First Day of School

Typically I have a slow-to-wake-up boy.

This morning he flew out of his room, and ran down the hallway calling: "LET'S GET READY FO SCHOOL!"

Last Day

Bad News

Mr. Jim accepted a new job offer.

They want him to start asap.

Joseph is gone at college. 
All of my other fill-in sitters are too expensive for full-time or are back at school themselves.

I've spent the past hour calling "people who know people."  So far, no leads.

This isn't fun.

Smoothies

Until I read it on Christine's blog, I didn't know that a beverage could be dinner. 

Revolutionary!

Since then I've tried all kinds of smoothie combinations... with spinach as the main ingredient... and my boys love them all!

Lately I always start with the same base: pineapple totally blended with tons of fresh spinach. 

After that's blended to a smooth, sweet green liquid, then I add in all kinds of other goodies.

With G's newly discovered lactose intolerance, we've found Almond Milk to be a good mix-in.I've even branched out into multi-layer goodness:

That one had the pineapple/spinach base, and a top with banana, strawberries & blueberries added.  Super delicious!  G & Joseph each polished off big glasses!

Next I need to figure out the whole world of wheat germ & flax seed.  Anyone have advice on that for me?

Pray & March

I wanted to share my other favorite part from Steven Furtick's book Sun Stand Still.

The title of the book comes from Joshua, chapter 10.  That's where Joshua's army is battling the Amorites and God tells Joshua not to be afraid because He is giving the victory to Joshua.  Joshua's army attacks at dawn and fights all day.  Unfortunately, the victory isn't cemented by the time the sun starts to go down.  On page 14, Furtick writes:

"Most of us - even really good Christian people - would have called it a day.  I've done all I can do.  I've exhausted every option.  I've given it all I've got.  But Joshua wasn't most people.  He refused to go out like that.  That wasn't the way it was supposed to end.  This was where his audacious faith began. 

Joshua sized up the situation, summoned all his available courage, and delivered one of the most gloriously unorthodox prayers in the entire Bible:

O sun, stand still over Gibeon,
O moon, over the Valley of Aijalon. (verse 12)

Now can you see why I love this story?  Joshua had the audacity to ask God to make the sun stop in the sky.  To freeze time on behalf of his people."

God did it.  He stopped the sun.

Fabulous as that is, I just included it because you need the background to understand my real favorite part, from page 172 & 173.  There, Furtick confesses that he missed an important point on his first reading of Joshua 10.  He goes back and reviews the events for us:

"First, there's God's sweeping promise to Joshua:

Do not be afraid of them; I have given them into your hand.  Not one of them will be able to withstand you. (verse 8)

Two verses later we see God start to fulfill his own promise.  Enemy soldiers flee.  Israel gives chase.  God joins in by hurling down hailstones on the fleeing Amorites.

And a couple of verses after that, Joshua prays his epic, sun-stopping prayer.

But hold up a minute.  Between the promise and the miracle comes an easy-to-overlook piece of information:

After an all-night march from Gilgal, Joshua took them by surprise. (verse 9)

An all-night march?  Lugging weapons and supplies through enemy territory in the dark?  Twenty miles uphill (scholars tell us) only hours before the biggest battle of the campaign?

Wow.

Suddenly I had a flash of insight about prayer.

If you're going to pray for God to make the sun stand still, you'd better be ready to march all night.

Joshua's big prayer wasn't a cop-out.  He didn't ask God to make the sun stand still while kneeling in the comfort of his tent.  He did it on his feet after an all-night march....

If you're going to have the audacity to ask God for something, you'd better be ready to act.  Audacious prayer must be tethered to practical obedience.  Or else it's not faith.  It's just wishful thinking and positive mental energy.  No wonder so many of our prayers aren't answered.  We pray for a miracle, but we fail to make a move."

Makes you want to pray / go / live, doesn't it?

Ordinary Audacious Prayer

I've been reading Sun Stand Still by Steven Furtick.  Honestly, the book hasn't rocked my world, but there have been definite worthwhile parts.  I've got one to share tonight.

First, I have to explain that he refers to "juggernauts," by which he means "a massive inexorable force, campaign, movement, or object that crushes whatever is in its path."  Ok.  Now you're ready for the excerpt:

"[The great prayers of the Bible are] recorded in Scripture to set an all-time prayer standard for us.  To force us out of our defensive prayer posture.  To inspire us to rise up and begin to pray... like juggernauts.

Juggernauts like Moses, who stood in God's way and prayed that God wouldn't kill the Israelites after they worshiped the golden calf.

Juggernauts like the apostles, who asked for and expected miracles, and who spoke out boldly in the face of persecution so that the name of Jesus could be lifted high.

Juggernauts like Elijah, whose prayer both caused and ended a three-and-a-half-year drought.

You may push back on this, but I suggest that the prayers of these people are not abnormal.  They are not the exception.  At least they were never meant to be.  The tragedy of our time is that we have taken what was meant to be ordinary and made it exceptional.  We've put audacity on the highest shelf, out of reach, and declared it off limits.  James 5:17 makes the eye-opening statement:

Elijah was a man just like us.  He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.

It's too bad that most of us focus on the second part of this verse.  We're stunned by the superior power of Elijah's prayer life.  We'd love to have an ounce of his power flowing in our prayer lives.  But we don't have to wish.  That's the whole point of this passage.  We are just like Elijah....

Think about it.  Elijah had access to an all-powerful God who could stop the rain.  We have access to an all-powerful God who can stop the rain....  The only difference is that Elijah... had the audacity to pray prayers that lived up to God's character, God's heart, God's resources, God's will, and God's abilities."

Tidbits from Yesterday

I'm finding that with Joseph gone, I have more time on my hands.

Last night I actually tried.... a new recipe!

(And - it even exceeded my typical cooking criteria -

it had more than 5 ingredients and took more than 5 minutes of prep.)

G came in while I was preparing it.  He asked, "What you doin' Mama?"

I said, "I'm making a new kind of recipe."

He said, "What's dat... Dat's some cereal?"

Poor kid.  He thinks that cereal is a recipe. 

I don't know where he would've gotten that impression.

One more thing that made me smile last night....

I was bustling around and G wanted me.  He called out, "Honey?"  "Honey?"

I couldn't answer him right away since I was busy laughing at him.

He called again, "HoneyMom?"

That's me.  HoneyMom.

An Interesting Response

I wrote this one a few weeks ago, and never got around to posting it. 

Maybe it will give you a smile today...

G & I are about to leave for Summer School / work.

Joseph tells G: "Bye G.  I love you.  Make good choices today."

G responds: "Wewllllllll.... (long pause as he thinks about it) (continues very seriously) .... Tank you tell me dat."

Exactly what choices is this child planning on making today?!