Prayer Partner

I am so thankful for the gift of prayer. I am realizing more and more in this season that there are all sorts of prayers and that they bring life.

The prayer I am rejoicing in today is the gift of "praying for one another".

I have a prayer partner that I talk with once a week. We share about our week, what God is teaching us, struggles, good times, temptations, etc.. It has become a life line for me.
It seems kind of simple and doesn't last more than an hour, yet there is something dynamic about sharing life with another like minded human being and week in/week out taking time to share and listen to stories from the week and then always ending with a time of praying out loud for one another.
(okay, i just realized that was a huge run on sentence...)

Life is good when we can just pause and reflect on life. I am glad God is teaching me more about this and using my prayer partner as well. :-)

Words

This afternoon I finished a book by Eugene Peterson. He is the guy who wrote "The Message" translation of the Bible and he is profound. Sometimes when I read I have my journal sitting next to me so that I can jot down a quote the gripped me and reflect on it later. Here's what I wrote today:
"We use words for communion and words for communication.
Words for communion tell stories, make love, nurture intimacies, develop trust
Words for communication buy stocks, sell cauliflower, direct traffic and teach algebra
Both are necessary, but the gift of words is for communion: a part of myself enters a part of yourself."

A few weeks ago Chris and I were caught up in words of communication.
Three days a week, we have this small window of time we see each other. He leaves for work at 4:45am and gets home around 2:15. I leave for my part time job at 2:45, so we have a half hour to eat lunch together before I go. On this particular day, we realized when the lunch was over that we just passed on a bunch of information to each other, rather than doing life together. We felt ripped off. There was no communion in our lunch- it felt like a business meeting and we hated it.

So, we decided that from now on, lunch was reserved for what we call"doing life together" or as Peterson puts it "communion". This time is sacred for sharing cute stories about Liliana or a funny thing that happened at work, or a nugget God shared in morning prayer time. Then, as soon as I get in the car, I call Chris on my cell phone and while I drive to work, we communicate. We go over necessary details that have to be exchanged. It's a great set up.

Dance, Dance, Dance

I have this habit of praying the Psalms. Most days I will read 5 Psalms out loud as part of my prayer time. It helps me settle in my thoughts towards God and David has a way with articulating his emotions that is so helpful.

So, the past few days there have been references to dancing in my Psalms reading, so it made me think.. if I had to name my top 5 dances ever, what would they be? So, here goes.. (in no particular order)

1. Greek dancing at my wedding- Greeks are into group dancing. They form this opened ended circle and have various simple steps they do together. At the beginning of the circle, there is a leader that holds a napkin in their left hand with the 2nd person in the circle, then everyone else joins in, holding hands. The leader picks which dance sequence to do and leads the way. When I was a little girl, I would go to the Greek festivals at church and watch the older girls dance and dreamed of one day being able to lead a Greek dance at my wedding. So, my day finally arrived and I loved it! In fact, one of the things I look forward to in heaven is Greek dancing around the throne with other Greeks. I can't wait- it's so fun here and can't imagine how fun it will be there.

2. Teenage dance clubs- I am a child of the 80's- big hair, big costume jewelry, and stirrup pants. When I was 13-14 years old, my friends and I loved to go to the 3 big teen dance clubs each summer- Coca Cabana, CandyBand and R-9. Each week we would dance our little hearts out to Madonna and Prince. Such good times.

3. Dancing at church- I grew up in a very traditional Greek Orthodox church. In high school I started attending the Vineyard, which has to be the most opposite worship experience from my GO up bringing. I remember learning about the Holy Spirit and seeing people raise their hands up in the air when they sang, which was so foreign and kind of weird to me. After observing this for months I came to the point one Sunday, where I really just wanted all that God had for me and let go of my conservative approach to worship. I danced in the back and it was so freeing. It marked a whole new level of connecting with Jesus and even now when I really want to connect at a heart level in worship, I will sometimes just dance in my room.

4. Dancing with Chris- Too personal to go into on a blog, but it is def. my top 5.

5. Dancing with Liliana- When we were in Texas waiting for our paperwork to clear, there's a song I asked Chris to download that combines a few different Psalms..
Oh Taste and See that that Lord is good... You've turned my mourning into dancing, put off my rags and clothed me with gladness.. And I will rise and I will praise.. I will sing and not be silent... Oh Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever....

