Answered Prayers?

An observation I have made of late, is that whenever we perceive something as good we say things like "God DOES answer prayers" or if it's a sickness that is no longer present, "God HEALED me, because I prayed". Something about that disturbs me a little bit. Now before I make a bunch of people mad at me, yes, I DO believe God answers prayers...but I think we jump the gun a bit in saying that just because we perceive something GOOD occurring, he has answered our prayer. Sometimes God answers our prayer by saying NO...because ultimately he knows that what we have asked for could hurt us. This "hurt" could be in the form of a lesson not learned, or a journey not able to be taken because the answer was quick & easy. I know this may be as clear as mud, so I will explain.
Recently, I have had several friends and acquaintances who have been diagnosed with one terminal/disabling disease or another. They are ALL suffering. They are ALL in pain...and they ALL belong to Him. Let's say that one friend finds out that their illness is in remission OR it has disappeared completely...should we shout from the rooftops, "God heard us" or "God is GOOD"...hmmm...I don't believe so. God is good, no matter WHAT. He is good if the illness is present..He is good if it's NOT. He IS GOOD. Regardless of how we feel, think or believe. God doesn't act like a tornado..jumping over one victim to get to another...if He heals, there is a reason behind it..likewise, if he chooses NOT to provide healing, there is a reason. I believe that the reasons are different for every person...because not all of our walks are the same. The same goes for God heard us proclamation...God hears us even IF his answer is NO. He hears us all the time. He hears us when we turn our backs on him and he hears us when we feign worship on Sunday morning... he also hears us when we quietly ask him for forgiveness. He is listening all the time.
I believe, that when God does provide healing, in a situation like I described, we shouldn't say things like I have heard, but instead shout "Praise God", "You are good", and a simple "thank you Lord." HOWEVER, I also believe that if he doesn't provide healing, we should still shout, "Praise God, You are Good and Thank you Lord." The sickness is not a reflection of our spiritual cleanliness. We do not get sick because God sees us do bad stuff so he throws down a cancer on our heads. No. We get sick because sin is in the world. Unfortunately, it is part of life.
I have a friend whose child is battling. Battling an illness that is starting to take a visible toll on her sweet baby girl. This mom prays daily, probably hourly, if truth be told, for her daughter. I have another friend whose daughter was ill. VERY ill and watched as this sweet little girl, became one of God's angels. The amazing thing to me is that both of these mom's are what I would call "Holy Momma's". They both believe in Christ, follow Him in their lives and serve Him every day. One little girl has survived, one has passed on. Was one Momma more holy than the other? In another town, there are two men. BOTH have cancer. BOTH have daughters. ONE goes in remission while the other holds onto life by a thread and is constantly in and out of hospitals. Is one in remission because he is "spiritually stronger?" Though I do not KNOW the condition of their spirit...I still feel confident enough to say NO. I do not know the reason God has chosen to allow healing in one situation and hasn't in another, but I DO believe that regardless of if we are "healed" in the way we see it, we should STILL Praise Him. Because he is God, He is good and he does love us and want to be near us. He is our Abba (our daddy) and he wants to wrap his arms around us...He is just waiting for us to call his name and say Daddy, I need a good old bear hug...I KNOW and I speak from experience on this one, he will come running...and he will wrap his Holy Spirit arms around me and show me how much he loves me. Just like when we raise our kids..we can't keep every skinned knee from happening, but we sure can be there with the band aid and a good dose of Momma Love to help dry the tears!
So, I challenge you...whenever you hear of someone who is sick and has been "healed" instead of shouting, God answers prayers...why not just say Thank you....Thank you Lord and truly believe it.

Everyday serving...

