The power of prayer in my life never ceases to amaze me. I have spent 4 hours looking for a lost wallet, and after praying for help was inspired to look in our big chest of dress ups (it was at the bottom). I have prayed that my husband would get out of bed and pray of his own accord and before I could say, "Amen" he was on his knees. I have been in the hospital in agonizing delivery pain and asked my husband and my step father for a blessing that I would not be sent home again and my water broke before the prayer was over. I have prayed desperately in order to move to a bigger home, been told "No" and cried for months only to find that the Lord had an even bigger, nicer place for me to find. I have been so alone that I wondered if my existence even mattered and found a constant friend through prayer. So many times in my life has prayer been the only solution, and always the best solution.
Today I have witnessed the power of prayer yet again. First of all, two days ago my sister emailed me and asked for a prayer as she was facing a day, in the service of her family and the Lord, that would break any normal woman. I, and probably others, prayed for her that day. Today I was dying to hear how she survived and she happily responded, "Oh yeah, it was fine. WAY better than I ever could have hoped for."
I have been struggling with my own problem here, though mine was all my own doing. ***Here comes another dirty Lizzy confession*** I am a TV addict, as I'm sure I've admitted before. We don't have TV but you can watch TV episodes online... and I have been doing so to a point of self disgust. I have pretty much watched internet TV from the time I drop Cookie at school till about 5pm every night for the past several months. My house has been filthy, my children are unschooled, and the effect on my husband has been heartbreaking. He doesn't know what I've been doing, all he knows is that I haven't been able to do anything around here and he feels that it is because he isn't a good enough provider (NOT TRUE!!!!). I would stop for a day or two, just to dig us out of the filth, but Monday morning I was always back to staring at the screen and ignoring my children. I have prayed many times for help with this addiction and totally ignored all the promptings, signs, and shameful moments that I was given. Well, last night I decided to pull out all the stops. When praying for help this last time I didn't ask for promptings, signs, or for people to interrupt me. THIS time I bravely asked Heavenly Father, "And if I get online to watch any videos, or to do anything that keeps me from my duty, would you please just break my computer?" And I have seen enough of the power of prayer to absolutely believe that He would do this for me. Now, can you imagine me having to explain to my husband why the computer is dead and smoking? "Oh, yeah, well... I kind of... sort of... uh, I prayed for that to happen." Needless to say my house is clean, my children are bathed and dressed, and I haven't dared be on the computer for anything but to check my email and to write this post. So, Be careful what you pray for...
I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had absolutely no other place to go. -- Abraham Lincoln
Wishing will never be a substitute for prayer. --Ed Cole
When I pray, coincidences happen, and when I don't pray, they don't. --William Temple
Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?-- Corrie Ten Boom
The Third Petition of the Lord's Prayer is repeated daily by millions who have not the slightest intention of letting anyone's will be done but their own.--Aldous Huxley
Notice, we never pray for folks we gossip about, and we never gossip about the folk for whom we pray! For prayer is a great deterrent. --Leonard Ravenhill
Pray, and let God worry. -- Martin Luther
9 comments:
Ah, so the threat of breakage was enough of a deterrent... hm. Well, with the writer's strike, you're not missing much. Except Oprah. : )
I totally feel for you. When my kids were a lot younger, I was addicted to homeschool stuff: catalogs, books about homeschooling, resources, curriculum. I would spend hours and hours studying, reading, sifting, agonizing about the perfect curriculum... all while my kids were going crazy in the other room! Completely stupid, I know.
Before that, it was reading books, usually dumb stuff like Nancy Drew stories. I knew it was an addiction, because of a definition I heard once: you *insert addictive behaviour here* to get away from the fact that your refrigerator is empty, and then you wake up hours or days later to discover someone stole your refrigerator! I would read to get away from the messy house or cranky kids, and "wake up" to discover the house was even messier and the kids were even crankier; and the cycle would begin all over again, till I would finally get so angry at myself that I would have enough oomph to get up and do something about it all.
One year I put myself on a reading fast, that is, I wouldn't let myself read anything but the Bible, not even Christian books. That helped. Here's hoping God won't need to use the drastic measures you asked for! I'll be praying for you.
I guess you can become addicted to almost anything. I never heard of this kind of praying though. I think I'm addicted to the computer!
What an inspiring post! Prayer has always been an important part of my life, too. It is amazing how much the Lord is willing to bless us if we only learn to ask for His help ... both with the little things and the large things in life.
Good luck with not watching the computer too much!
Well, first of all, FEEL no embarrassment here, because if only you knew the faults I have - - holy crap - - you wouldn't feel too badly.
I would say 1/2 the battle of trying to fix some thing in your life is to realize there's a problem in the first place.
If you're the kid of gal I know you to be - - well - - you'll kick that computer habit's BUTT! And, don't be too hard on yourself if it doesn't go perfectly. Baby steps, love.... baby steps.
Keep your chin up.
xo Misty
Consider yourself a brave woman for even admitting an addiction. Saying it aloud (or typing it) is half the battle.
You can do it!
Once again, I find myself being so grateful for your blog-and for YOU:D
Very inspiring post. I so appeciate your testimony of prayer and your example to pray for help! We all need it, and in fact, I do believe your post is an answer to MY prayer.
The computer is hard to break away from. I have my own issues with it as well. Good luck. Prayer is powerful, so stay away from the computer!! :)
What is interesting to me is that you knew exactly what it would take.
I have found that the more specific my prayers are, the more specifically they are answered. It's almost creepy, but once I realized that I've been able to utilize the blessings from my Heavenly Father that he was just waiting to bestow. Sometimes He is just waiting for us to ask.
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