A Plea for Prayers

I know that you all have seen on the news and on the internet all the destruction that happened last night all across the beautiful state of Alabama. Please keep Alabama in your prayers. I don’t know what the current death toll is but I am certain that today has been a very hard day for many people. There are people who are still unaccounted for, and people who have been left with … absolutely nothing. There are families mourning loved ones lost, and individuals suffering injuries. Please, pray.

We drove out to bring food to a family who attends where we attend today. The house belonging to the son was torn through, but the other house stood seemingly untouched. The destruction on the way... incredible. You don't really "appreciate" the fierce power of the storm until you see the path it makes. And this is likely a mere taste compared to other places the storms hit. I apologize for bad quality! My camera's battery was dead so I had my phone to take pics only. Here are a few:

Trees were ripped up out of the earth, snapped in half, twisted and uprooted and just mangled. You think of how strong tree roots are and how deep they go, and then think what kind of force could just pluck them out of the ground and leave them there like a pile of tooth picks.

That’s just a taste of the destruction, and certainly not the worst.

Friends, please. Pray.

{And just so nobody thinks the worst, we are fine. The tornadoes were seemingly all around us but never in our town and we are so thankful. Also, the friends we were visiting today were all okay, just suffered a lot of property damage.}

Hubby will be headed out with a group from the congregation to help clean up at the Central church of Christ in Tuscaloosa, whose building was severely damaged. Please pray for their efforts.

People who need our prayers

I know that there are a lot of people who already know about the Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan yesterday {because you probably do watch the news unlike me}, but if you didn’t know about it, please read about it and then please pray about it. They said it is the 5th largest recorded Earthquake since 1900 and the damage is devastating. My heart is hurting for all those people affected. Please pray for them. We may not know them, but we can know that they are suffering and they need our prayers.

Please Remember this Family in Prayer

I haven't been around, and I'll spare you my excuses, but I wanted to ask all of you to pray for a sweet family. They need your prayers urgently, right now, so if you could stop what you're doing for just a moment today I know it would really be appreciated.

Jason and Leah White welcomed their sweet baby girl Aspen into the world on Saturday. They were going to be discharged earlier this week but before they did, they found something wrong with Aspen's heart. They discharged Leah and sent Aspen by ambulance to another hospital, where they did a heart cath and found out that Aspen's aorta had not developed. She is looking at a lot of surgeries, possibly starting very soon.

She is looking at 4 or 5 surgeries right away, another when she is 4 or 5, and another when she is a teenager because they are having to construct an aorta for her and will have to modify it as she grows.

Please keep this sweet family in your prayers. Jason, Leah, Oakley, and Aspen. Jason and Leah are members of the church in Memphis, TN, and Leah was one of my teachers when we were up at Memphis School of Preaching. It breaks my heart that they are going through all this emotional stress. If you could take a moment, or a few moments, out of your day just to say a few prayers. Remember them throughout your day.

I'll update when I get more information.

tomorrow is my Grandmother's surgery

This is a little late in coming, but if you all could - please keep my grandmother in your prayers tomorrow. She is going to have her surgery for her aortic aneurysm. This is a very risky procedure so if you would, please, please, please remember her in prayer. I would like for this sweet boy to grow up knowing both of his great-grandmothers.

Our Day Today

Our day today was not very exciting, mostly. Hubby was canvasing for the first half of the day so Benjamin and I hung out by ourselves for a while. We didn't do too much. First we watched some Wiggles and danced around before Benjamin took a nap. I took that opportunity to call my bff {my mom}. We talked for about 50 minutes and then Benjamin woke up. Short nap. But it was okay.



as long as he woke up happy!

Oh, here is my outfit for day 2 of the Feelin' Feminine Challenge:


So sorry for the flash there, and extra sorry for the streaky mirror, which I meant to clean after noticing in yesterday's pictures. Oops!

This was right after Benny woke up so he was in need of being held. Here he is waving at the mirror. Or camera. Both?



Anyway, the top, which you can't see very well because of the ginormous flash, was $11 with shipping & handling from JCP.com. This was originally like $40 or something. I got a good deal. The skirt... I have no idea. I've owned it for.ever. And not pictured = my brown tights.

So, after that...



Yes.

That is Benjamin's hair.

Thankfully, not nearly all of it.



And yes.

I did it.

By myself.

While Hubby was out.

How did I do it without cutting an ear off?



Toothbrush. He loves his toothbrush. So what do you think? Did I do a good job?







I think I did a pretty good job with it. I did touch it up a bit before he went to bed.

Another thing Ben seems to love is the bathroom scale. It's good that someone in this house actually loves hanging out on it.



He's not as heavy as I thought he would be.