Britton, 7 at his Uncle's wedding
As I mentioned in previous posts, the Griffin boys, & me of course, have decided to be intentional servants this summer. We have decided to intentionally do ONE random act of kindness a week and to seek God's guidance before/as we complete it. Last week, we were in Colorado for both vacation and my brother's wedding. I had thought that perhaps our "intentional" random act would probably fall by the wayside because we were in unfamiliar territory. I was wrong, although I didn't realize it until about 20 minutes ago!
Now that we are home, my current book of choice is "The Missional Mom". It is simply awesome. It is about living with purpose at home & in the world. It kind of goes along with my new found purpose for my life. I am truly enjoying it. While stealing a few minutes with my book this morning, I came upon a portion that sort of hit me between the eyes. The author Helen Lee was sharing how we Christians think "that there are things we must 'do' for God in order to live more missionally." When in truth, "we are to serve God in (the circumstances he has placed us in) and that doing things for God becomes an outflow of our connectedness WITH Him."
As I read this..God immediately reminded me of a little situation that occurred while we were in Denver on our first full day in Colorado. We had driven to Denver to visit some friends and we had decided to meet at the Downtown Aquarium. We were outside saying our hellos (we hadn't seen them in 6 years) and giving hugs, introducing kids, etc. when my eldest son, Britton did just what Helen Lee spoke of in her book. While standing there, a strong wind came up and blew off some pamphlets from a Downtown Aquarium's outside kiosk. The worker behind the counter, got up to pick them up and before she could, Britton had ran over and started picking them up for her. Because we were kind of hustling to beat the crowd into the aquarium, the "random act" of service went unmentioned by Josh and I...however, God reminded me of it for a purpose. You see, Brit did exactly what he should have done. He stopped and through his actions showed that lady Christ in his actions. He is only 7 years old...WHAT A STATEMENT!
I can honestly say that now as I think back, it's probably a good thing I'm not wearing buttons, because I just might be busting them a bit...and I'm just mom..I wonder if God busted his buttons when he saw this child of his, this young boy of 7 years old, who 6 mos earlier entered into a relationship with Him, serve Him as an outflow of his connectedness with Him?! I kinda think He probably did...

Driving..a true vacation!

Last week my family and I went to Colorado. For only the third time in my life, I DROVE for a long distance vacation. For most of my childhood, anytime I traveled, I did so via airplane. I can only remember traveling in a car one time during my entire childhood. Up until last year, I had never driven much farther than the states borders in a car and had NEVER driven west. Josh giggled at me as I talked about what our first trip in the car as a family, my first trip west, might be like. As I babbled on, he stopped me and said, "Misty, please tell me you're not envisioning covered wagons and buffalo along the highway." Oops..guilty...as I said, driving for vacation was not a frequent occurrence for me and when I thought of traveling west the only way I had "participated" was in my imagination when I read The Little House on the Prairie books as a young girl. In my minds eye, we were going to see little girls running behind their covered wagons in long dresses and bonnets while their dog lapped at their heels.
So, ok, yeah, I was waaaaaaaay off base..thankfully. The trip through Kansas lasts for what seems like forever & at one point, Josh and I had the discussion, how tough it must have been for all the little "Half Pint's" who traveled with their Ma's and Pa's.
But one thing that always seemed, well, glamorous for me about their trips West were the time they had together, as a family. Coming from a family that for some time was disjointed and then later spread out, travel was impractical. I always envied my friends, both in HS and college, who talked of playing in the back with their siblings on long car trips. Even Josh has some hilarious stories he has shared with me, like scaring a little old lady in the car next to theirs on the interstate by showing her a plastic knife and making a mean face while his brother cheered him on...probably not his proudest moment now..but hey at the time THAT was fun! In my family, those road trips never happened...so as I said, my imagination was running wild when we decided to take our FIRST trip West in December. We were able to go again, to Colorado, last week. And while I am not an EXPERIENCED road tripper, I did know that there were not covered wagons and little girls running around. However, it was another extended road trip...15 hours in the car! Keep in mind, I have a 10mos old, 4 year old and a 7 year old...now, you might be seeing the words...DANGER, NO WAY, TURN BACK NOW flash in front of you..and in December, I did too..but honestly, both trips, we had a BLAST! We giggled, sang songs, played games and, my FAVORITE past time of all, listened to the interactions between our boys that were occurring in the back seat. For 14 hours..we were inside an extremely small minivan, that truly seemed to get smaller as the trip wore on, and we couldn't "get away" from each other. We HAD to interract with each other and I loved every minute of it! I loved listening to Brit explain to Aidan how to get to that unattainable level on the Nintendo DS, I loved listening to Aidan tell why "that was his favwite" part of the movie and I loved listening to them try to get Liam to giggle as they danced in their seats! I loved listening to Josh explain the workings of a windmill and I LOVED sitting next to my husband, holding his hand and listening..just listening to them in the back seat. I simply LOVED it...
Now, grant it, it wasn't a FAST way to make our way to Colorado and it DEFINITELY wasn't in a covered wagon...it was simply wonderful...and has definitely made the list of one of our favorite activities...yeah, there were no little girls running in bonnets, BUT there were toothless little boys (one b/c he's lost them and another b/c he hasn't gotten them) giggling in the back seat and that to me is absolutely PRICELESS! And sooooo very much better than ANY imaginings I could have had...

