Interesting Conversation

One of the things I also became better at in all my jobs was communication, because I always dealt with the public.  I still am horrible at expressing feelings and sharing intimate thoughts, but thankfully I have a husband who is much better at it than I am, so we do all right.  When I was single I used to pray, "Please don't let me marry someone who I'll have to babysit in a crowd."  Kind of a minor detail, but knowing how I struggle myself in social situations, having a husband as quiet and awkward as I was would be not very fun.  Greg is about the most well-rounded crowd person I know, so my prayer was answered much better than I ever could have imagined.  God does things like that, doesn't He?

Today the kids started swimming lessons again, so it is always interesting to see who will be there, and if anyone I know will have their kids in the same session as us (it's a Kalama deal, so only Kalama people).  Last year I knew no other parents in our session, so made it my personal challenge to visit with a different parent each day and get to know them.  It was hard.  Very hard.  But, I did it, and this year it paid off because one of the same moms is back and we visited freely again today.  She also had her boys in wrestling so we had chatted a bit then too.  A small town is great for this kind of stuff.  Although I doubt we'll become dearest friends, having connections with people is always a blessing.  You never know when you'll need them, or they'll need you.

It also got me to thinking about what to talk to strangers about.  I don't have any pat answers, but usually asking people about their family or their jobs will get them talking.  When I used to work at the hospital, I would ask the older people about their families and they loved to talk about them.  A few things I learned when I asked those questions, was something for us all to heed.  Older people often talk of regrets from the past also.  Older women most often regretted not having more children.  "We know now that it would have worked out" they would say.  They talked of how their kids never came to visit, or the only child they had lived so far away.  Older men most often regretted not spending enough time with their families.  "I wish I knew my kids when they were growing up.  I was too busy working all the time to buy them stuff, that I didn't have time left to spend with them."  Of course this wasn't always a choice, when work was scarce and there were bills to pay.  But many of these men told of furnishing pools and tennis courts and yet never getting to play with their kids in them.  It really reinforced to me to teach my own children to plan on caring for the elderly.  Whether family or friends, there will always be a lonely person that needs our love and care.

With the younger working crew, I would ask what people did for a living.  I found it fascinating why different people chose different professions, and whether or not they liked them or not.  I learned about many jobs that I never even knew existed.  One time I asked a man what he did for a living and the conversation went something like this,

Me: So what do you do for a living?

Him: I work in a XXX book store.

Me: (it came out of my mouth before I had time to censor it) Doesn't your conscience bother you?

Him: I don't read the books, I just sell them. 

Me: Well, you are aiding and abetting that business.

Him: Yes, I guess you're right.  I think I'm going to have to find a new job.

Oh, dear.  Never know what we get ourselves into, hey?  You win some, you lose some.

With young parents, they usually love to brag about their kids.  Often if you feel awkward talking to an adult, if you break the ice with their child, it'll result in a conversation.  A compliment is always appreciated, or even just thanks for a kind gesture.  And a smile always wins also.

At my very first job at A & W, my boss would make me go and ask the customers how their food was.  I was too shy to even do that.  I hated it.  Then at my second job, as a lifeguard, the girl who was supposed to teach the water aerobics class got into a car accident on her way to work and I was stuck teaching the class on my 2nd day of work.  Here I had only witnessed water aerobics once (on my first day) and I was supposed to teach it.  The original girl never came back to work, so I began teaching it every day.  Have you ever tried to teach something in a loud swimming pool with a bunch (+\-30) of older ladies splashing and chatting around who don't have their hearing aids in?  It required much yelling.  Ugh.  So, that's when I officially learned to talk.

Recently Greg was talking with my brother-in-law Alex, and it was mentioned that we owe it to each other to keep a conversation interesting.  What do you think?  True?  Do you ever look at the art of conversation that way?  Alex and Greg are always up for interesting conversation, so they agreed, of course.  Now how to do that?  Hmm...I still have much to learn.

Mundane Monday

This is just a random post day.  So many thoughts flutter around in my brain and sometimes writing it down helps me to sort them out.  

Keeping track of all my home cultures has me trying to remember what I'm supposed to be doing when, but also excites me because it makes me realize how far we've come on our health journey.  Right now we have 6 different "brews" going.  Greg is making some homemade ginger ale; and I make water kefir, milk kefir, kombucha, raw sauerkraut and sourdough.  As I type, I'm listening to a podcast from Wellness Mama  that is really good for learning more about kombucha.  I make it because I know it's good for us, but didn't really know about all the health benefits and variations to making it.  Exciting!

