Grandmotherhood

I was quite convinced that I was NOT ready for the state of grandmotherhood (is that a word?  if it isn't, it ought to be!) when I got the announcement that, ready or not, that state was coming.  However, as the song goes, Love is a many splendored thing, and ready or not, fall in love I did.  I confess to being dismayed when I found out that my grandbaby was going to be a boy.  A boy!  I don't know how to do boys!  I've always been convinced that God knew this and that is why He blessed me with two wonderful, beautiful girls.  Really, God?  A boy??

Thankfully I had nearly as much time as his mother to prepare for his birth, and by the time he was born, I was ready to be his grandmother, and even the grandmother of a boy.  What a blessing!  Who knew?  (Of course, all the mothers of boys are shouting, "I did!  I did!") 

From the moment of his birth (which I was tremendously blessed to witness - no greater thrill than seeing your baby have her own baby!), I have been in love.  Connor (or Connor Boy/CB as I lovingly refer to him as), is the delight of my eyes. He turned two last month and I have been blessed to have the opportunity to be his nanny since he was a wee one. 

                                                    Connor, when he was much younger.


He is the most observant little fellow.  Since his eyes first layed sight on the world outside the womb he has been gazing around taking it all in.  He blows us away with the observations he makes.  One example - for months now (perhaps last Spring?) we've realized that he knows the emblems on all the cars of his loved ones.  It doesn't have to be their car - just the emblem.  Another - we had lunch with Auntie M at Costco one day.  Anybody who's ever been to Costco during lunch time knows that it is near chaos.  Auntie M had a bottle of water.  The next day he was at the grocery store with his mother and saw the brand of water that Costco sells and said "Meh, Meh."  (Meh is M.)

He has a book that has crows in it and I taught him what they say.  A time or two we've been outside and the crows would be cawing away and I had him listen to it.  Today we walked out of his mother's office where I'd picked him up and he heard a crow.  "Daw, Daw!" he said.  "Dow!"  (He hasn't mastered the "k" sound, yet!)  Then a few minutes later when we pulled up to Target he saw a crow and again, "Daw, Daw!".  I just love watching him learn and grow. 

When I realized that I was going to be a grandmother I knew that the name "Grandma" wasn't for me.  After some thinking I came up with Dodo.  To some that might sound odd, but when I was a teenager my lovely 2-3 year old niece called me that, as Lorrie is a very hard name to say.  Shortly after that I discovered that there are a couple of men in the bible named Dodo and that the name means "loving".  An aunt/grandmother can't go wrong with that! 

While my daughter was pregnant she and her husband decided that they wanted to know the sex of the baby but that they would keep his name a secret.  When she was younger, maybe preteen, as a joke she used to tell me that when she had a baby she was going to name it "Frankly", because it was a term I used (and still use) with a fair amount of frequency.  So, since we didn't know the name of the baby, we called him Frankly.  In the mean time my youngest daughter and I took delight in trying to "guess" the name of the baby by going through the alphabet and guessing names that started with each letter.  Of course, we didn't actually guess feasible names.  Bartholemew and Ichabod are examples of the ways we'd torture CB's mother.  Such fun! 

All this to say - I love being Connor's Dodo and Connor loves being my Connor Boy.  While there are blessings that God waits for us to ask for, some He gives to us whether or not we think we want them.  Praise be to God.

Bon Voyage!

Just like every Christian, God has blessed me with talents, gifts and callings.  Sometimes He calls me to something that I don't feel ready to do, but like someone said, "God doesn't call the able, He enables the called". 

Today I want to talk about one of the bigger journeys that God has led me to begin - helping to build a prayer saturated church. 

What is a prayer saturated church, you ask?  Well, first, let me tell you what it isn't.  It isn't a church where prayer is nearly forgotten, where prayer meetings and prayer chains have gone by the wayside and where ministry meetings start with a line or two of prayer, if it is remembered at all. 

In Matthew 21:13, when Jesus was cleansing the temple of the buyers and sellers, He quoted Isaiah 56:7, saying "It is written, My house will be called a House of Prayer".  So, what is a prayer saturated church/House of Prayer?

If you went into a boutique salon called "House of Perfume", what would you find?  Most of the products would be perfume and those that weren't would be saturated with the scent of perfume.  How does this apply?  If you go into a prayer saturated church you would find a church saturated with the sweet perfume of prayer.  People would meet to pray over the service, ministries would spend significant time at the beginning of their meetings praying over their agenda and for those involved in the ministry.  There would be an intercessory prayer group who met together in groups or individually to pray over the needs of the church, its ministries and the prayer requests of its members.  That, of course, is just the beginning, but you get the idea. 

So, back to the journey.  Ours was a church that had let prayer go to the wayside.  That isn't to say that nobody was praying, because they were.  Rather it is to say that there was no  real emphasis on prayer.  What that in turn means is that the Kingdom was not being advanced, because God requires us to pray for this.  Our church was and, frankly, still is, struggling to survive.  (More another time on the effects that prayer has had on our church.)  I believe that one of the reasons that we got to where we are now is because the emphasis on prayer had been lost. 

