Message for my Sweethearts!

Valentine’s Day has never been too big a deal for me. I guess it comes from not being so materialistic that I wanted jewelry or flowers or gifts. Now, while there is nothing wrong with all three – I just don’t buy into the whole Hallmark holiday that puts so much emphasis on one day alone to shower your significant other with gifts and love. Each and every day is a day to love one another, as Christ loved us then and loves us now. Every day we should tell the ones we love just how much they mean to us, show them we care, grab a card just because it’s a Tuesday or send flowers just because you are thinking of someone. We don’t need a holiday, a date circled on the calendar to celebrate love and life.

However, in the spirit of the holiday I wanted to do something a little different this year. I wanted to write something specifically for my three most favorite Valentine’s in all the world, my husband and my two beautiful children. Each means so much to me that there certainly aren’t enough words to say or the time to say it in, another reason to take the time daily to give extra hugs and kisses, to say I love you and to show that love by your actions. Without my husband and my children, my life just wouldn’t be the same, it would be incomplete and immeasurable because of the joy, laughter and love that I’d be missing.

To my Prince Charming (Josh) – As the sonnet goes “How I love thee, let me count the ways” and you know I’ve done it before and could do it again. A list of reasons why I love you, the person you are, the man you’ve become, and so much more. I strive daily to show you just how much you mean to me and I hope you feel it. Even in the stillness of night, in the quiet of an evening just the comfort we share speaks volumes of our love, our forever relationship. I love you for the way you never give up on me, the way you fight for me, lift me up, encourage and support me. Life has dealt us some pretty good blows over the last 14 years but I still smile in remembrance of all we’ve walked through together and just how lucky we are to come out on the other side. There is NO ONE else I’d rather be walking through this journey of life with then you. Always, forever, together.

To my Miracle Boy (Ethan) – Mommy has never been more in love with a little boy than I am daily with you. We are best friends and I love it. Praying this relationship continues all through life. I hope you also, just like your daddy and your sister, feel all the ways that mommy loves you – even when I don’t say a word. I want you to know that I’m always here for you, as both your mother and your friend. That we can talk about anything at anytime. I pray often thanking God for blessing our lives with you, always such a ray of sunshine in our lives. Our happy boy who takes on the world with a smile, you are God’s gift to us and we thank him daily for you. But even now, at only 3 1/2, I am praying for the woman you will someday love enough to call your wife. Let’s just hold off on that for another 17 years (minimum) ok?!

To my Sweet Abby Girl – My heart soars with gladness at the simplicity of your smile. The way you light up a room with your laugh. Abby you are so genuine in everything that you do, even as a small 2 year old and I know that will continue throughout your life. You love your mommy and daddy, even Ethan, with such a pure love that I can only imagine the wife and mother you will be someday too. You are so smart, so loving and so kind (when you want to be) that I pray daily for the woman of God that He’s created you to be. Mommy is so proud to have you as my daughter and also as my little helper in every area asked. I love you my Princess.

Prayer

Often in life we hear God speaking to us, not in audible form but in the small "coincides" of events throughout a time period. For me this has happened a few times this week and the central focus is on prayer. I have felt the call to work on my prayer life. I am good about praying daily but not always for long periods or about praying fervently for a need (either in my own life or someone else's). I have done a better job in the past year of praying for people when I say I will but it's usually a once a week kind of thing. You know during Wednesday night service. But I really have felt the call to do so more often.

My director, Ashley Coleman, sent out a Monday Mantra newsletter today and again, the central focus was on prayer. For us not to worry about anything but in everything by prayer and supplication let our requests be made known to God. Don't worry whether I have any parties booked for this week or this month. Not to worry about whether there is another person out there who is interested in joining me team and helping me to promote within the Thirty One business. Not to worry about anything. Instead, when I find myself worrying that is exactly the moment I should begin to pray.

Then tonight, as I sat down for a quick bath and some Bible reading I came to this - Luke 18:1 "And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint." In this passage of scripture "to faint" means to lose heart. When we are tempted and tried, we easily give up. Instead, it's in these moments that we should resolve instead to seek the Lord. To pray. I can admit that I don't typically pray when and as I should, especially when it comes to making big decisions in life but I am working on it. I am trying.

First of all, I have begun this week to pray for my children. I have decided that my children are both old enough that they should be falling asleep in their own beds and without mommy or daddy laying with them. Ethan does this well but Abby is still the "baby" and always wants someone to hold her. Luckily after telling her a few times to close her eyes, sit still and go to sleep she typically does. Now that I'm not laying in her bed but rather sitting on a chair in their room I am focusing that quiet time on praying for them. Praying over their sleep for the night, thankful for another day with them....but I have also begun to pray for the man and woman God may have made them to be, even now when they are still small. God has a plan and a purpose for their lives just as He does for ours. Will Ethan be a preacher? What joy would fill my heart to hear that he feels called to the ministry but it's too early to tell. Will Abby have the born talent to sing or play a musical instrument? Will she teach a Sunday school class? Again, it's too early to tell but I look forward to what the future brings for both of them. In the years that Josh and I spent waiting for them, wanting them and praying for them - we did promise that we'd return them to the Lord and that promise still stands.

It is my prayer this year that God will continue to use me to be a light in this world of darkness. That He'll use me in anyway He deems fit. But also that I will become a better prayer warrior. For my friends, my family, my church, my pastor and for all the needs that present themselves along the way. May I pray without ceasing and without fainting in 2012.