Prayer Requests

Thank God!

By Lisa B on April 19, 2010

There are so many things to thank God for everyday.

Thank God for you — for those of you who made a card for Emma and Heather. I found out Friday that they had so many cards they had to ship 3 baskets! They are on there way to Emma and family.
Thank God for Dayspring and the peeps that work there also. They made these baskets possible and I know they are praying for Emma and family as well.
Thank God for the wonderful update on Especially Heather’s site. Go check out how Emma’s progressing. It’s a miracle!

We were able to put together 225 cards for Emma. That just amazes me! I pray they bring some peace and comfort to Heather and her family.

Don’t forget to grab a Pray-ers for Emma button!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Prayer Requests

The talented and lovely Darcy @ My 3 Boybarians was gracious enough to make a few buttons for me to share with you to put on your blog. We are Pray-ers for Emma and I hope you will continue to pray as well as send a card to Emma.

Here’s the code for the 125px button:

Praying for Emma

Here’s the code for the 150px button:

Pray-ers for Emma

Copy the html code inside either of these boxes and paste onto your blog. If you have trouble with any of this, please send me an email and I’ll help you get it up on your blog.

| Filed Under: Prayer Requests

Send a card to Emma

By Lisa B on April 2, 2010

My heart is breaking.

When I had the honor of meeting Especially Heather last year and going to She Speaks with her, I would just sit and look at her in awe. She, herself had been through so much. I don’t think it ever registered with me just how much she’s been through with Emma. And still going through.

Emma recently had been in the hospital for 6 weeks, able to go home but then started having seizures. She’s back in the hospital again. You can read updates on Heather’s site to keep up with things there or look at Heather’s Twitter page. You can also make donations to Emma’s hospital fund on Heather’s site.

One of the most important things we can do is pray. Pray for Emma. Pray for Heather. Pray for their family. Pray for the doctors and nurses.

The next thing we can do is to let Heather know we’re praying for them. The ladies at DaySpring have made it possible for me to send a gift basket of cards, but I need your help!

1. Go to http://www.studiodayspring.com/cardbasket.php and make a card. There are suggested sections, but you can choose any card that you feel expresses your heart. You can change the text on many of the cards to fit this situation. You can also add your own text, pictures, clipart or message.

Please be creative in this. Draw signs that say you’re praying for Emma and take a picture to put on the card. Write her name in the sand if you’re near the beach and take a picture. Personalize these cards to the max! I know you can!

2. At checkout, use the promo code: GCHEATHERAPR13. The checkout will show a $2.99 charge but the promo code will cancel that out. There is no charge for Studio DaySpring printing this card and sending the basket. I hope you will let @incourage know how much you appreciate their love and willingness to set this up for Heather. ~~You do not have to put in an address for shipping — the promo code will group all the cards together for the basket.~~

** Edited to add** You will need to put in your address in the Recipient’s screen. The system will not let you pass that screen unless you put something in there. The promo code will gather all the cards into the same basket.

Please save your design. Take a minute and create an account to save your design. There have been people who have submitted cards that I’ve found out are not showing up in the system. Please let me know that you have created a card so I can make sure it went through the system correctly and shows up in the basket! Either leave me a comment here or email me.

3. All cards must be designed and submitted by April 13th!

4. Come back here and leave a comment telling me you’ve submitted a card. I’ll enter you for a drawing for Sheila Walsh’s new book “Get Off Your Knees & Pray.” I’ll close the drawing April 13th and choose the winner the next day.

Help me spread the word. Submit a card or two. I would love for Heather and her family to get this basket and be able to wallpaper the hospital room with beautiful cards from all of you.

This is a new system for Studio DaySpring. Please email me and let me know if you have any problems whatsoever creating the card you want or if you have questions. I’ll me more than happy to find out answers.

| Filed Under: Giveaways, Personal, Prayer Requests

I need some ideas …

By Lisa B on March 9, 2010

for a women’s dinner at my church. As you may know, I don’t cook. I don’t do that whole hospitality thing well either. And those cutesy little gifts? I got nothing. But I have a heart for women’s ministry. I have a heart for women who are hurting — and we all are at some point in our lives. Either going into hurt, smack-dab in the middle of it, or coming out the other side of it.

