With autumn in full swing, I decided to update the look and feel of my blog to reflect the cooler weather. I found these really neat graphics at the Creative Ladies Ministry website. She does an absolutely beautiful job of creating websets!

My problem is I enjoy playing with webpages a little too much – it is so easy to lose track of time!

Look what we woke up to yesterday. A tree in our front yard broke. The limb fell in the middle of the night, and we never heard a thing! Because of the way the rest of the limbs are arranged, we’re going to have to cut the whole tree down (it’s not structurally sound anymore). We are very thankful, though. We park both cars under that tree, and the limb that fell would have smashed both vehicles if it had fallen from the other side of the tree. One small branch did land on our roof, but from what we can tell, there is no damage there. One thing is certain: We’ll have plenty of firewood this winter!

The view from the front door

The view from the street

I sure am going to miss that tree! It was so beautiful!

In my prayer time this morning, I was praying for my dear, sweet husband. I was praying that the Lord would use him as He sees fit, and that He would help my honey to grow into the Godly man that God wants him to be.

Then it hit me. What am I doing to encourage him to grow in his Christian walk? When I stop and think about it, there are many things I can do to encourage my husband, but am I doing them? Are my words and actions those of love, actions that cause my husband to long to be more like our Savior? Or when I nag or complain, do they drive him away from being the man he is supposed to be? Do I cause him to have a bad attitude because I don’t have a sweet spirit?

It was rather convicting, really. But it really is true. He may be head of this household, but as the wife and mother of my home, my attitude really sets the stage for how things will be when he returns after work. Wow. This is going to be a challenge, because it’s so easy to complain and grumble about things. But when I stop to think of how sweet things could be in our home if I had a good attitude more often – it really makes me want to do my best!

Lori (of the Cubbie Hole) tagged me. Her blog is listed in the Other Blogs I Visit section. (Lori, I’ve been reading your blog for a while, but I just realized today that I never added your blog to my list of blogs! I’m sorry – I added it just now).

Here are the instructions:
1. Search your blog archive.
2. Find your 23rd post.
3. Find the fifth sentence (this is meant to say something about you).
4. Post that sentence in your blog along with these instructions.
5. Tag five people to do the same.

My 23rd post is this one here. It’s the post where I announced that Little man would be arriving! My fifth sentence is:

And waited.

I was talking about how a friend of ours passed our phone number along to a pregnant lady he knew, and that we waited and waited and waited to hear from her. It’s a pretty accurate representation of our adoption too; it seemed like all we did was wait.

It sure was worth it, though! Little man, your Mama really loves you!

As for the 5 people to tag: I’m not sure. Some of the ladies I would tag have already been tagged. If you would like to participate, feel free to comment and leave your blog address in my comments!

Last night when Stephen came home from work, he wasn’t in the mood for what I had planned for supper. We decided that since we had coupons, we’d order pizza. (Note – we don’t normally do this, but last night we decided to splurge a little. It’s been months since we ordered a pizza that wasn’t part of a mystery shop)

Since I had piano lessons, we decided that I’d go pick up the pizzas after my last lesson, even though it would mean a late supper. I ordered a ham and pepperoni pizza for Stephen, and a double mushroom one for me. YUM! Not that we were going to eat a whole pizza each, but the coupon was for two pizzas, so we each chose the toppings for one pizza.

I gave Stephen a hard time about making me go out in the rain after dark, but to be honest, it was nice to get away for a few moments by myself. The car smelled so good on the way home – just like a nice pepperoni pizza.

When I got home, I glanced at the receipt stickers on the side of the boxes to figure out which pizza was which, and I noticed a problem. I quickly opened one box, and sure enough, our order was wrong. Somehow I brought home a double pepperoni pizza. I quickly checked the other pizza, and it was exactly what Stephen had wanted.

I was pretty discouraged. I can’t eat pepperoni, and yet the pizza I was going to eat had double. I called the pizza place, and the girl I spoke with was very nice about everything. She told me that she could make me another one right then (there was no way I was going back out, driving another 20 minutes to the pizza place and then back again) or that she would credit my account with not one, but two free pizzas. I chose the two-pizza credit. She told me to just make sure that I used the same phone number the next time I called.

