and won't desert us. And no matter what, He'll give us a way to get through and/or over our difficulties.

But often the first step is to stop trying to understand and start having faith.

Are you struggling with anything at the moment? You don't have to specify what that thing is. Just let me know and I'll pray for you. In return, I hope you'll pray for me and my family too, because the spectre of 2014 just doesn't seem to want to stay dead and I'm so, so very tired of fighting its many forms.

A to Z of Things Learned in 2014: Prayer

Hi all! Today I'll most certainly be writing about God and my faith, so if you'd rather not read this, maybe you'd prefer to head over to my other blog?



Right? Okay good.

I'm still continuing with my A to Z list of Lessons I learned in 2014 and the few months afterward. It's slow going of course, but I do feel like I'm slowly but surely making progress.

Back when I was picking words to correspond to the letters, prayer immediately came up for P. Because basically, I really don't know where I'd be if I hadn't been praying.

I don't mean this in a strict "praying for the right outcome" sense. In fact, I really spent very little time on those sorts of prayers.

I don't really follow a "Thank You, You're wonderful, now can I please have this?" Format. Nor do I set out a certain amount of time every day to pray. This in particular, I know people find weird. I understand why they would, too.

The thing is, such regimented, methodical approaches to prayer leave me cold. Please don't see it as my knocking it. I honestly believe there's a place and reason for anyone.

It's just that it often seems to me that a lot of people (especially in my church) focus on one type of praying as if it's the only one out there, when in fact it's not.

Anyway. Prayer to me is a focus and awareness on God's presence in my life. Which means it's not something I do every morning at a specific time. It's something I do the moment something brings my attention back to it.

Like say... Right now. Because I know that this is a difficult subject to write about and if the Holy Spirit doesn't give me the right words, this post won't do what it's supposed to. Which is to say: Help someone in some way.

On another level, I'm typing this while listening to the rain against my window, and I'm thankful because I know that God's the one who made sure we got the house just before the weather turned cold.

In these moments, I say "Thank you." Or "Please help me." And if I've ever said to you that "I'm praying for you." It means that right at that moment, I had just finished my prayer for you.

So to me, prayer is a constant reminder that even in the worst of times, God's right there with me. That He was accessible whenever I wanted to rant about my circumstances.

But that's not the best thing about prayer. The best thing was when God answered. When He warmed me and strengthened me so tangibly that I couldn't doubt for a second that He was there. The amazing thing was that this always happened during or after moments when I fought with Him for putting me and my loved ones through this.

In listening to Him, I learned all of the things I've written down so far. All of the things that I'm going to write.

But I wouldn't have learned anything if I hadn't been praying and trying to understand.

An Update and Shoes

Wow. I can't believe two months have passed since last posting. I definitely didn't think it'd be so long before returning to this blog.

Still, some pretty huge things have happened in my life, which has mostly been taking up my time. But before I get to that, I want to thank everyone who shared about my prayer request.

Right now, there's not really news on that front. We're now sitting tight and waiting until April 2015, during which parliament will decide whether or not they're going to pass the law granting 50% ownership to people who haven't paid for it.

So please, do continue praying for this, for the farm, for my family... Please don't stop praying.

Now, on to the good news:

About two weeks after my previous post, my mom/business partner signed the sole distribution for these shoes and others like them:



Since then, we've been on a roller coaster ride like none other because it seems like every second lady who sees the pictures wants to buy a pair. Or five.

This is amazing, of course. A complete blessing that fell out of the sky when I had started to think that all hope was lost. I thank God for this, because I truly don't think things would have gone this well without His help.

Without a doubt, this is a gift straight from His hands. It came completely unexpectedly, without us even really looking at shoes before the day my mom paid attention to them.

So yeah, if you think hope is lost, just keep praying. I'm pretty sure God has a solution around the corner just when you think there's nowhere left to go.

How are you doing? Anything you need prayers for?

Prayer Request

Hi all.

