Pray... Then Wait

When my computer breaks I usually just turn it off for 24-36 hours and when I turn it back on it almost always works just fine. This technique doesn't work for everything though... unless you add prayer to it. I've found that prayer and patience is the key to to so many of lifes problems. When someone has done something wrong to me and I totally didn't deserve it, instead of getting really mad back at them I just pray, wait and eventually that person comes and apologizes. When I've lost something and have spent days cleaning and searching and think I'm about to go crazy, I pray, wait, and always find it. Always. When my life seems boring, out of control, busy, or just plain poopy (literally) (seriously) (in 3 years I hope to never ever ever have to wipe another person's bum ever ever again), I just pray, wait it out, and eventually it all works out and joy returns. And don't even get me started on the uses of this technique when it comes to marriage. Yup, I've found this magical fixing technique works for just about anything.

Yesterday I was so mad and frustrated about a problem we were having getting the kids into school that I could barely see straight. I did every thing I could, followed my sister's brilliant advice, even tried begging, had my ear glued to a phone all day, and nothing was working. I was starting to loose my cool. I freaked out a little, then remembered my magical weapon. I said a little prayer, relaxed, went out for ice cream, and went to bed in joyful peace.

Today I got a phone call and, just like that, everything is fine. The kids will start school on time. YIPEE!!!

I'm tellin' ya, pray... then wait. Say it with me, folks, pray... then wait. Try it next time you need a miracle, you will be amazed at the results.

Be Careful What You Pray For.

Have you ever prayed for something bad to happen? Like for your computer to break?

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

My Annual Knock On The Head

It happens to me every year. You would think that I'd be prepared, that I'd be ready to meet it at the door to say, "No thanks, I'm not interested" or, "You better get off my property before I SHOOT!". You might think that I'd remember the fatal outcomes, the damaged self esteem, the lost time, the neglected children. Yet, without fail, every year I put myself through the same torture, the same charade, the same silliness. What am I talking about, you ask? I'm talking about that recurring desire to DO IT ALL. And by all, I mean ALL. Yes folks, the mom who has a hard time keeping her floor swept and her laundry done was going to do it all, once again. I was not only going to continue being a full time SAHM-homeschooler, I was going to start an advice column, I was going to blog wonderful things everyday and make lots of money doing it, I was going to start a co-op, I was going to loose 15 pounds, I was going to exercise everyday and love it, I was going to find lots of ways to make money so I could buy my husband a house, I was going to write a book, I was going to write a line of homeschooling curriculum, I was going to totally landscape my yard, AND I was going to be able to all of this while sitting in my bathrobe, eating ice cream, and watching old black and white movies.

Use your imagination folks and I'm sure you can come close to the wreck I made of myself these past few months. I had moments of lucid reason, but most of the time I just sat around beating myself up for not being Wonder Woman. So, last week I decided to "HOLD EVERYTHING"! and just take it easy on myself. I took that time to re-examine the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of this year. I prayed, read my old journals, talked with my husband, talked with my kids. I had amazing epiphanies, heart felt revelations, and received all the answers I was asking for. I would call it a life changing, beautiful experience, if it weren't for the fact that I seem to go through this almost every year. How many times do I have to ask the Lord to hit me on the head to make me realize that my first priority, my first obligation, my first desire is to be a good mother and wife, to raise up a family that will please my Father in Heaven and prepare me for my eternal duties in the here-after?

Now, I am not saying that I shouldn't do more, but I should at least be performing my first duties well before I take on more (and, no, I'm not doing them well even by my standards and mine aren't all that high). So, once again I am nicely folding, stacking, and labeling all my crazy wild schemes and storing them in my "when the kids are older" closet and focusing on the tasks at hand, which are:
Homeschool well
Continue to rebuild my relationship with Cookie
Be frugal with our money (I used to be but I've been enjoying having money and I've lost that desire to "save, Save, SAVE!". I have always said that I can earn more by saving than by working in a part time job)
Keep my home in order
Exercise and be healthy AND happy

Once I feel that I am doing these jobs well (NOT perfect, just well) then I will open up that closet and pick a new task to take on. I will still blog and do my advice column (if people send in questions) but I won't do it unless all my other tasks are taken care of for the day and I happen to have some free relaxing time on my hands.