What a blessing! What started out a bit aggravating turned out to be a real blessing. I don’t know when we’ll order pizza next, but we got credit for two free ones!

There have been several things lately that the Lord has laid heavily on my heart. There is one issue in particular, though, that I’ve been really praying about: the desire for another child. I had been struggling with how to pray about it. I firmly believe that God is capable of giving us more children, but I didn’t believe that He necissarily would. The Lord began convicting me of that viewpoint, so I started to pray that God would show me if I was being realistic like I thought I was, or if I was doubting.

Sunday morning, our preacher told us that his sermon was going to be on faith – only he was going to use the word trust because people identify more readily with the word trust. His sermon was called Enemies of Our Trust, and it was taken from the story of Jairus and his daughter in Luke 8. This is what I learned:

One thing that struck me almost immediately was when Preacher mentioned that the first thing to attack our trust in God is our pride. He told us that although the passage was talking about Jairus trying to get Jesus to heal his daughter, Jesus was also trying to teach His disciples a lesson. (v. 45-46) Jesus was trying to teach His disciples to trust Him no matter what. Is my pride keeping me from getting right with God?

The second thing that attacks our trust in God is when we begin to lose our place. (v. 42) While Jairus was trying to reach Jesus, Jesus stopped and healed a woman who had been sick for years. Jairus may have gotten upset that Jesus stopped to heal someone – after all, his daughter was dying, and they didn’t have much time. It made me think. I don’t “get a number” when I pray. God doesn’t just help whoever is next in line. He has a distinct reason for helping people when He does. I need to make sure that I don’t get upset just because someone else’s prayer gets answered before mine does! It goes back to pride. I’m not the only person with a problem, and my problem is not more important than someone else’s problem.

The third thing to attack our trust is predjudice. This ties in closely with number two. We get predjudiced and think that our own problems are worse than anybody else’s. (v. 42-43)

A fourth thing to attack my trust is delay. The delays that I think ruin everything (like when Jesus stopped to heal the woman with the issue of blood in v. 43-48) may be God’s promise to me that He will answer my prayer. It needs to strengthen my trust. I need to look at things that I think delay God’s answer to my prayers and see what I can learn from them. Am I getting offended at God’s promises? God may answer someone else’s prayer, but do I see the promises that are contained there? For me, when someone else becomes pregnant before me – do I get offended because I don’t think they “deserve” it enough? Or do I see it as another reminder that God answers prayer? This is where I need to check my attitude before the Lord. I can’t trust God with predjudice, pride, or even anger at Him. In the flame, or out of the flame, it doesn’t matter – I’m still a child of God.

The fifth thing that attacks our trust in God is panic. (v. 50-52) When Jairus’ servants came to tell him his daughter had died, it must have been easy to panic. “Never mind now, Lord. My daughter died.” Was he thinking that Jesus didn’t answer his prayer? Did he think Jesus was too late? Even when Jesus arrived at the house it seemed like everyone was panicking and mourning the girl’s death. What about me? Do I panic when things don’t look like they’re going my way? Am I quick to say God didn’t answer my prayer – right when He is preparing to answer it?

God was very clear to me that morning. When I thought I was being realistic, I was actually doubting Him. Isn’t that what Pharisees do? They find a way to excuse their sin? I did that for years! It seems that I had fallen back into that same sin. “I believe that God can, but I don’t believe that He will.” Wow. And I thought I was just being realistic.

I believe that God has wonderful things in store for His children. But how can He bless us if we tell Him that we don’t trust Him? I know as a parent, I would have a hard time giving my child something he asked for if he told me that “I want this but I don’t trust you. I don’t think you’re going to give it to me.” But that’s what I’ve been telling God all along, isn’t it?

God will answer my prayer. Psalm 37:4 says:

Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

That desire is in my heart for a reason; and God will answer my prayer. It may not be in the exact way that I expect (I’m sure Jairus didn’t think his daughter would die!), but God will answer. I wonder what His plans are! I wonder what amazing miracles God has planned for my life.

So the question God is asking us is, “Do you trust Me?” Well, do you?