To Serve Part 2

Britton praying and holding the flashlight
Aidan's turn!
running to the next house...they were really excited to do this!


Once again, I spent the week trying to decide in what way God wanted to use me and the boys...I had thought we would do one thing, but felt that we would have to do that at a later time. Tonight, I was standing on our front porch and it was just starting to get dark. I looked at my two eldest sons coloring on the sidewalk with chalk and was taking that moment to thank God for these two precious blessings. I was suddenly reminded of something I had previously read. I told Brit to run in and get a flashlight and asked Aidan to get some shoes on. When Brit came out with his flashlight I told the boys we were going to go on a prayer walk. The plan was to walk from house to house and shine the flashlight at the house or yard and then pray for the family inside. The book suggested the parents pray, but I thought it would be a good idea for us all to say a prayer. We stopped at the first house and we all prayed and held the flashlight...Britton prayed for the people to be safe. When Aidan prayed, we all had to chuckle a little..he prayed that God would welcome them in the neighborhood. (these neighbors have been here for 3 years) We spent the next 45 minutes walking from house to house on our little street and praying for protection, good health, for us to be a light, for losses, for their futures and the list went on and on. Then we got back to our house. We ended the walk with prayer for our family and our home.

Psalms 141:2 May my prayer be set before you like incense; may the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.

It was a great time in prayer as a family...and I know that God heard our prayers...and just like the psalms we set our prayer before him...and lifted our hands like the evening sacrifice...and we even did it in the evening!

Perfect all the time?

Aidan 4, Liam 10 mos
Liam 10 mos
Britton 7
me & Brit 7
my hubs..yep, ladies he's taken & Liam 10 mos

Sometimes I believe it is the times when things aren't "perfect" that I learn the most. If someone has hurt me, I seem to be more open to God's guidance....if my boys are fighting, I am more willing to whisper a prayer of patience....if the finances are tight, I look up and ask God for a spiritual (and yeah, even some financial) manna....I am always a little amazed when people are afraid to tell others they are hurting. Do we REALLY think they will believe that things are PERFECT all the time? Do we want them to? I read a book, by Susan Pohlman entitled Halfway to Each Other: How a year in Italy brought our family home. If you haven't read it, DO SO! It is a memoir about a woman's journey to bring her family back together. Life had simply gotten in the way and they had all grown apart. If you know me, you're probably thinking, Oh Lord, Misty's talking about that book again...but you see, that book taught me so much...God used that book to open my eyes about many many things. While I could probably write a dozen blog posts about the lessons learned, there is one particular lesson that sticks out in my mind right now. Susan felt God's call and guidance in moving her family to Italy for a year. Now, keep in mind they did NOT speak Italian, except maybe what they learned while at the Olive Garden (my interpretation) and they had teenagers whom were NOT excited about leaving their friends/social life/schools to go to a foreign country. But, she and her husband listened to God's call...(if you're going to read the book, what I'm about to say may seem like a spoiler, but there is so much to glean from it...READ IT ANYWAY!!!) Susan (the author) was out walking one day..and keep in mind things had not necessarily been smooth sailing. They had hit MANY fairly major bumps in the road during their beginning time in Italy....and she said, God you TOLD us to MOVE HERE!!! She said that at that point, she felt God's voice say, Yes, but I did not say it was going to be PERFECT....
So many times in my own life, I think we need to look a certain way at certain events, we need to participate in certain activities, our kids need to be in certain sports...but what am I doing exactly? Trying to make everyone believe that we are the status quo? That we are perfect? My sons are 7, 4 and 10 mos...I have one who is more often than not going to be wearing his shoes on the wrong feet and have his shirt on backwards..when you mention that perhaps he might fix it, his reply, "Well, that's how Jesus made it." I have one son, who is a constant thinker and loves to discuss great philosophical things with you...and sometimes he can be downright offensive..ie when he tells us we drive our car too much because of the gasses it emits and blah blah blah (I tuned him out here b/c he was talking WAY over my head)...and I have one son who no matter how hard I try ALWAYS has messy hair. (a friend of mine says it's RockStar hair, that DOES sound better than messy hair) We are not perfect..my sons are not into the "traditional" regional sports that are so popular where we live, and that is OK. We are who we are...We are a family that is a lil messy sometimes. We are a family who is a little loud sometimes (though we really DO try to be respectful). We are a family who will get into the occasional disagreement & we are a family where occasionally there is outside drama that affects us.
BUT....
We are ALSO a family that LOVES to giggle. We are a family that will occasionally hollar out I love you to each other. We are a family that loves to learn about new things. We are a family that loves to help others & we are a family that loves Jesus and wants Him to guide our lives...
Nope..we are not perfect...We may have perfect moments...but we are most definitely not perfect all the time and I wouldn't trade one ounce of perceived "perfection" for what I have...