Yeah... I'm just not going to rewrite what I've written for my other blog. So if you could please click over, I'd be most thankful.

Misha

New Feature: A Prayer List

So I was thinking... There are so many people in need of prayers, so I decided to make a prayer list available. All you need to do is add a comment to  the prayer list page, and if you have time, please take a minute to shoot up a prayer for the person(s) who commented before you.

It's a simple concept, I know, but I think it can change the world. 

I hope you'd like to join in! 

A confession

I went to a new church today after a almost a year of taking a break from the church I’d belonged to. The break had been necessitated by my becoming involved with said church’s activities. I had joined up with the youth and music ministries in good faith, thinking that I could really help and make a difference, but ended up three years later, angry and embittered because of being ignored despite the fact that the current methods being employed helped absolutely no one.

The experiences brought along by my involvement exhausted me emotionally and spiritually to the point where I withdrew from church entirely. I didn’t feel like being friendly and civil to anyone in church. I didn’t feel like doing anything for anyone, since no one there appreciated it anyway. No. Correction. No one even wanted me to do it.

So I shook the proverbial dust from my ankles and walked away.

But the damage had been done. Because although I didn’t know at the time, the experience did much more than just tire me out. It planted a seed of bitterness. Or maybe poured water and fertilizer onto it so that the bitterness could once again take root in my life and infect every aspect of it. The big thing is, though, that I'd allowed this to happen. In fact, I didn't even see it happen. 

The only reason why I do now is that I went to the new church and spoke to the pastor there. He told me that once there’s bitterness in my heart, it’ll deliver fruit according to the tree that’s there. So anger, resentment, impatience, frustration with my life and so on will all be there. They’re bringing my life to a standstill. Which actually makes things even worse. Because nothing adds to my frustration, impatience etc like not moving forward in my life.

It stops now. I’m going to address this bitterness with prayer. I’ve forgiven the people who’ve embittered me, but I know I’ll need to do it again and again and again. For as long and as often as it needs to be done until this anger and resentment I have is rooted out of my heart and get replaced by something healing.

I know it won’t be easy, because it’s been a fall back position to me for so long. But I have to start. And by the grace of God, I know I’ll succeed with His help. 

Do you have bitterness rooted in your heart? Do you want to get rid of it?

A Week of Prayer

Hi all!

Today, I have something weighing on my heart. Still, I'm a little scared, since I'm worried that this will fall flat.

Still, I believe that God puts things in my heart when He wants me to do them, so I'm taking a leap of faith.

I'm making this week a Week of Prayer, and I invite you to join.

Today, I want you to look at your life and decide what you need a prayer for. This can be anything, one thing or ten. From needing a blessing, to your children, to you going through a tough time.

Then, from today to Wednesday, I'll have a linky list open. Write a post about what you need prayers for and link directly to that post. That way, it'll be easy for your prayer-buddy to find your prayer needs.

After midnight GMT on Thursday, go to the link left by the person directly above you. If you're number 1, go to the last name on the list. That person is your prayer buddy for the week.

Pray for your buddy until Friday. Someone else should be praying for you too.

Finally, on Friday, I'd like to read about your experiences. Was there some sort of break-through on those things you needed prayers for? How did you feel, praying for someone else? Any other things you learnt this week?

That's pretty much it. Simple in theory, but who knows. Maybe this will make quite a big difference to quite a few lives. Now I leave it to you, if you want to join.

Prayer

So as I mentioned a few Sunday's ago, I took part in a 21 day prayer challenge and it really did help me with my life, although probably not in the way that the guy on the DVD that my church is watching thought.

Anyway.

It also really got me thinking about prayer a lot. Which I guess is good, because there's a tiny gap between thinking about prayer and praying. For me at least, anyway.

See, most of the people in the church that I go to think about prayer differently to me, I think. And none of us are wrong.

Credit

It's just that their way of praying doesn't... really... uhm... work for me. Sorry, it's just that I don't really know how to put this in words.