(the closest thing to a quote from her I could find)

Gardening is sure a love/hate relationship.  If I had $1000(or more) to spend on mulch, wood chips, compost and plants; I'd love gardening.  That's what I like to tell myself anyways.  I really do enjoy the snippets of gardening I when I do get out there, but I get so used to my daily routines that I totally forget to weed, check on plants, water and all those sorts of important things.  My house also goes to pot (in a worse way than the normal disarray we might find it in) whenever I am outside for an extended period of time.  Like 1 hour or so.  I did just write a big note on my white board to remind myself to get out every morning to check on all my plants.   We'll see if that really happens.  I'm also reading a book right now called The Sheer Ecstasy of Being a Lunatic Farmer by Joel Salatin and it's so inspiring.  My brother Jordan got us into reading his stuff, and it makes SO much sense.  Our "farm" may be small, but I know we can make some things happen.  We just have to figure out how.  His books are humorous and eye-opening at the same time.  This TED talk of him excellent also.  I love all the big words he uses, many of which I don't even know what they mean.  Here's a few quotes of his:

Part of our farming included getting more chickens.  The 3 oldest kids used their birthday money to buy them, and will hopefully have enough eggs to sell them and make some profits.  Greg wants them to really start saving money, so they needed a way to actually make some cash.  They'd love to spend any and all dollars on Legos; but we (G & I) don't feel that feeding that obsession would be healthy in any way.  Obsessions should be curbed and contained rather than encouraged, right?  So, we got 20 baby chicks (6 Leghorns, 6 Amerucanas, 6 Gold Sex Links, and 2 Cuckoo Marans).  Isaac got a Standard Bronze turkey so that he wouldn't feel left out, and he named his turkey Mickey (of course).  He has told us he will call him Mickey when he's small and Turkey when he gets big (he's still not too sure about eating him someday although he is trying to get used to the idea).  After the kids came in one day and Elise announced that one of her chicks had pooped on her hand, Isaac said, "Mickey never would poop on anyone's hand!"  Apparently his turkey is phenomenally trained and superiorly intelligent compared to those foolish chickens, that's for sure!   So cute.

James has finally found some books he enjoys.  He went to a Ramona Quimby play with some friends (thanks, Janine) and that inspired him to pick up some Beverly Cleary books.  We then got some from the library and he's been reading up a storm.  Normally this boy can only be found reading cartoons (Calvin & Hobbes, Garfield, TinTin, Smurfs, etc.) and I've tried to get him interested in many different books to no avail.  He's read 3 books in the last week, which is way more than I can usually get him to read in a month, maybe even a year.  I recall being the same way, so I understand it.  There's no point in reading a mediocre book.  I realize now as an adult that much of the reason I didn't read too much when I was young was that I enjoy non-fiction way more than fiction (but I didn't know that then).  And all books geared for teenage girls are fiction.  I have never been one to read to escape reality (I never felt I had anything to escape) so most books were just too uninteresting.  Now that I'm an adult, I realize that my area of interest in the book department is real life.  It's not that I didn't like reading, but more that I just hadn't found the kinds of books I liked.  I'm not much into biographies these days either, but more learning-for-life style books.  What a relief! 

That's all for today.  Lots more thoughts, but it's time to get back outside...and maybe grill some burgers.  I'm sure loving this summery weather these days!

Prayer on life's journey

It seems like at different times, different subjects of our faith come to the forefront, while others drift into the background.  Lately (as in the last 6 months or so), prayer has been on my mind and heart on so many days and in so many ways.  I feel entirely inadequate in the prayer department, and although  deep down, I know it's great power, I often feel supressed by the lack of direction and answers seen from it.  So, what to do...

Pray about it.  Yep, that's what I've done.  For answers, I randomly ended up with a book from the library on prayer and fasting (completely unintentional, since I thought the book Toxic Relief was on detoxification) and have had numerous conversations with people on the effects of prayer and fasting in their life.  We even had a Bible Study where we delved into it, as well as reading in the Bible itself about it.   

Then we moved some furniture in our house, and some how a book called Handle With Prayer fell out of somewhere and kept knocking around the house until I picked it up and started to read.  It was exactly what I had been needing.  It turns out that Greg's folks gave it to him for Christmas in 1993, and he's never even read it (sadly, he admits).  So, it's been living somewhere in our house since 2003 when we got married, in yet I've never seen it before.  It had to be a God thing.