Because of the state of affairs, God started whispering to me.  He told me that we needed more prayer.  At the time my mind went to an event that we'd had while we were building an addition where we all signed up to pray a certain amount for a certain length of time and on Sundays we would turn in the amount of minutes we'd prayed and those numbers in turn became nails that were used in the building of the addition.  Cool, huh?  This, I thought, was probably what we needed to do again.  (I wasn't getting it yet...)

I talked separately to two different friends on the leadership team, stating what I thought we needed.  "That sounds like a good job for you, Lorrie", they both said.  Wait!  Huh?  Prayer is not something that I consider to be my strong point.  If it was music or something else creative, I'd say "Sign me up!"  But prayer??  Well, I waited for the congregational meeting that was coming soon and stated my case again.  Surely they'd realize that I wasn't the person for the job - me, the undisciplined, procrastinator that they all know and (hopefully) love!  Yeah, not so much so... 

So, a few days later I found myself at Family Christian Stores looking for a bible study for our growth group that might also help me know how to plan this "one time" event that I thought we needed.  (Still not getting it!)  While there, God led me over to the church leadership area where I came upon this book The Prayer Saturated Church by Cheryl Sacks.  I took it to a table to look at and quickly realized that I needed to take this book home with me.  Once home, I became immersed in it and soon realized that God wasn't calling our church to a prayer event, but to become a House of Prayer. 

After reading it, I asked my pastor if I could meet with him and the leadership team at their next meeting.  After getting the go ahead I prepared a presentation that would explain our need for prayer as I saw it.  I met with them and told them that this (a House of Prayer) was what I saw that we needed and that I didn't really think that I possessed the requirements to lead it.  They agreed and disagreed.  You see where I'm going??  Yes, we needed to put prayer as the main focus of our church and no, I was wrong about thinking someone else should lead it.  Really??  You guys know me, right?  Yes, they do, and so does God.  For reasons beyond my comprehension, God wants me to lead this. Our pastor spoke last Sunday about how God uses our weaknesses as well as our strengths. Maybe this has something to do with why He called me to this. Maybe I'll figure it out some day - and then again maybe I won't.  Either way, I'm in it for the long haul. 

Another time I'll tell you about the team of women who work with me and more about the actual journey that we are on. 

Jump right in, the water's fine!/Ten Things Tuesday 10/18 (19)

So, I created this blog a few months back. (Well, actually, Loo Loo did, but I came up with the name! ;) I thought I needed to write this big explanation about who I am, etc., but decided that it was making things too hard, so I'm just going to start.

I think I'll make things easy by doing a "Ten Things Tuesday" post. (By the time I found out how to edit, it was Wednesday. Oh, well...)

1. Loo Loo has been sick with the head flu and now Yah Yah has it. Plus side? I haven't had to watch Connor Boy yesterday or today. Down side? They're sick and I haven't gotten to see Connor Boy (or them) for four days.

2. I am a Pinterest addict. I love it and have actually made some new friends through posting comments on pins. Check me out - my favorite boards are "The Designer Within" and "Color and Texture Inspiration".

3. I figured out today that I'm seeing double. I had been getting the feeling that I wasn't seeing properly for a few days, but today I realized the extent of it. I'm working on getting an appt. to see the eye doctor. Two identical airplanes in the sky right next to each other was the clincher! (Close up, things aren't double, just blurry or "ghosty".)

4. Connor Boy turned two a few weeks ago. He's learning so fast right now. He's learned 5? (maybe more by now) colors and recognizes several letters. He'll try to say any word. Whether you can recognize it out of context is another question.

5. I think I'm ready for a new computer - likely a laptop. The old one has issues and I'm ready to get rid of the huge box. I'm typing this on the Hubby's iPad.

6. A siren just went by. Do you pray for all involved when you hear a siren? One of my intercessory (praying for others) prayer styles is crisis prayer. Praying for those in an accident, those helping and those affected is one example of that.

7. Auntie M is very sick and we don't know when she'll get better. I do believe, though, that she will get better.

8. I'm learning that God made me the way I am and He can use me just the way I am. I don't believe, however, that this is an excuse to sit back and get cozy. I still should work to improve myself, but I don't feel guilty any longer about not being like someone else whom my mind sees as better than myself. She/he isn't necessarily better, just different. It is wonderfully freeing.

9. Hazel and Harvey (the kitties) are so funny. Most cats run and hide when someone comes, be it friend or repairman. These two? They get right up in the visitor's business. Hazel had her nose right to the repair guy's nose today and when our fireplace was replaced Harvey sat about a step away and watched the whole time.

10. We are working on the final room of the two main floors of the house (well I guess the sunroom isn't done, and when is remodeling really done??). It is the upstairs (used to be called girl's) bathroom. We have almost all the elements picked out and purchased. New tub, new tile for chair rail and down as well as tub surround, paint, etc. The counter and sink were replaced when we replaced the rest of the counters and sinks and I don't know yet how I'm going to treat the cabinet.

Well, how's that for jumping in??