Driving home last night we passed a church along side the road. On its little message board outside was written.

This was a little sad to me. At first my response was that prayer is so much more than a smoke signal sent to a genie in the sky. I contemplated how such and intimate conversation, a fellowshipping with the Almighty could be reduced to this fluffy little quote. I realized the source of my frustration was the word “wish”, the sound of it brought various pictures to mind. First I imagined a wistful, “what if” being sent to the sky. . .

That didn’t bode well at all, Prayer is much more powerful than a flimsy fancy. The next picture that came to mind was that of a blue genie in a bottle. The voice of Robin Williams played in my head.

I dwelt on these thoughts for the remainder of the trip. This morning I looked up “wish” in (on) the dictionary.

Wish: an expressed will or desire : Mandate

I did not like this at all! Who are we to command God, are we to send up a grocery list in a model rocket each time we Need something. Yes, I do believe that our Lord cares about our needs and that he provides for even the smallest desires, however there is so much more than that to prayer! I continued to be uneasy with the statement . . . a wish sent heavenward . . . a wish sent heavenward, I decided to delve deeper into the definition of wish. Maybe there was a different, a better definition.
I found this:

Wish:
1. A desire, longing, or strong inclination for a specific thing.
2. An expression of a desire, longing, or strong inclination; a petition
3. Something desired or longed for.

Ok, lets work with this: “A prayer is an “expression of desire” sent heavenward”.

That sounds a little better, assuming your desire is that which is heavenward. Even though I was reaching to justify the quote, it was sounding a little better now. Prayer is an intimate conversation with your creator, pouring out your soul before the Lord. Drawing near to the Father in an expression of desire, a desire to know Him, to see Him, to fellowship with Him and to minister to Him. Prayer is the ultimate expression of desire.

So am I happy now with the quote: “a wish sent heavenward”? Well no, not from the thinking it most likely originated but maybe it’s not as shallow as I thought. Made me think anyway. What is your desire?

As they created their art Sarah proclaimed “I’m a pink girl” and Joshua yelled out “I’m a blue boy”. Instantly we knew the canvas had changed.

Thursday:

We drove our 3 kids and Amy’s 2 to Springfield, MO. The 5 kids behaved wonderfully and the trip went smoothly. We stopped in Groom at the Cross and had dinner at the World’s Largest McDonalds in Vinita, OK. We did get quite a few looks whenever we stopped, with the kids all looking so much alike and being so close in age people thought Jeremiah, Sarah, and Joshua were triplets. Each time we took a bathroom break people stared as if we were one of those clown cars at the circus. The kids just kept on piling out one by one.

Friday:

Kurt and I drove from Springfield to Little Rock to visit Aarron in the Children’s Hospital. What a blessing it was to see Josue and JoAnna! What a miracle to see Aarron, to hold his precious hand: Thank you God for saving his life! We also saw JoAnna’s sister Julie and met her brother Jason, they both were so fabulous and it was reassuring to know they had been there to support our awesome friends.

Saturday:

We left Little Rock around 4 PM. It broke my heart to say goodbye, they are so dear to us and I hate that we live so far apart. It rained all the way to Springfield; we got to Amy’s around 11.

Sunday:

We drove to Carthage, MO to Pastor Jerry’s new church. We had a wonderful time. The people were so welcoming and loving. It is so good to see that Pastor Jerry and Twanda have found such a caring new home. After church they took us out to eat at King’s Chef, the absolutely best Chinese restaurant I have ever been too. We gave lots of hugs good bye; we will miss them so much as well. After we got back to Amy’s Kaleb and Charleigh got to talk to Aarron on the phone, it was so good to hear his voice, when we left on Saturday he could only whisper.

Monday:

Spent the day with Amy and the kids; went to the Springfield Conservation Nature Center, came home and Joel cooked hamburgers on the grill. Fun Fun. Not sure if we are coming home tomorrow or not. Tuesday is Aarron’s 5^th Birthday, we may head back to Little Rock before going home.

Yesterday was a fun day. Nathaneal, Gracie, Joshua, Abbye came to play at my house. We made a club. It was a Kid’s Club. Everybody left but Gracie stayed to play. Then Ethan came, then Ethan went home then Grandma, Sarah and Jeremiah came (they are my cousins, so is Ethan). Gracie went home then Sarah and Jeremiah stayed longer. They left. We went to church. Kali was there, she was wearing a red coat that had horses on it. We played musical chairs and I was out. We were about to play Super Jaguar but it was too late and it was time to go home. We went home then we went to sleep. ZZZZZZZZZZZ It was a big big Big day with all my friends.