Anyway, I thought his haircut made him look a little older. Especially when he walked around the house with Hubby's iPod Touch to his ear like it was a cell phone, just talking away. I can't sit still when I talk on the phone, so I think Benjamin gets the walking and talking from me.







Eclectic little outfit with too-long pants. They are size 12mos but he has such short legs. You'd think they'd be longer considering his daddy is 6'6". Seriously.





So, that was our day. After that we headed off to Bible Study, which was great fun. Then we came home, and Benjamin is now in bed while hubby and I watch a little Netflix while we work on our separate laptops. We're such nerds.

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A short update on my grandmother, who has an aortic aneurysm. She went to the doctor today and my dad went with her. The doctor needs a CT scan to get a better look at it before they do any surgical planning. The doctor also said she is a time bomb. She cannot lift anything. She cannot even bend over. That is how serious this is. She can't even do simple things because it is such a risk.

Please continue to pray for my grandmother and the doctors taking care of her. And pray for my family as well. The loss of my grandfather {her husband} not even 3 years ago is still a fresh wound, at least for me. This is such a stressful and delicate situation.

We appreciate any and all prayers!!

On The Serious Side

Yesterday I found out that my grandmother has an aortic aneurysm, which is quite severe and she is needing surgery in the near future. This is very risky business and I am asking that you all please pray for her. Right now she is looking for a surgeon and then she will get a referral from her doctor. After that the surgery will hopefully take place. I am praying that all this can happen in a timely manner so that the aneurysm does not rupture! In case you did not know, if it ruptures, it could be fatal.

Please pray!

No birds were harmed in the making of this post . . . except that one.

EDIT -

I meant to mention this earlier. Dear friends, I have an urgent prayer request for you. Please keep Paul and Vanessa Martin and their family in your prayers. Vanessa and their two children were involved in a very serious car accident this past Tuesday morning, which happened to be Vanessa's birthday. Their daughter is recovering from surgery, while their nine-year-old son has passed away. Vanessa is said to be okay, physically. Please, please keep this family in your prayers. This is so heartbreaking. I know you will lift up this family in prayer.

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The weather was so nice today that we decided to take our one year old out to play. It's been so cold lately so we really hadn't gone out much, but today we didn't even have to bundle up. So, we grabbed Benjamin's car and his Pup, and we set off to play outside.





We had a lot of fun! Benjamin loved being pushed in his car, and he visited with our neighbors for a little while before heading out to the backyard to walk around in it for the first time since he's started walking.









So far, we had only met a few of our neighbors (and we've been here a whole year so that's kind of sad), but today Benjamin met some new friends. On the other side of us, a few kids were playing in the backyard, so Benjamin went over and started yelling at them. The oldest one was 8, and the youngest were two twin girls who weren't school-aged yet. In between, a 6 year old boy and a girl who was only there until her parents picked her up. They were so cute. They enjoyed talking to Hubby and to Benjamin and showing him their football and blanket.

Today was a really good day. I got some birthday stuff done and Hubby tackled the mass amount of laundry we had piling up in our room. Thanks, babe!

Oh yeah, and I almost forgot:



Yes. Ew. I saw this after I took the picture, and immediately made Benjamin move. Hubby scooped it up with a shovel.

Don't worry, Benjamin didn't touch it.

But I gotta wonder... why was there a dead bird in the middle of our yard?

Prayers for Brian and Kristy Gray

I have made two buttons for you all to add to your blogs if you wish to. Please see them in the sidebar and feel free to add them both, or just one.





You can join the Facebook Group Here, and read the news story here.

Please continue to pray.

To see what I'm talking about, please see my previous post, thanks.

URGENT PRAYERS & My Thoughts on Suffering

UPDATE:

Brian has been released from the hospital, Kristy has a broken back. Please please please pray. He still has not told Kristy.

UPDATE:

Brian is okay, Kristy is being "worked on" - whatever that means. Please keep them in your prayers, still.

ORIGINAL POST:

I do not want to make this post. In fact, I feel physically ill just thinking about it. My stomach has been twisted in so many different knots, and I just do not want to tell you all this, but I have to, because friends of mine need your prayers desperately this night, and in the future I am sure for a while.

Today a family which I am friends with and have known for nearly 4 years got into a car accident. They have a 3 year old daughter - one of the most beautiful children I have ever seen - and she did not survive this crash. Brian and Kristy are in critical condition, and we don't even think they have been told yet that their only child did not make it.

I know that most of you do not know this family. In fact, I was not extremely close to them, but they are a part of God's family and that makes them my family too.