I remember putting that song on repeat, holding Liliana as tight as I could, dancing around the living room with a flood of tears of JOY. I literally felt an exchange take place that day. For almost 3 years my life had been one continuous season of mourning and finally God was replacing it with gladness. I could not thank God enough. I danced and danced until I ran out of breath and could do it no more. It was a beautiful moment in my life that I will never forget.

Trip to the Bank

I went to the bank today to open up a checking account for our new church. It reminded me of being 11 years old and opening up my first savings account as a kid. I probably had about $25, but it was a huge deal for me. Today as I went to open an account for our church, I felt the same proud feeling that I did back then.

For months I have been chipping away at all our legal paperwork involved in becoming a non profit organization. I have just completed the 4th set of paperwork to be mailed off with just one more to go after that. Each time I mail a stack of papers off to the appropriate government agency and receive a notice back with their official stamp, it feels more and more real to me. Wow, we are actually starting a church from scratch. We are nuts, but we are going for it.

I feel like there is wind on our backs- God is behind us, encouraging us and moving us along this pathway. It just feels right. The "corporate" side of church is my least favorite part, but I am finding God in the midst of tax id numbers and bank accounts.
I love that Jesus will show up in any area of life when welcomed.

Black & Whites

A few years back Chris and I started a tradition where we would watch old black and whites &/or classic movies in the winter. It's a fun thing to do each year and of course what better to do on a cold night then snuggle and watch a good flick?

So, tonight we watched an Audrey Hepburn film and when it finished I was bummed. The film ended with each of the main characters making integrity choices, but it meant the movie did not have the usual "Hollywood" happy ending. In fact, all through the film there was romance and enjoying life, yet there was also integrity. As much as I hate to admit it, I am a product of my generation and my system is just not used to seeing a good film like this.

This is precisely why I like older movies and classics. It's good to get out of the MTV world and see class. Years ago I went to see Celtic Woman at the Fox Theater in St. Louis. It was truly amazing. These women had beautiful voices and brought a fresh spin on Celtic music. Each one of them wore these gorgeous, long evening gowns. They were classy women- no belly buttons showing or cleavage hanging out of their tight shirts. They were stunning- just like Audrey Hepburn on film.

Sorry Brittany Spears, I'll take Audrey any day.

I'm Back

I've been having problems the past few weeks logging onto my blog and FINALLY tonight I was able to get back on. I am so happy because I have missed writing.

12 DAYS OF....
My husband's birthday is next week and I am trying to be creative in celebrating it. One of his love languages is getting gifts and it is something I have had to work on over the years because it's not so natural to me.

This year I decided to do "The 12 Days of Birthday" based on the annoying "12 Days of Christmas" song. (I don't even think I can quote all 12 days and what the true love gave, but it doesn't really matter for my purposes.)

So I counted back 12 days from his actual birthday and each day surprise him with a little gift from his true love. I try to have some variety as to what time of day or how he gets his gift- so one day I put his gift in his lunch box he takes to work, another day it popped up on his e-mail account (that particular gift was 5 I tunes songs).

I think my favorite one so far has been 2 memory pages. I sat down and typed up 2 pages of memories we have shared together over the years. I had to stop myself since it was only supposed to be 2, but I could have saved that one for 12 at the rate I was going. It was so good to think about all the funny, memorable things we have experienced together over the years.

This gift giving stuff has been fun, not just for him, but for me too. Now I can see why it is one of his love languages.

The Best Dishes

Last night I was cleaning up dishes from my daughter's birthday party. She turned 1 and had a big party with her cousins, aunts and uncles, nana and papa. My father in law is a pastor, so we had a time where he shared a few Bible verses and prayed a prayer of dedication and blessing over her with all her family present. Then we ate dinner, played, sang, opened presents.... Liliana had so much fun!

Cleaning up these dishes were the best dishes of my life! If someone would have told me last year at this time that I would be throwing a party for my baby girl I would have smiled politely, but been rolling my eyes in my head. Yet, God completely took me off guard and surprised me with this gift.

These past 6 months of my life have been so amazing. I wrote in my journal the other day that Liliana is "God's joy incarnate in my life." She makes me laugh and smile and gives me joy everyday. I think having to wait so long to be a mom has made me want to soak up every moment with her.

I can't wait to do birthday dishes next year and all the ones to follow. Those are the best kind of dishes ever!