Well, then again, maybe we ARE perfect...perfectly imperfect!

To Serve or Not to Serve: 1

As I mentioned in the previous post...the boys and I have decided to do at least 1 random act of kindness or service per week...if we have the opportunity to do more, we will, but we will do at least ONE intentional random act.
This week, I had planned on doing our random act on Wednesday. I spent most of Tuesday and Wednesday praying about it and just didn't have any idea where to start. I spent most of Thursday thinking/praying about it as well....still, nothing. Friday came and I got up early to do my quiet time. I was sitting on my deck with my coffee and I closed my eyes and said, "God, guide me, what are we supposed to do?" At that moment, I envisioned me and the boys making muffins for the local fire fighters and delivering them to the fire department. I thought, well, that might be fun...When Aidan and Britton got up, I asked them, what they thought and they literally jumped at the chance! They started jumping around the house...they even added a dimension to it that I hadn't thought of...they wanted to make them "thank you" cards. So...we did. During Liam's quiet time, we baked the firefighters muffins. We decided to make them mini muffins, figured they would go further..Then they worked on the cards for the fire fighters. Aidan drew a fire truck on his..Brit drew them rescuing someone in a fire on his. After they were finished, we put our hands on the plates of muffins and asked Jesus to protect these men/women who risked their lives to protect us...
When Liam got up, we went to the firestation and asked if we could tell the fire fighters thank you. With each boy carrying a plate of muffins and their card, we went in. Britton asked the lady behind the glass if we could see the firefighters. She smiled and said to wait just a moment. A few moments later, a firefighter came out and led us to the back of the station where the trucks were. The boys handed their plate of muffins to the men and women in the break room and Britton said, we just wanted to say thank you. I had included a note on the back of his card that said, "My boys are learning about showing kindness to others..thank you for letting us make muffins for you." The Griffin family. The firefighters seemed a little stunned...One of them yelled, FOOD! But the others just looked and smiled at the boys. Then one of the firemen said, would you like to see the trucks? Aidan and Brit both grinned a smile that spread from one ear to the other. When we got back there, they gave Brit and Aidan honorary firefighter badges and allowed them to stand on the back of the truck...
As we were walking away...Brit said to Aidan, "that was so cool." Aidan's reply, "yeah, I could hardly get words to come out." Now, I am not naive...I know that the fire trucks were probably the BIGGEST cool factor there..but they were able to show kindness to someone they think is extremely cool...and THAT is the coolest thing there is!

Can't wait to see what God has us do next week!

the Griffin boys...to serve or not to serve is NO LONGER a question!

If you read my previous post..you know that serving others and showing others generosity has been on my mind. Today, God has been convicting me about taking that one step further. Like anyone who has a profession "outside" of the home, I take my job seriously...I am a full time mommy. That is what God has called me to do...therefore, for whatever reason, he has called me to, with my husband & God's help, shape my three little guys into the young men God wants them to be. I take it seriously..obviously, I gave up a career to do so. Don't get me wrong...all you mommy's whom God has called to work outside the home & be a mommy have all my admiration! I am lucky to do ONE thing well...and well, you guys juggle a lot of balls!
Anyway, so I am home...and this summer, Josh and I have went back and forth....tons of camps for kids, OR conserve resources and get some of this debt that plagues us paid off...to my sadness yet happiness...the latter one...Brit is going to one camp (Boy Scout) and swim lessons..Aidan just swim. At first, I was like, great, Josh, YOU stay home with 3 boys all day, every day for an entire summer...Then God showed me a different way...
Years ago, I bought a book called Families on Mission. It is a practical book that has little "random acts of kindness" in it to help teach your children the importance of serving. So, here we go! The Griffin boys & mom are going to choose ONE serving opportunity each week & put it into action! IF we can squeeze in more (in between the simple craziness of life) we will..but 1 is our goal! I will blog about our experience and hopefully it will inspire others to learn from our mistakes, glean from our successes OR take their own families & serve those around them!
For you Father!!