prayer

God Had Other Plans For Me Today {Thoughts From Me}

March 27, 2018 by Dana

I woke up this morning with a list of things to do that was a mile long. I had ever single intention of getting it done. I truly did.

But God had other plans for me. Not one single thing on that list got done today. Not one.

But you know what? That’s okay! God had better plans.

Three friends came to me with needs today. They needed a friend and sometimes that’s just what we need to be. A true friend to others in their times of need.

Today, I helped a Momma figure out how to start her journey with homeschooling. To me, that’s just awesome! I can hardly wait for her to start this journey. She and her children are going to absolutely love it.

Today, I helped a friend who is heading for divorce. Her heart is broken. God is carrying her daily.

Today, I helped a friend who is being harassed. She’s upset that women would try to destroy her credibility and ruin her good name. Bullying doesn’t stop with high school, y’all.

Today, I listened as a friend complained that their job is challenging and their life is in shambles. They just needed a listening ear. Someone to care for that moment.

This is the list God had planned for me today. Nothing that was in my plans got done but everything in his is. And I hope, I pray that I helped each one in the best way that I could. I listened. I responded. I prayed. I was a friend.

How has God changed your plans recently? What did you get done with His guidance that wasn’t on your list?

A Very Happy Easter Prayer {FrontGate Review}

March 15, 2018 by Dana

A Very Happy Easter Prayer
Bonnie Rickner Jenson
Illustrated by Natalia Moore

As a Mom, I am always looking for great books to add to our home library. I especially love books that are holiday themed. I also love books that share God’s love with my children.

A Very Happy Easter Prayer by Bonnie Rickner Jenson is the perfect book for Easter. The book itself is gorgeous. The front cover is slightly textured which makes the book look beautiful with it’s shimmer and sparkle.

Natalie Moore out does herself with the adorable, yet beautiful imagery on each page of this absolutely wonderful board book. The pages are filled with daffodils, picnics underneath the big tree that’s featured on the book’s cover, tulips with bee hives and so many more lovely things to see.

The cover features a trio of rabbits but the book inside is filled with many great animals: bees, a fox, an owl, a duck, a moose, a bear and so many more. This book is about God’s wonderful world, so much more than just the rabbits. You’re child will love seeing the love these animals share as friends and through God’s love as well.

The story itself shares thankfulness for Spring, for rain and gentle breezes. It shares thankfulness for bluebirds and dandelions and honey bees. It shares thankfulness for fluffy bunnies, for adventures and for Jesus’ birth and love. It shares thankfulness for all the things that make Easter morning special.

This is a lovely book that would be a great addition to any family library. A Very Happy Easter Prayer by Bonnie Rickner Jenson is from Tommy Nelson Publishers and is part of their A Time To Pray series. It sales for $8.99 in bookstores and online.

Join the Giveaway by clicking the link below:
https://www.blessedfreebies.com/enter-to-win-a-very-happy-easter-prayer.html

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52 Uncommon Dates {Moody Publishers® Review}

May 5, 2017 by Dana

52 Uncommon Dates
Randy Southern
Moody Publishers®

52 Uncommon Dates: A Couple’s Adventure Guide For Praying, Playing and Staying Together is a guidebook to share adventure with the one you love. This spiritually engaging book will keep your relationship interesting and help you continue to bond with one another as you adventure through this life. Stepping outside the box to find entertaining ways to share with one another and strengthen your love.

This book was a great read and really helped us think outside the box on how we spend time together. The 52 suggestions were interesting and exciting, especially to my husband and I who enjoying sharing in our life together. Each prayer helped to strengthen us, giving us things to think about and share in together.

The ideas shared in this book are interesting. The dates are easy to manage and make happen. The relationship strengthening exercises and prayers are fitting for any stage of a relationship, young or old. 52 Uncommon Date is a book that anyone in any relationship stage will find useful.

You can grab your copy of 52 Uncommon Dates: A Couple’s Adventure Guide For Praying, Playing and Staying Together is available online through Moody Publishers for $7.99 in paperback or $6.39 as an eBook.

The Darkness That Lurks {Epilepsy Awareness}

June 18, 2013 by Dana

How do you do it?

How do you tell your baby, one of the prettiest, sweetest girls you know, the child whose older sister proclaimed as our angel the day she was born, that she won’t die? How do you even deal when those words come from the mouth of your beautiful 5 year old daughter?

My Momma heart breaks for her. My Momma heart wants to scoop her up and hold her tight and keep her safe forever.

I want to SCREAM. I want to SCREAM to God, “WHY?! Why my daughter? Why my precious baby? Why does she have to suffer with this? Why does anyone suffer?”

I can’t reassure her that she will wake up from the next seizure. I can’t reassure her that there won’t be another one. I can only tell her about Heaven and all the great things that await her there. Even when I don’t want to because I pray deeply and hard that she will not know for a long, long time.

“Momma, who turned out the lights?”, she asked me. “Was it you?” “No, baby.” “Was it Daddy? Why would Daddy cut the lights out on me?” “Daddy didn’t, angel.” “Oh, Grandma did it then!”

All this past week she has been terrified of the dark. It didn’t take me long to figure out what she meant. Her whole little safe world went dark last Tuesday morning. She couldn’t see for almost an hour. Her eyes dilated so much that she wasn’t able to see anything but a black abyss.

And it hits me: just how terrified she was. That this seizure affected her sight so badly. That the next one could honestly leave her blinded for good. That I’m thankful this seizure didn’t leave her blinded for life.

It hits me that she could have died last Tuesday. That she stopped breathing on me. That there was nothing I could do and no amount of CPR could stop her brain from overloading and her body from seizing. It had completely taken control.

All I could do was watch and pray. All I can do now is wait and pray. I do daily and she has prayed too, wholeheartedly. We all have.

Tomorrow morning, or rather in a few short hours this morning, at 7:30 am, it will be one week from her worst Grand Mal since she was 4 1/2 months old. One week has passed. Multiple conversations to make her forget and feel more at ease have happened.

Every day we have the same talk. “Momma, it was dark.” “I”m so sorry, Laycie.” “But you didn’t turn out the lights on me?” “No, baby.” “You will keep on a lamp for me.” “Always, if it makes you feel better.”

And I do. She sleeps in the bed with us for now, until we know this monster called Epilepsy is controlled again. I leave the light on for her and for me. It helps me see if she’s breathing. It helps me see if she’s a little too still. And it puts her little mind to ease.

I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t know how to calm her fears other than talk with her, listen to her, be with her, every waking and sleeping minute. And pray, for her and with her every time she needs to do that and even when she isn’t even aware I am.

I’m thankful that God has blessed us with more time. I’m well aware of the Mothers that weren’t given that chance. My heart aches for them and for all the Momma’s who must watch their babies suffer so much.

For now she sleeps, though it’s still very much restless and we wait patiently to see if this monster is lurking or controlled for now. Only time will tell.