Maybe my goal for next year will be to not make too many new goals =)

Liz

Hey Everybody, It's Family Night!

I was asked to prepare a back up sharing time for Primary today, just in case the person in charge wasn't able to make it. I prepared it and ended up not needing it because said sister did indeed pull through. Wasted time on my part? I think not! Now I have a FHE lesson all ready for today.

Theme: Having Courage to Follow Christ's Example

Opening Song: Nephi's Courage

What is courage? Some people think it just means to be brave, but it is actually something different. To have courage means to be able to do something that you are afraid to do. So being scared to do something is ok because you need to be scared first before you can have courage.

Story: The Courage of a Knight I just paraphrase it because it is a bit long for the point it is making. Main points are

1. "True courage is fear that has said it's prayers."
2. Gaelin prayed and had courage to complete his task

Tape a shield to every one's chest and mention that we can find courage to do scary things if we ask our Heavenly Father for help and guidance.


Here are some little stories from the friend that show courageous children. Talk about these situations and how scared the children might have felt. Ask if your children ever feel scared about situations that they find themselves in when they are trying to "Be like Jesus".

Closing Song: A Child's Prayer

P.S. We will be dressing up in all of the knight dress ups we have on hand (which is a lot considering I only have two boys) to add to the fun.

P.P.S. I almost forgot the snack. Well I am going to be cleaning out my freezer (I'll explain why tomorrow) so Jon and the kids will have all you can eat ice cream buffet and I will be eating yogurt. I like yogurt so it will still be yummy for me =)

Hey, Everybody, It's Family Night!

Hey, everybody it's family night!
(update from last week: The car is still clean and it has been SO nice. The kids take everything in with them now when we leave the car each time.)

As I sat here, pondering what topic we should cover in Family Home Evening tonight, I suddenly remembered that I have been wanting to cover prayer for awhile now. Prayer is something that we do often in our home, yet Pablo is still having a hard time understanding what we are supposed to be doing in our prayers. Or, if he understands he isn't able to express it correctly. For instance, I can not get that boy to offer thanks for anything. That really is my main goal for tonight. To show them how, and why, we offer thanks in our prayers. So, here is the lesson I have outlined for tonight:

Opening Song: I pray in Faith

Why do we write letters to Grandma? (Because we love her, miss her, she misses us and wants to hear about us, etc...)

Why do we pray? (to talk to Heavenly Father)

That is right. Did you know that Heavenly Father loves us so much, that he loves us even more than Grandma loves us? It's true. Heavenly Father loves us and he misses us too. We used to live with Heavenly Father before we came to earth so we were able to talk with him face to face, but now that we are here on earth we must pray in order to talk with Him.

Praying is a lot like writing a letter. In fact it is a lot like writing two different letters together, like a "thank you" letter and a regular letter to Grandma.

Here is a practice letter for praying. You can write down ideas for your prayers on here:
Do you remember when we wrote thank you cards after Christmas? We write thank you cards because we want people to know that we are grateful for a gift that they have given us.

Can you think of anything that Heavenly Father has given you that you should be grateful for? (our bodies, food, the scriptures, our friends, the sunshine, our current prophet, our family, etc..)

We have so many things to be grateful for because Heavenly father gives us EVERYTHING.

After we tell Heavenly Father what we are grateful for then we let him know what is going on in our life, just like a letter to grandma. We can tell him of problems we are having, or of things that we are trying to do to make Him happy.

What are some things that you can tell Heavenly father about? (troubles in school, trying to read my scriptures, people I'm trying to become friends with, etc)

Our Heavenly Father loves us so much that He wants to help us and to give us things that we need. So, we usually end our prayers by asking for things that we need. We should also ask for things that we would like other people to have.

What would you ask for? (help with my homework, help finding lost keys, help daddy to get better when he's sick, blessings for our Bishop because he works so hard, help to hear the Holy Spirits whispers, etc...)

Then we end the prayer "in the name of Jesus Christ, amen"

You can use this letter to help you pray if you want. Just remember that Heavenly Father loves you very much and that is why he wants us to pray to Him.

Closing Song: I Pray In Faith (we will repeat the opening song to help them remember it)

Treats: No bake cookies.