Like all books (that aren't Scripture themselves), I read through it and took the gems and got rid of the rest.  And there were lots of gems to glean.  Here's what I took away~

-Prayer can really unveil the hidden parts of life.  The parts where we think we're in control, but really we're not.  If our prayers line up with Scripture, we can know that God hears and will answer our prayers (the opposite would be selfish, worldly, rebellious prayers where we seek our own way rather than God's).

-Prayer can also be the primary way God wants to talk to us.  Not through books, friends, counselors, etc.  Wisdom from above is wisdom from Himself.

-God wants us to pray with authority.  Not with passiveness, not with skepticism, but with pure hearts, knowing His will (from reading the Bible), with pure motives and with a persistent faithfulness by the consistency of our prayers (not to lose hope or interest if we don't see results).  Claim what has already been bought and paid for by Christ on the cross at Calvary.

-Fasting.  This is still an area I don't know a lot about yet.  I know it works, and I know there are many Scriptures to back up fasting in terms of answers to prayer.  I just haven't done it myself, so can't vouch for answers in my own life.  Fasting does bring us closer to hearing God's voice (digesting food takes up 60% of our energy each day so when we eliminate that, we can hear much better), and when we hear His voice better, we can know what we are to do more clearly.  It is also good for bringing to light sins that we may be unaware of so that we can deal with them and put them away.  On a totally physical level, fasting clears our bodies as well so that we can begin anew.  The book I mentioned above is a good Biblical resource if you feel this would be something necessary to enhance your prayer life.

-Burden of prayer for others.  If we feel this burden, we need to act on it.  How can God's will be accomplished if His servants are too busy for Him?  We often never know how our prayers affect others, nor how we were sustained through someone else's prayers.  What a neat blessing that is!  There is also an immense responsibilty for being willing to share a prayer burden.  Are we really willing to do what it takes to fulfill His will through prayer?  To allow Him to use us to His full potential?  Wow, it's a bit overwhelming, isn't it?

-How we should pray.  We first must have a right relationship with Him.  The Psalmist wrote, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear me" (Psalm 66:18).   This means that our prayer also should be for The Lord to reveal any sin in our hearts that we may deal with it and put it away.  What freedom that brings in the process.  We should also be specific in our prayers.  God is willing to meet huge requests, as well as tiny ones.  Don't be afraid to tell your Father everything.  Don't doubt whether He cares or not.  He does!  Evaluate your motives.  All of our life's prayers and directions should glorify our Father in heaven.  Give Him glory in your requests and give Him glory in His answers.

-Why prayers go unanswered.  Usually it's a yes, no or wait.  Are we willing to take those answers?  Other times, there are unresolved issues/sins that we have not dealt with.  (1 Peter 3:1-7) If our relationships aren't right with friends and families, how can they be right with God?  (As much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. Romans 12:8).  Sometimes we are stingy with our prayers also.  We may be scared to pray for what we really need/want.  Just as God has promised to meet all of our needs, we can pray confidently that He will do so in our best interest.  God wants to cleanse us of all impurities, hurts and disappointments, so let's let Him.  Late obedience is disobedience.  If we know what we are to do, in yet fail to do it, it is one and the same (think of raising kids and how often this happens).

-How to pray in God's will.  This is a common question, but has pretty clear answers.  By reading the Bible, we can know what His will is.  If we are praying for the saving of someone's soul, we do not need to add "if it be Thy will".  We know it's His will that all would be saved (Luke 19:10, John 3:16, 2 Pet 3:9).  Sometimes we aren't sure of God's will, so we put out a fleece (as Gideon did).  Sometimes we may need this for reassurance that God is hearing us, but most often it is a lack of faith in trusting God is who He says He is.  Praying for wisdom over a certain situation would be a better way to go, rather than making bargains with God to see if He'll do what you want Him to do.

-Ask God for a specific Scripture for whatever you're dealing with that you can meditate on while you're in a season of prayer about a specific issue.  This is a tangible way we can know God's will as well as reaffirm His presence.  The more we saturate our minds with His Word, the more we can know His will over our lives.  He also knows our hearts and often when we don't know what or how to pray, He can pray for us (or those others who have a burden of prayer for us).

-Don't be afraid to ask for prayers from others.  For specific prayers (you don't have to get into details, but make them specific enough that the people know in what direction they are to be praying).  And don't be afraid to ask others how you can pray for them.  It's kind of awkward at first, but turns into such a blessing after a while.  This is how true Godly friendships form- through prayer together, through accountability, through vulnerability, through waging life's battles together and coming out victorious against Satan and his devices.

Anything to add?  I know there's still plenty to learn!

Philippians 4:6  ...but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.