Prayer Monday, August 29, 2011

This week was fairly decent.  God has answered some prayers.  All those weeks that we prayed for new members in our small group are paying off.  If everyone comes this Thursday we should have around 18 people!  Folks that is a lot.  We are going to be bursting at the seams.  Pray that my husband and I are able to minister to them all.

My dad's surgery on his neck is scheduled for this Wednesday.  These people don't mess around and get you in quick.  My dad is nervous about having is neck cut open.  With the risk of giving you too much info they go through the front of the neck to do surgery on the discs in your neck.  So there will be some stress to his vocal cords.  My dad is a talker and a pastor so this is really bothering him that a potential risk is to lose his voice or have some damage there.  Pray that he will have peace about that.  That in general he will have peace, comfort and a quick recovery through the whole process.  Pray that God will guide the surgeons hands.

God is the ultimate Healer so I know He has it all under control.  So I need to let Him do His job :)

Prayer Monday, August 22, 2011

This past week has been a little hectic.  You know how it seems like sometimes you don't have much to pray for and then other times it's like the sky has opened up?  Well this has been one of those sky has opened up weeks.  I have to remind myself God is in control and He has a plan.  One much better than mine I might add.

A couple of things I mentioned in a post on Thursday but I am going to mention them again.  My HS Chemistry teacher was killed in a car accident Thursday morning. Please pray for her family.  Also, I have to start physical therapy for my knee on Tuesday and get an MRI.  My doctor is afraid I may have a tear.  Surgery would be a last resort if I do and I would like to avoid it as long as possible.

Speaking of surgery, my dad will be scheduling surgery for his neck very soon.  He has a pinched nerve and some other damage and the doctor told him if he waited too long he could have lasting damage.  He is in so much pain right now.  Please pray that his pain will be tolerable until the surgery.  I will keep you posted on the surgery but please be praying about it as there are some minor risks involved.  He has worked so hard all of his life and his body has taken a beating.  This will be his second surgery in the last two years (the last one was for his back).

I am so thankful to know that I have you all praying for these things.  Sometimes just knowing there is someone else besides me praying makes me feel so much better.

Prayers needed

I didn't do a Prayer Monday this week but I find I am needing a little prayer mid-week here.

First a prayer not for myself.  This morning my high school chemistry teacher was killed in a bad car accident.  She had three children and several grandchildren as well as a husband.  She was one of those full of life people and a firm but fair teacher.  I can't possibly even imagine what that family is going through right now.  Pray for their peace and comfort please.

A few weeks ago I asked for prayer about my knee and the X-Ray came back great but there has been no marked improvement so I likely have a tear of some sort that the X-Ray couldn't show.  I am going to be doing therapy for the next month and then will have an MRI.  I am praying that God will heal this.  If it is a tear and continues to get worse I would rather not have to have surgery.  I don't want to even think about recovering from knee surgery with a two year old running around.  So please pray with me that God heals me.

I'm going to miss her

Today my heart is breaking.  My boxer,Achaia, passed away this morning.  I'm not really sure why.  She had been acting like she wasn't feeling well for a couple of days but I just assumed she had a cold.  Most likely it was just old age.  She just turned 10 years old on the 8th.  I know she was old and I should have eventually expected but she didn't act old.  She had a lot of spunk.  The only time I thought about her age is when she didn't want to be bothered by my son and would look at me with pleading eyes to let her in the kitchen so he couldn't get to her.

She was such a good dog and she and I had been so many places together.  She lived with me in Tennessee and Indiana.  I watched her be born.  I'm still having a hard time remembering she is gone.

We chose not to bury her here but instead I asked my parents if we could bury her by her momma.  Of course they said yes because they loved her too.  I know it may be silly to be this worked up over a dog but she was family and it hurts.

Here are a could pictures of my sweet girl.

Lovin' It

Last weekend, as I mentioned in a Prayer Monday post, we went to our church's marriage retreat in St Louis.  I can't remember the exact title of it but it had the word Extreme in it and was workout themed because we have to work at our marriages.  It was an amazing time and we got a lot out of it.

You know sometimes after you go to a retreat the effects start to ebb away?  Well in anticipation of this our speaker had a sign up if we wanted to for six weeks of an Extreme Marriage Challenge.  Each week we get an email outlining our challenges for the week.  There are verses and questions you ask each other for five days of the week plus he adds at the bottom some actions to do each week.  For example:  Write a love note for your spouse.  Different things like that.  I am LOVING these challenges.  Some of the questions you and your spouse ask each other stretch you to really communicate and talk about some tough stuff.  One of the days though the questions were goal and dream based.  At the retreat he encouraged to dream together.  Even if those dreams might not happen.  I loved this idea and am glad this was incorporated into the 6 week challenge.  It is nice to talk about the fun things and not just the serious stuff!

This has been good for us because it has made us make time to spend together without our son.  Not that we don't love our son but we rarely have time just the two of us. We are going to work harder at time for just the two of us.  Date nights once a month are going to be a good start :)

PS Any married couple could do these weeks of Extreme Marriage Challenges even if you didn't go to our marriage retreat.  There are only a couple of questions that say anything about the retreat in the first week so you could just skip those.  If you are interested let me know and I can email them to you.  My email is a.miller051708@gmail.com

Prayer Monday, August 1, 2011

Well I had an awesome weekend at the Marriage Retreat!  We had an awesome speaker, good times with friends and time alone with each other.  Though Satan did everything he could during the week to try to make it be a bad time.  Tuesday evening my dog went missing.  He's still missing but people  all around town have seen him, except me.  My husband's boss resigned the company and the man replacing him my husband doesn't really care for the way he does things.

So I guess this week pray that my husband has the strength and endurance to deal with the situation at work.  Please pray that he doesn't get discouraged.  His job was already a sore spot for him but this just adds to it.

Also, please pray I find my dog or that he comes home.  I am so worried about him.  

Other than that I want to thank you so much for your prayers.