The way I understand their prayer experience, they take a time, close their eyes and pray. According to a recipe. First, thank God. Then praise Him and His glory. Then ask Him for things we need. Then remember to ask in Jesus's name because we alone aren't deserving. Amen.

And like I said, there's nothing wrong with that sort of prayer. I also pray like that. There are times when prayers like the above are needed. Like I need to pray for an audience.

But the thing is... If I pray like that, I forget more than I remember. Have you ever tried to write up a prayer list for things and people to pray for? I have. And the list grows and grows and grows to a size that I can't handle.

That's not the real issue for me, though. My real issue is this: If that's the only way I pray, where am I giving God space to talk to me. That's not a conversation. It's a monologue. And to me, it's MUCH more important to hear what God wants to tell me than for me to tell Him things.

So yeah. When I'm not praying in public, I'm... pretty much praying all day. Even when there's a lull, I'm always aware of the fact that God might want to say something any moment now. And if something jumps out at me, I'll just... say it to God. Like: "Wow Father, you made a wonderful sunrise this morning." Or the like. And when I see something that needs a prayer, I take it to God. So yeah, when I say in comments that I'm praying for you, I in fact already sent up my first prayer. And I'll keep sending up prayers every time I think of you.

I guess some people might think that I'm way too informal in my relationship with God, but it works for me. When I'm not praying like that, I lose touch with Him, and that's something I never want.

So how do you think about prayer? Anything you want me to pray for you about?

21 Days

This is not an A to Z Challenge post. :-) 

It is, however, a post about something in my life that is very important to me. Prayer. 

I believe that God wants to give us what we need. That much I know. Still, there's more to prayer than asking for things. It's about building a relationship with God. 

In other words, it's about talking AND listening. 

Still, I admit that I've come to struggle with prayer. Not out of lack of faith or lack of things to pray for. 

Instead, my problem is a lack of time. I'm literally waking up hours before the sun just so that I can both write and keep my family happy and work. At night, I write or edit some more, if there's not some activity that requires attention. 

This isn't an excuse I've been making. It's just the truth. But when I did the J-post, I started realizing that my priorities have gotten a bit out of order. GOD first. Then everything else. 

So my problem wasn't lack of time. It was with making time. 

Which is why the service I attended tonight really got me interested. It's called the 21 Day Challenge. The goal: making a date with God every day for twenty one days. So picking a time to devote to Him. And a place where I can give him my undivided attention. I know that my place will be outside, because I no longer have a room of my own or a place in my house where I can just be quiet. Then I need to pick something to pray about for 21 days. One thing. 

So I decided to start taking daily walks. Some of the best times I had with God was while I was in motion, so I'm hoping that it will be like that again. I'm thinking to devote thirty to sixty minutes after work, because my mornings and nights are crazy. And I decided to pray about God's promise for my life and future. 

I'm thinking once this challenge is done, I'll start another one and pray for something else. 

So starting tomorrow, I'll be taking walks with God. 

Will you like to join me in the challenge? Where will you go? What will you be praying for? 

A to Z Challenge: God

Hi all! Before I start with today's post, I would like to point out that, if you looked at today's heading and thought it would be dealing with faith, you're completely correct.

I would also like to state that while I love God, build my life around what He wants, and thinks it's a great idea that everyone else does as well, I have a deep respect for all people regardless of their beliefs. (Or disbelief, for that matter.)

Because of that, I ask that you please respect me and my faith in return. I don't mind answering questions about my faith as long as it is done in a respectful way. Personal attacks and insults will be deleted.

Photo by Irina Patrascu

Today's post was a little difficult for me to write, because I'm worried that a lot of people (people that I adore), will be insulted by it or think differently about me.

But the fact is, I can't pray to God on the one hand and then try to hide Him with the other. So here goes.

The reason why I am bringing up God as a topic in the A to Z's of taking charge of my life is because He is so vitally important to the process.