Please lift up their names in prayer tonight. Please pray that they come through okay, that the doctors attending to them care for them the best that they know how to. Please pray for Brian and Kristy - when they find out about Helen, I am sure their world will shatter. Pray for strength, pray for comfort. This family has touched so many lives with joy and encouragement. I am blessed to know them, and they need your prayers desperately. Please pray.

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This post I have been working on for well over a week now. I figured that tonight may be an appropriate time to finish it up, and to share with everyone.

You don't have to agree with my views here. I'm posting this in hopes that some people might be encouraged or helped. I don't want to seem like I am saying I know what a lot of you go through when you're losing family members who are very close to you, children or siblings or parents, what have you. I've lost family as well but I will not pretend that I know what it is like to lose a child especially. I do not know the heartache associated with that. I hope that I never will know, but at the same time, I am doing my best to sympathize as best I can.

Please don't take this the wrong way!! As I am a preacher's wife, I do think that I will encounter many instances where I may have to help console people during their time of loss. This is as much (or maybe even more) a study for me as it may be for you as well.

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I want to do a study on God. I feel a better understanding of God is something we need in order to have a good relationship with Him. On the topic of suffering, I think a lot of people have misunderstandings about our Father's nature. I know a lot of people out there say things like, "If there is a God, how come there is so much suffering in the world?" "If there is a God, why did my mother/father/grandparent/sibling/child have to die?" and other such things. There are people who have experienced loss who ask the question, "Why?" I have been there. I have asked that question.

I have heard many people say that the death of a loved one is just "God's will". They often quote Job 1:21 and say, "The Lord gives and the Lord takes away".

In my studies of God and His nature, I have come to the conclusion that this is not so. While Job has stated this, we have to remember his situation. He just lost nearly everything. We've all said things when we were upset, and this is this same sort of situation.

God does not take away.

He just doesn't work that way. The fact is that humanity is just that ... humanity. Human. People have choices, make choices, others may suffer. Things may happen naturally, and while all this is unfortunate, Christ did not come to this earth to save humanity from being human. The righteous and the innocent sometimes are subject to suffering, sometimes even death. God is not blameworthy for having created a world in which righteous, innocent, and wicked people experience suffering or pain.

God is not our enemy. Death is a sting from the enemy, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" I Corinthians 15:22.

Suffering does not happen because of His meanness, His ignorance, or weakness, because God lacks no love, no knowledge, and no power.

So why does this happen? The very first book of the Bible tells us why death exists in this world. In Genesis 3, the serpent tempted Eve and she ate of the fruit and gave to her husband Adam. Because of this, sin entered the world, and thus death as a result.

Suffering happens because sin entered the world. It is not always a result of what someone has done (i.e. a child who is born addicted to cocaine because it's mother subjected the child to it in the womb, or a man dying in a car accident because a drunk driver hit him head on). Sometimes suffering just happens because it is the way of the world.

If God does not take away, then why is Job 1:21 in the bible? I believe with all of my heart that the Bible is the inspired word of God - that He inspired the writers and everything written down has been put there by God's inspiration. However, this does not mean that every word spoken by those in the Bible is inspired. There are lies recorded in the Bible. God did not make these people lie. As I mentioned before, think of Job's situation. It is not hard to understand how he must have felt this way.

When people say "It was just their time" - they do not know this. When people say "It was God's will" - they cannot know this.

I write this to try and help those who may be suffering, and also because I know that as a preacher's wife, this is a topic I will have to deal with. We are commanded in Galatians 6:2 to bear one another's burdens, and it is important that we understand God's involvement in our suffering before we try and comfort others.

One of my favorite verses in the Bible displays God's involvement with our suffering. "Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort, who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God." II Corinthians 1:3-4. God is the God of all comfort, not suffering. And what a comfort it is to know that God will always be here for us when we need His comfort.

Remember, He was in a similar situation once, too, as He watched His only begotten Son suffer and die on the cross, blameless and perfect, for the sins of the world.

Prayers for Stellan!!

I am sure most of you know already because pretty much everyone follows MckMama's Blog, but please pray for little 1 year old Stellan today. He is in surgery today and we need to pray hard that everything goes as planned! Pray for the doctors who are administering to him, and pray for MckMama and the rest of the Mck-Clan during this stressful and trying time!!

You can follow her Twitter to get updates.

Papaw's Guitar

UPDATE ON LYNDSAY:

Friends, your prayers are working! Keep them coming! The fluid is off of Lyndsay's lungs and she is breathing without the breathing tube! Praise God! Please, continue to pray as Lyndsay is not out of the woods yet. But as you can see, your prayers are working. Please, keep them coming.

To read more about Lyndsay's condition, please check out this post.