One of the men at my church asked Duck if his group would play music at this dinner. He wants the men to cook and serve the ladies dinner. He wants this to be an outreach — evangelical — for ladies to invite unsaved friends. Duck told him that I have a heart for women’s ministry and that I might have some ideas for a speaker or two.

Side note: Can I just say it was kinda weird hearing from this man that Duck said I have a heart for women’s ministry? Why? You may ask? Well, it’s not something that I’ve ever really talked about with Duck. I mean it’s stuff I’ve spouted here. Maybe he’s heard me talking with someone else. But it’s not something that he and I have ever discussed. It was kind of validating in a sense that yes, I do have a heart for women’s ministry and should use my talents and gifts in that.

Back to needing ideas: Basically I need ideas from you. I know ya’ll are a crafty, creative bunch. And even if you yourself don’t have any ideas, maybe you can share a website or two where you get ideas from? I’m looking for anything from a theme to decorations ideas to gift ideas. You know — any of those little things that women typically enjoy. Have you been to anything like this? What did you enjoy? What was not so great?

If you don’t mind, I’d appreciate a lot of prayer for this also. I feel led to speak … as in get up in front of a group of ladies and share a story … and that makes my stomach do flops. Seriously? There’s no delete button in speaking. There’s no rereading and editing in speaking. One shot. Can I be interesting? Will I say the right words? I’ve been praying for awhile that God would take this desire away from me, but He really doesn’t like it when I argue with Him. He keeps giving me visions of standing on stage and parts of the message to give. So, prayer. Lots of prayer please. Thanks! I appreciate it! Let me know if there’s something I can pray about for you as well!

| Filed Under: Church, Prayer Requests

Speak up

By Lisa B on February 4, 2010

Because I am very organized {not} and have shared every thought that flows through my head here {not}, you probably already know about my work over at She Seeks {not}.

At the She Speaks conference last year, I was honored to be asked to work on a new site — a division of Proverbs 31 Ministries called She Seeks. Initially I was only going to setup the website, but have stayed on as their She Seeks Techie. I find that God has a wonderful sense of humor and thinks our plans are funny. See, my plan would be to write/minister to women just like me — 30-something, wives, mothers, bloggers But God’s plan was for me to be involved with a site for 18-29 year olds, singles, new mommies, college kids, etc. What I’ve found is even though the site may target that age group, I have been getting a lot out of the devotions written there and the video logs that have been shared.

This week She Seeks has offered up a challenge to those who may not be able to send money to help those in Haiti. When something that devastating happens, it’s hard to know what one little person can do. So, here’s the challenge — go over to She Seeks, watch the video and share the link to the Compassion site. Leave a comment there (not here – I’m closing comments on this post so you’ll go there!), and for each comment up to 300, $1 will be donated to Compassion’s Haiti fund. You may not be able to give financially, but maybe someone you share the link with can give financially if they only knew about Compassion’s work there.

What are you waiting for? Go, watch, share, comment!

| Filed Under: Blessings, Compassion, Prayer Requests

Lest you think I have it all together

By Lisa B on February 3, 2010

Let me reassure you, I.do.not.

After I wrote my prayer post Monday night, where I laid my heart out there, honestly it felt great. It felt great to write like that again. The type of writing that I’ll know one day I’ll go back and read and not believe it was really me who wrote it.

Then Tuesday comes and I found out that a few tweets I’d sent out upset someone. If you have that little nagging feeling you shouldn’t tweet something (or Facebook status something) then don’t. I need to pray about my tweets too.

Nearly the whole day I felt frustrated and angry. School is out yet again (3rd day) for snow. We’ve been cooped up in the house since Friday. As much as I would like to blame it on PMS, I know it’s just my flesh fighting back. See, when I finally made the decision not to go to BlissDom, I felt God’s peace about it. I knew it was going to be hard when it got to the week of, but I thought I’d be ok. Honestly though I’ve been fighting having myself a pity party. So I’ve been praying.a.lot.

If you are going to BlissDom, it’s going to hit — if it hasn’t already. One or all of your children will start crying or fussing about how you are going to be gone. Things won’t get done. The house won’t be clean. Mommy guilt sets in. If you’re not going, it’s going to hit — if it hasn’t already. Plans change. Snow hits. You’re trapped inside your dusty, dirty house and don’t feel like cleaning. Kids get sick. You get sick.

