I cannot say that this week of the "Stess/Prayer" challenge was filled with long periods of in depth intentional prayer and kicking up my feet for times of rest.  I can say that I had ample opportunity to call on the Lord for His guidance and His peace.  And when I called, He answered.  

I had the opportunity to drive a wonderful friend to doctor's appointment.  After we got back to her house we were blessed with an incredible and unexpected time of prayer.  It was real and candid and I could feel the Holy Spirit in that place. AWESOME!

On Tuesday afternoon I found myself driving my husband to the ER due to shortness of breath.  While there he had an abnormal EKG.  We had an opportunity to stress out or call on the Lord's peace.  God provided amazing peace and we were blessed to go home that night, with Matt being completely healthy.  

The week did not turn out like I thought it would.  I found myself in quite a few situations where I had to choose between worry or trust.  Where I could choose frustration because things weren't going my way, or choose to believe that God truly does have all my days ordained.

I've got a lot of work to do.  This challenge is going to take longer than a week... longer than a month.  Probably my whole life.

It's mine... MINE! MINE! MINE!

It's been a few days since I've posted about the "stress/prayer" challenge.  There's a reason for that.  I've been failing miserably.  My alarm goes off to get up early... I hit snooze.  When I finally do get up I try to read and pray, but I am easily distracted.  My alarms go off during the day to tell me it's time to stop and pray, but it always seems to happen when I'm right in the middle of something. (Imagine that).   

I'm realizing the root of the problem.  I am selfish!  I should go to bed early so I can get up early.  But when the time comes I think, "But this is MY time.  I haven't had any ME time all day."  When the alarms go off to pray I think, "I can't stop what I'm doing now.  I'm right in the middle of it."  Because making dinner or sending an e-mail is so much more important than stopping to pray for people who don't have a Father or for mother's around the world who are desperate to provide for their children.  Gag me!  

My time does not really belong to me.  It is a gift that I get every day.  It's my job to look to God to know how to use it.  Lord help me!

"God forgive me for thinking too highly of myself

God forgive me for thinking too lowly of myself

God forgive me for thinking of myself so stinkin' much"

-Shane Claiborne

So7: On to the next

Last day of the clothes challenge.  Feeling relieved and grateful for these past 2 weeks.  Life is simple when I'm not confronted with so many choices.  I realized that I had a lot of clothes that I rarely wore, even still it was hard getting rid of them.  I'm the type of person that thinks, "Wait!  I might wear that if I ever go camping."  Let's be real.  My family doesn't camp.

Tomorrow I'll start the "Stress Challenge", which will be more of a prayer challenge for me.  I'm not sure what it will fully look like yet.  The one thing I know for sure is that I will devote the first hour of my day to prayer.  That hour will start at 5:00 a.m. on weekdays and at 6:00 a.m. on weekends (Lord help me that is early)  But if I don't do it then it won't happen.