Prayer is something that has always come easy to me.  I was taught at an early age to speak to Jesus like I speak with my Daddy, so that’s what I’ve always done.  I pray driving down the road, walking through the mall, and alone in my bedroom.  I know when I pray, God hears me.  I know when I pray, God listens.  But I’ve not often had him clearly answer my prayer.

My senior year in high school, I was a little overweight.  My mom and I had been shopping at the local mall and I was feeling pretty upset with myself.  (Can I get an amen on the depression that hits when clothes shopping?)  I remember vividly walking through the mall praying for God to help me.  I asked him for the willpower to start eating healthy foods instead of junk.  I asked him for the time and energy to exercise.  As I was silently voicing this prayer, I was walking towards the end of the mall where the escalators are.  I could see them moving, slowly carrying people up or down.  And I kid you not, as soon as I went to step onto the escalator step, it stopped.  The up escalator absolutely broke down, forcing me to walk up the flight of stairs.  I’m telling you, my God has a sense of humor.

My three babies are an example of more answered prayers.

I have no doubt that God answered my prayers several years ago when I dealt with a scary medical situation.

Lately, Justin and I have been praying about a situation in our life that needs changing.  We aren’t sure how it needs to be changed, or what we need to do, but we know something needs to be done.  One morning last week, when I had a few minutes, I actually wrote down my prayer about this situation.  I prayed for God to be clear with His directions and for Him to help me be patient.  I had gotten my hopes up really high about a change-option and I prayed for acceptance if things didn’t work out.

No more than thirty minutes after I wrote down this prayer, Justin called.  He had “coincidentally” run into someone at lunch who voiced some affirmations that we were needing.

You guys, our God still answers prayer.  It may not be written on a wall like it was with Daniel. It may not be spoken through a burning bush like with Moses.  But if we will pay attention, God will speak to us.  He will guide us in the direction we need to go.  He will give us words to say when words are failing.  We just have to listen.

A recent Happy Hour podcast interviewed author Sarah Bessey and she said it best:  “God often hides in plain sight in our right now life.”  We look for Him in big things, but He is always right there, even in the little things.

Sunday morning, I hit snooze a few too many times on my alarm. When I finally rolled over, it was 8:24. Justin had to be at a meeting at 9:00, so he jumped in the shower first. I woke up the girls and got breakfast going and took my shower as Justin left to go to his meeting, which left me with all three kids to bathe and get ready by 10:15.

The girls were in a mood, Jase was in a mood, and I just wasn’t in the mood to fuss and rush and stress. At 10:00, with wet heads and a crying baby, I told the girls to go change back out of their dresses and put on comfy clothes. We were going to have church at home.

Now don’t get me wrong–I LOVE my church and the people in it. I think church is fundamental to my relationship with Christ. This post is not, in any way, saying that you shouldn’t go to church. But sometimes, we need to give ourselves some grace.

I fed the baby and put him down for a nap while the girls got changed. Then the three of us sat down at the kitchen table with our bibles, the Jesus Storybook Bible, and some art supplies.  Time for church, illustrated faith style.
We read the story of Noah and the Ark from the Jesus Storybook Bible and the we discussed it. In case you are wondering, we decided that for whatever reason, the dinosaurs didn’t make it on the ark and that’s why we have no dinosaurs today. (I know this is not scientifically correct and that there is probably a real answer to that question but I didn’t know it and I didn’t care, so I liked the idea of the dinosaurs missing the boat.) Then we talked about the rainbow and how God promised that He would never flood the earth again. And then, the girls illustrated their story.

Kyndall doesn’t have a journaling bible, so she illustrated a piece of paper and we just taped it into her bible.  Libby bought herself a journaling bible with her birthday money, so she journaled straight in it.

When that was finished, the girls wanted to do another. They flipped through the Jesus Storybook Bible and found the story of Abraham and Isaac, so we read, discussed, and illustrated.

I love that Libby wrote “Do what God says.” That’s her take on the story–God says it and we obey. The end.

I missed my church family and (I’m sure) a great sermon, but I also really enjoyed spending the time with my girls talking about our God. Sometimes, when life is chaotic and full of hustle, we need to take something off the beam and replace it with a quiet morning at home, worshiping our Jesus.