I am praying for you. The devil doesn’t like it when we’re going about doing God’s work. He wants to distract us with those things that we think we should be doing instead. If you know it’s God’s will for you to go, then also trust in God to take care of things at home while you are gone. If it’s God’s will for you to miss this one, then focus on Him and what He’d have you do instead — maybe it’s joining me in prayer for our sisters in Christ to not be overwhelmed, to fight off temptation and make the better choice.

So, please don’t think I’m some great spiritual prayer warrior. Prayer is more than the most important thing — it’s necessary for survival — for every one of us.

| Filed Under: BlissDom 10, Personal, Prayer Requests

Prayer is the most important thing

By Lisa B on February 1, 2010

Kimberly @ Raising Olives {must look up the story behind the name sometime} bought my ticket to BlissDom. She wrote this line in an email to me:

If you think about it, I’d love your prayers that I will keep my priorities in all of this and that Blissdom will ultimately benefit our family.

It struck me. That’s precisely what I am praying for all my friends who are going. In my massive BlissDom tips post, it was my first bullet point. It really deserves it’s own post.

In case you didn’t know it, God wants to be involved in your life — every part of your life. He’s into details. If it matters to you, it matters to Him. Prayer is our way of communicating with God — that means listening as well. My prayers for weeks were “God let me know in an obvious way if I should be going to BlissDom or not.” I add that obvious part into a lot of my prayers. And you know what? God answers in really obvious ways. See, I don’t want to miss what He has for me, so when I’m questioning what I should do, I always ask for obvious answers and that I’ll know are from Him.

I truly believe that He closed the door on me going because Kimberly needs to be there instead. But the praying can’t stop there. For me, I need to continue to pray that I won’t miss the opportunities God kept me here for. For those going to the conference, I’m praying for you too. I’m praying for your families who might feel left behind to be able to survive their time without Mom. I’m praying for you to learn the things God would have you to learn about yourself, about your blogs, and about other ladies. I’m praying that new relationships will be made and that old ones will solidify even more. And I pray that if any of you start to struggle with anything that God would send you your very own BlissDom Angel.

Pray for your blog. Pray that God would lead you to not only write the things He’d have you to write, but that you would have the graphics on there that He would have. Pray for your readers, especially the ones who don’t comment. The ones who may be suffering and feeling like they are alone — pray for them to get a little bit of comfort from your blog, your words. Your blog may be the only one they read. Don’t let that pressure you, but consider it an honor to write what God lays on your heart to share.

If you’re writing a blog to make a little money, pray about that too. God wants us to get paid for our work — though I still struggle in this area. Pray about how God can be glorified through you making money. Are the ads appropriate material for your readers? Do you share advice that will build up marriages and families? Do you know there are ways you can do that and not specifically mention your faith? Perhaps that’s in God’s will too. Maybe you share information on being frugal and one of your readers feels comfortable enough to start a dialogue with you about faith.

God has not called me to be a frugal blogger — I have no talent for clipping coupons. God has not called me to be a home blogger — I have no talent for decorating. I’m not really sure I can be put in a box and given a title — I know God can’t be put in a box. I pray whatever you see here on this blog is what He would have me to share. Oh, and I trust that He will bring about the people who need to read it — especially if it’s just one person. Because even if you were the only one on this earth that needed saving, Jesus still would have died for you. You are that important. But it’s not just about being saved, God is concerned with the details of your life. So pray about every aspect of your blog.

I know this may sound like I’m just a praying guru, but I’m not. I go through stages where I pray consistently and times when it’s just a quick 30-second “God please keep me from killing someone” prayer. Don’t envy me or compare yourself to me. That will do neither of us any good. If you do struggle with prayer time — especially if you like to wait until last thing at night and fall asleep before you finish your prayers, I want to encourage you to get a notebook. Get a really pretty one if it will help make you feel better. First thing in the morning — even if you have to wake up 5 minutes earlier — write out your prayers to God in the notebook. Just start small. Open the dialogue. He’ll be there.

Don’t worry about how messy your handwriting is — He can read it. Don’t stress about how much you write. Don’t worry about messing up the notebook or making it ugly. Don’t worry about scribbles and mistakes. You’d be surprised at how much it will bless your day.