He is my compass.

He is my advisor.

He is my (sometimes sole) companion.

He is my source of strength.

Nothing that I do in the process of taking charge of my life works if I'm trying to do it without Him. With Him, on the other hand, things are so much easier.

See... God has a plan. Not just for me. But for everyone. I just have a role to play in it. And He really wants me to. I believe that that's why we get our dreams and our drives to achieve them. God gave them to us for a reason.

Still, there's a difference between us and God when it comes to our lives. We see what's in front of us. God sees the big picture. That's why it's so vital to go to God for the smallest things, because in the long run, everything means something in the road that is your life. He knows where we're supposed to go. And He's waiting for us to navigate us on our way. Because many blessings await us on the right way.

Many of us try to grab the steering wheel of our lives, because lets face it, feeling even a little out of control is really scary. But the risks are huge. One wrong turn and we can do incredible damage to ourselves.

It's just not worth it. Trust me. I know.

So if you are serious about taking charge of your life, take it to God first. After all. Your life belongs to Him first.

Do you take everything to God? Sometimes I struggle with it, because my problems sometimes feel so insignificant... Any stories on how He helped and/blessed you in your every day life?

A to Z Challenge: Alone

A few years ago, I hit rock bottom. I never used, never got drunk, never got addicted to anything, except to escaping. But when I hit the bottom, there was no escape. Things that usually gave me a few hours of comparative freedom felt like they were mere distractions. 

In truth, they felt meaningless. 

Sad thing is, this was a downward road that I had chosen. I thought, why would it be a bad idea to study for something that would make me a lot of money? After I retire at thirty-five, I'd do whatever I want. Except it was. It went against my personality, my passions, my interests. Everything. For eighteen months I paid for my test scores with little bits of my soul until I finally convinced my parents to let me switch. 

Photo by Reckless Dream Photography

But they wouldn't let me pick my passion, because it was different from what people expect from a brain like mine. I can't even begin to describe how much I resented my mind by the time I was in my third year. Because it was my mind that had locked me into my downward death spin. 

And then... I realized I couldn't go any further without my life being in danger. And it was the best thing that could happen to me, because for the first time in THREE YEARS, I had a really honest talk with God. 

When I was supposed to pick the courses I wanted to take, I prayed he'd guide me in my choice between three, pushing the fourth and correct option far back to the back of my mind. At rock bottom, there's actually a lot of light. Stark stark light. It brings out everything, every choice I made. It put things into the right perspective. 

There I sat, alone, picking up my old dreams and inspecting them. They were battered and hurt, but still salvageable. 

"These are what I want for you, kiddo," God said. 

And I clutched them to my heart ever since. Knowing that they were my goals, I finished my nightmare degree and I truly escaped that part of my life forever. 

Do you sometimes feel as if you're alone, lost and in a dark place? Do you also have some battered dreams lurking in the dark places of your mind, waiting for a chance to be revived? Ever thought of positive ways to revive them? 

Finished by the eleventh hour

Sorry I missed yesterday's post. Things went a bit hectic after we got an unexpected guest, but after a busy few days, I finally managed to finish my Christmas present.

Due to the fact that my brother got a new car from my uncle (and that the above mentioned guest is a Muslim), I decided to give the men key-chains instead. Still, some of the bookmarks still made it to the tree. As promised, my hand-made presents: 

Our Guest's

My Uncle's

My Brother's

My Brother's (He asked really nicely)

My Mom's

My Uncle's Birthday Present

My Gran's

So there you have it. I managed to make gifts for all of my house-guests without blinding, maiming or otherwise impaling myself. 

The branches in the background is our Christmas tree, but if you really want to see what's going on, you better go check out my other blog. 

Then, I also want to ask you to please pray for a friend of mine. She lost her husband yesterday and is currently fighting a condition that flared up again as a result of the car accident that took his life. 

May you have a Blessed Christmas and a wonderful time with your loved ones.