Once upon a time there was a little kitten. Her name was Princess; she was yellow and white. There was a little girl named Charleigh. Charleigh’s Uncle Chad and Aunt Julie came to Our House and brought some kittens. Princess was one of them. Spot Spot was one too but he got ran over by Grandma. Blackie disappeared when it rained. Blackie was a bare footed cat. We called it Blackie because he was black.

Then Princess was alone, but then she had babies so she wasn’t alone any more. Than most of her babies ran away but Prince stayed with her. Prince wasn’t a kitten anymore. Some day she would have grandchildren . . . But Wait! Princess had two more kittens. They are so cute. One is yellow and one is black. Some day when they are big I will bring one home with me. Mom says we’ll have to leave them outside. I think we should call them nice little yellowy and little blacky. That’s so nice

On Monday mornings I keep a few kids while there mom’s go to a bible study. Today they decided they were going to start a “Kid’s Club” They wan’t me to tell you that they are all friends and that they like to sing, dance and pretend. They also enjoy eating, and coloring.

So Precious!
Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. Psalm 127:3

Once upon a time there was a big beautiful fairy and a tiny, tiny number. The number was 16 and it was purple. They lived under the rainbow. A ballerina danced up to them, she was wearing a rainbow ballerina dress. She gave a present to the number. Then they found another number and it was red and it was the number 5. The four friends went to the park and swinged on the swing, slid on the slide. One slide was really, really fast. Then they stopped and went to get some ice cream. They got all their favorites in the same cone. They liked vanilla, chocolate, and purple strawberry, and sprinkles and strawberries on top. One banana cut: A banana split. Then they went to the ballerina’s house. The ballerina teached all the girl numbers and the fairy and all those friends of hers. She Teached them all some ballerina dances. She was a princess ballerina. Then the princess got her own crown (her mom gave it to her). Then she hugged her friends goodbye then she went to dance in the park and have a picknic with them before she had to go. The End

Do you think my story is interesting and fabulous?

Once upon a time there was a boy named Jesus, God was his dad. He had the Holy Spirit in him. They were all the same. They all loved you, they loved everybody in the whole world. Jesus grew up, he didn’t ever sin but he died on the cross, he did nothing wrong. He died on the cross, it hurt really bad and he bled a lot. He died because he was good and to pay for our sins. Sins are bad things you do. Like hitting or pinching and standing on people. Everybody sins. Satan helps people sin, Satan is Bad.
God is good, he made us, he is perfect for you. God is so Perfect that bad can’t be around him. If you sin you die, but Jesus died for us so we don’t have to die. If you don’t want to go to hell you tell Jesus thank you for what he did, you believe God is Jesus’ dad and that he gave his son for you. When you believe in Jesus the Holy Spirit lives in your heart. The Holy Spirit is a helper. He helps you do what is right. This is my story about that. This is not made up it is true. God is everybody’s daddy, and we can call him Daddy or God. He loves us. I’m going to call God Daddy cause he is my heaven Daddy.

Do you believe in this story?

Check out Kaleb and Charleigh’s comments on the exciting events of the day.

Charleigh’s Chat: I am the tooth fairy

Kaleb’s Story Stop: Tooth day

Once upon a time there was a orange #2. There was a big #4 that was her friend, and then they found a #3 that was very tiny. Then they found a purple #5 and a blue #4. There were two fours one that was big and white and the blue one. There was a big Big Tower! A rainbow covered the sky, a beautiful ballerina crossed the road to meet the numbers under the rainbow. She counted all the colors on the rainbow. The numbers liked that she could count. Then she picked a flower and gave it to all the numbers. There was a big big big Big Giant leaf. She picked up the leaf and glued a piece of it on a picture, then she picked another flower and glued it on the picture. Then she got a rainbow rock and glued it onto the picture. A big BIG storm came so she had to go home. She waved goodbye to her new friends. She said I’ll see you on tomorrow’s spring day. She took the picture and gave it to her mom when she got home so she could tell about her new number friends. Then she danced.