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It's been over two years since my Papaw died of skin cancer that had spread to his liver. You can read my post where I remembered him this past July 5th here. Anyway, one of the things I remember about him every time I see the guitars in my house or my mom and dad's is the fact that my Papaw was a great musician. He played the guitar and was taking dobro lessons. He passed his talents on to my dad and then on to my brother. Me, I got the short stick, it seems, with no musical talents to speak of, save some clarinet skills and a bit of singing. Other than that... total loss.

Anyway, when my brother and I were growing up, our Papaw gave us a guitar and said we could keep it if we learned how to play. Steven, my brother, did learn and is pretty much a master of any instrument he picks up.

I tried to learn. I really did. But I'm just not good, and I have baby hands (seriously, they are tiny) that hardly fit around the neck.

I got married a little over a month after Papaw passed away. When I was packing stuff to move to Memphis, Tn, I asked my dad if I could take the Samick Papaw had given to us. He said I could.

Yesterday, Benjamin discovered it propped up in the corner of the room. He leaned against the amp as he stretched to pluck the strings, and he would stare at it in sheer wonderment. I had to take pictures - and I was looking at them last night and realized that I cherish these pictures beyond what I had thought before. I thought I was just capturing Benjamin playing with an instrument in the corner - but what I had really caught was Benjamin interacting with my Papaw in a way. Does that make sense?









Benjamin, I wish so much that you could have known my Papaw. You would have loved him. And he would have loved you so much, his first great-grandchild.



And now my heart hurts ...

URGENT PRAYERS NEEDED!

UPDATE:

The family just found out that Lyndsay also has congestive heart failure. PLEASE CONTINUE PRAYING! It is IMPERATIVE that you pray for this new mother!!!!

UPDATE:

Latest Update from Heather: "They've had to put her on a breathing tube. She was having difficulty breathing on her own." Please continue praying!! I will continue updating this post for you guys so check back, okay? Thanks so much for the prayers!!

ORIGINAL POST:

I know I JUST did a prayer request post (see my last post if you didn't already) - but this is urgent and deserves it's own post for the urgency.

My good friend Heather has a sister who just gave birth on Saturday to a sweet baby boy - Seth. Heather just sent me a message saying that her sister was having trouble breathing so their mom took her to the hospital and she was admitted for pulmonary edema. The doctors have told them that she could die.

Please, friends, keep Lyndsay Powell in your prayers. Please pray for the doctors who are administrating to her - that they will use their knowledge to the best of their abilities, that God will be with them all, and if it His will, that Lyndsay can come back home to her sweet baby boy. Pray for the family and pray for Lyndsay - for strength and courage and peace.

It is URGENT that you PRAY NOW - please! For Heather, for Lyndsay, for sweet baby Seth!!!

Please Mention These in Prayer, Too!

Edit:

I just found out that a girl we knew back in Memphis who is very far in her pregnancy is in the hospital for observation for Pre-ecampsia and toxemia. She is 70% effaced and had protein in her urine. Please keep her and baby Presley in your prayers!

Original Post:

My grandmother (from here on referred to as 'Mimi', as that is what we call her) has diabetes. She generally gets low blood sugar in the early afternoon. Granddaddy Bob still works - about 30 to 45 minutes away from the house, so I very often worry about Mimi being home alone in a state of low blood sugar. Well, today my fears came to life and Mimi fell while trying to answer the phone in a state of low blood pressure (we think she tripped over the overly hyper dog). Mimi has a broken collar bone, completely separated, and may face surgery. She is going to call the Orthopedic doctor tomorrow to set up an appointment and see what they are going to do for her.

Please keep her in your prayers. She is 71 years old - and age plays a huge role in how a body recovers and heals, not to mention being a diabetic. Most likely my mother will be going to help out and I may also go to help for a while if I am needed. Please, please pray for her.



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Two more prayer requests: My cousins Brittany and Bobbie (sisters) are both pregnant! Brittany is 8 weeks pregnant and Bobbie is 3 weeks pregnant! I am so excited because Benjamin will have two (or more if one or the other has multiples!) cousins - albeit second cousins - only two hours away! Please keep them in your prayers - pray that the babies will grow into healthy precious babies, and pray that the pregnancies will be pleasant and void of all complications!

While you are at it, please just pray for all pregnant women and their beautiful babies. I have quite a few friends, Nikki who is having a girl very soon, Kelly who just found out this month she is having another boy, Stacia who just found out she's pregnant!, Kelly who is having a girl, Jennifer who has been blessed after 5 years of waiting!, and I am sure many more!

And let the onslaught of baby fever (for me) begin! It's already hard enough having pregnant friends and mommies of newborns online and in real life!

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Thank you for your prayers!! I am going to make a prayer list on the sidebar so we can all keep up with who needs prayers. If you have any to add, please e-mail them to me at bringingupbenjamin@yahoo.com.