Wonderful Wirlwind Weekend

This weekend was so fun. It was Delayna's 11th Bday party. The kids went rollerskating and spent the night at Julene's since it was also Riley's 11th Bday party. And I farmed the rest of the kids out, so Jason and I had our (I think) 4th night/day alone in 14 years! Kala also unexpectedly came to town and surprised everyone which was so great because we have been missing her so much since she moved up to Timbuktu (Wallawa County). So we all went to Porters and spent way too much money but it was yummy and it was so wonderful to all be together again. AND Jason and I finally got cell phones, so make sure you get my number if you want it. Incoming calls are free. So I may be able to stay under my minutes. :)

More from John Franklin (slightly re-arranged by Tawny)

I have wanted a good definition of this for years, I think I finally have one.

Walking with God:
Paying the price in time, prayer, and sacrifice to understand God's perspective of our life and work. Once understanding it, diligently setting about our Father's business. As we pour out our lives in rolled-up sleeves, sweat (tears!) and service for His purposes, we will feel God's power course through us. When this pattern of seeing as God sees and working with Him become a day-in, day-out lifestyle, the Bible calls it "walking with God."

In the book of Acts the entire church demonstrated this kind of relationship with God and consequently the power of God flowed through the whole church.

Doesn't that sound amazing??!

The Importance of Corporate Prayer

I am reading a book one of my friends gave me called, "And the Place Was Shaken" by John Franklin. I only read the first couple of chapters but I LOVED it and wanted to share. He studied Jesus' teachings on prayer and according to him, "Out of those thirty-seven verses [from the Gospels] the word you was plural in thirty-three of the thirty-seven verses. You can be either singular or plural in English, but there is a difference in the Greek. Given the individualistic nature of American society, most people tend to read it as a singular even when the opposite is true."

So far, this guy's point is that God moves much more powerfully when two or three are met together in His name, asking for His will. The author says that in the Old Testament God moved much more often when just one person prayed, (and He still can and will) but in the New Testament, under the New Covenant, God is more often moved by His people asking for something together. He also says that God's people were never described as His Body until the New Testament and that is part of the reason the author believes God wants His people to pray together. It is part of our inter-dependence.

This rings so true to me. I see God's people LOVING to pray together in the New Testament. I have also walked in late by to a prayer meeting before and been overwhelmed by the beauty of God's people praying together. I didn't realize that my heart was so moved because His heart is. I have also received shockingly clear answers when I pray with other people about something that I don't normally receive when I just pray by myself.

I am very excited to pray with His people tonight!

I ♥ SPRING!

What a wildly wonderful world, God! You made it all, with Wisdom at your side, made earth overflow with your wonderful creations. Oh, look—the deep, wide sea, brimming with fish past counting, sardines and sharks and salmon. Ships plow those waters, and Leviathan, your pet dragon, romps in them. All the creatures look expectantly to you to give them their meals on time. You come, and they gather around; you open your hand and they eat from it. If you turned your back, they'd die in a minute— Take back your Spirit and they die, revert to original mud; Send out your Spirit and they spring to life— the whole countryside in bloom and blossom.

Psalms 104:24 The Message

March Discipline

Walking and praying. Together. As often as possible. But not in the rain. Drizzle is ok, but no rain.

Needy! Needy I am.

It has been a long time since I haven't got up before my kids. Jason tells me good-bye at 5am and I usually get up, drink some coffee and read my Bible and pray until 6:15 or so, get ready for work and then get my kids up. I don't know if Jason told me good-bye or not this morning, but I know I didn't wake up until Gabe started wandering around the house talking about the quesidillas he had to make this morning for a school project. I was CRANKY! It made me laugh. Ok, definitely still need to spend time with God before I am fit to be with humans!

Honoring the Body

I guess I should report in how my February discipline of honoring the body is going.

Interestingly.

I didn't end up following that plan - surprise, surprise. But I have been thinking a lot about what it means to honor my body and have learned for sure that I don't. It is more like a punching bag to take my anxiety out on. So, lots of room to grow in this area.

Unfailing Love

I have been devouring the Psalms lately. I usually am only so-so about the Psalms which is strange because I love David so much. But I get tired of all of his vengeance issues. (Is that a guy thing, or a personality thing?) They haven't been bothering me lately though. I am just finding the Psalms so comforting and relevant to what my heart seems to need right now. I have also been noticing how often the psalmist speak of trusting in God's "unfailing love". Over and over, talking about His unfailing love. His love never fails. Mine does. Yours does. His doesn't. We can trust in Him alone. So glad.

Toothbrush Drama

I few weeks ago, my facebook status said this: Tawny Moore just realized that singing while you are brushing your teeth can get messy. :)

This morning I realized that crying while you brush your teeth can be dangerous! If you do one of those inhale, sobby things you will inhale a bunch of toothpaste and possibly choke yourself.

I did both the singing and the crying while praying, so I must conclude that praying while you brush your teeth can make for a very interesting start to a day!

February Practice

I have been thinking about my February discipline...

I keep remembering Ron's sermon when he talked about the different areas of our life; spiritual, intellectual, physical, emotional and I can't remember the last one, financial? Blech. No, wait, it was social, much better! I know I am weakest in the physical area. One of the magazines I like has a 28 day taking better care of yourself plan and Feb has 28 days this year. Combining all that with my rapidly increasing feelings of insanity during my curseful part of the month, I am thinking I should work on my physical self in February. I will make February my "honoring the body" month.

Physical stuff has always bored me to death unless I get myself all pumped up on vanity, which God won't let me do anymore, so I do not do a very good job of taking care of my physical self. I do get enough sleep. I love to exercise, I just love to read more. I do eat decent (I love fruits and veggies and whole grains) when I take the time to prepare something instead of just eating whatever is closest or easiest, or am not eating too much because I forgot to eat before and got too hungry. And also as long as there isn't anything sweet around. :)

I am actually afraid to do this though. I have failed almost completely staying off the computer in Jan, so what makes me think I can attempt an even bigger project in Feb? Oh, well, I can attempt it of course, but do attempts even count??? They don't for losing weight, I know that for sure, but I think they must for pleasing God. Otherwise, there wouldn't be any hope for us! And just for the record, I am NOT doing this to lose weight. I am doing this to hopefully help my body combat whatever is making me almost lose my mind 2 weeks out of every month! And attempting to practice some discipline. I will NEVER be good at that if God doesn't help me!