Warrior Prayers -- Day Two

21 Days of Prayer for our Sons…

Today’s Prayer in on SUBMISSION TO AUTHORITY!

This topic relates to obedience really well. All of their lives, our children will find themselves in situations where they have to submit to someone—whether it’s parents, teachers, bosses, government officials, or God Himself!

Sometimes it’s really hard to submit to authority because we want our way! However, training them now to respect authority and submit to it will set them for success in the future.

As you pray specifically about your sons submitting to authority, here are the 10 scripture references to use (from page 16 in the ebook):

Hebrews 13:17

James 4:7

1 Corinthians 16:16

Ephesians 5:21

Hebrews 12:9

Job 22:21

Romans 13:1

2 Chronicles 30:8

1 Peter 5:5

Galatians 5:1

I encourage you to pray “without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17) today. I try to tell myself things to help me remember to pray…like every time I walk by a certain place in the house (or in your work place), I will pray. For instance, every time I walk by the boys’ rooms I will pray. Or every time I go to the refrigerator, I’ll pray. Ask God to help you to be in a spirit of prayer throughout the day.

Brooke says in her book “this battle is best fought on our knees.”

As I was reading my devotional this morning from Voices of the Faithful,
I read a really good quote about how awesome our God is! “Big things happen when small people ask big things of a Big God!” So, let’s get asking! J

For our comment today, will you please answer the study question from p 14?

“Have you ever considered how teaching obedience leads naturally to a deeper understanding of the Gospel?”

Also, it was really good to “meet” you guys on yesterday’s post! It’s really neat that we share the exact same anniversary with Jana. How cool is that! If you haven’t had a chance to introduce yourself, will you please leave a comment there too? Thanks!

Have an awesome day in prayer!

Warrior Prayers -- Day One

21 Days of Prayer for our Sons…

I’m so excited to be a part of a group of nearly 1000 moms that have committed to praying specific prayers for our boys for the next 3 weeks!

It would be to your benefit to purchase the ebook Warrior Prayers: Praying the Word for Boys in the Areas They Need it Most. It’s a very good value (only $5.97). It’s full of scripture prayers to pray for your children. We will take one area to pray for each day.

First, let’s introduce ourselves…

Please leave a comment below telling us a little about who you are and a little about your children.

I’ll go first:

I am a wife to a music minister and the mom of two handsome boys—Evan (12) and Ethan (4 ½). We have enjoyed spending the last year together getting used to our new world of homeschooling. Until this year, I taught high school math for the past 17 years. I love learning, doing Bible studies, crafty things like scrapbooking & taking pictures, and I LOVE to cook—especially anything sweet!

Now to the prayer challenge for the day…

Today’s Prayer is on OBEDIENCE!

In her book, Brooke makes the comment that if “a man can’t submit to Jesus, he cannot lead you. A man must be willing to be led before he can truly lead.”

Because of this, we must train our sons to obey us as parents. It is not an option. “Scripture is full of warnings for parents and children alike who neglect this important detail. And in the teaching of obedience lies ones of the most glorious opportunities to prove the Gospel message to our sons.”

“Depending on what methods we use, we CAN make our sons obey. We can MAKE them obey us. But at the risk of sounding a little lazier than I really am as a parent I would submit this:

“Obeying God is intimately linked to loving Him. If we focus too much on forcing our boys to change their outward behavior, and forget to hold out the great depth of love that sent a Savior to the cross, we’re running the risk of raising little Pharisees.”

Please commit to praying the scripture prayers on OBEDIENCE (page 15 in the ebook). I am planning to write these prayers out & personalizing them with Evan’s & Ethan’s names in a notecard spiral. That way I’ll be able to carry them with me wherever I go (kind of like my Memory Verse Spiral).

If you don’t have your ebook yet, here are the scripture references:
Jeremiah 42:6
Ephesians 6:1
Hebrews 13:17
Acts 5:29
Deuteronomy 30:2
Deuteronomy 13:4
Jeremiah 26:13
John 15:10
John 14:15
Romans 16:19

Here are 4 suggestions to help you pray throughout the day:


1. Get up early to bathe your sons in prayer first thing in the morning.
2. Pray the prayers one at a time throughout the day.
3. Make the prayers a part of your family devotion time, praying the prayers out loud over your sons.
4. Spend some time in concentrated prayer late at night, around bed time.

I can’t wait to read all about each of you & your children! Enjoy praying today!

“The fervent prayers of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:17

21 Days of Prayer for Our Sons

I am thrilled to be leading a blog group through the “21 Days of Prayer for Sons” beginning June 8!

As I was reading some blogs last week, I found a really neat blog for Moms of Boys (the M.O.B. Society) and that led me to a blog about a prayer challenge for moms of boys called Warrior Prayers.

Brooke McGlothlin has written an "ebook" called Warrior Prayers & it is SO neat! It has so many scripture prayers that you can pray specifically for your boys. (And I think they could work just as well for daughters too.) Anyway, I got the ebook & have already enjoyed reading it.

On her blog, she asked for people to be willing to lead a group of moms for a 21 day challenge to pray for our sons...that's 3 weeks of holding each other accountable! What an awesome idea!

So…I decided I could lead a group through email & my blog.

But now, I need a group!

That is where you come in! If you would like to join us, please leave me a comment below. (By the way, some people say it’s hard to make comments on here. But if you’ll just keep pressing “Post Comment,” it will eventually post.)

I look forward to being INTENTIONAL about praying for our boys for the next few weeks!

For more information or to order “Warrior Prayers,” you can go here.

***Thank you to those who have already signed up! We'll have a roll call where we can introduce ourselves to each other early next week!***

Memory Verse #11

Wow! I can't believe we are in the middle of 2011 ALREADY! Today marks 6 months since we moved to our new ministry in Center. What a learning experience this has been in so many ways! God is teaching us and we are slowly learning. :)

I recently found two really neat blogs specifically for Moms of Boys and Moms of Girls. And from the MOB Society blog I found a really neat website that teaches us how to pray for our sons! I was so excited to find Warrior Prayers! She is challenging all Moms of Boys to a 21-day prayer challenge beginning June 8. I'm excited to lead a "blog group" to pray specifically for our sons during this time. I will post more on this by Friday!

What does all of this have to do with my memory verse?

Well, as I've been reading this wonderful ebook...

I have found so many verses that I need to memorize!

So here's the first one that I found from the book...

Ezekiel 36:26-27 (NIV)

I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

Here is a way to turn that scripture into a prayer for your sons (or daughters or yourself). :)

Dear Jesus, please give _____ a new heart and put a new spirit in him. Please remove his heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. Help _____ to follow your decrees as You put Your Spirit in him. Help _____ to be careful to keep Your laws. Amen

Butterfinger Cupcakes

A few weeks ago, I made these oh so yummy cupcakes!

My friend, Jenna, had told me about these, so I was off to search the internet for the recipe. I found a few recipes on Blooming Foodie and Your Cup of Cake.



They are a bit of work, but they are worth it! (That is, if you are not on a diet. I can't make them while I'm trying to be good!)


If you try them, you'll have to let me know what you think!

Butterfinger Cupcakes

Caramel Sauce
½ can sweetened condensed milk
1 pkg. caramels (unwrapped from wrappers)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cupcakes
Devil’s Food Cake Mix
3 eggs
½ cup water
¼ cup milk
½ cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup sour cream
½ can sweetened condensed milk
Caramel Sauce (homemade recipe above or store bought)

Butterfinger Buttercream
4 Butterfingers
¾ cup butter
4 oz cream cheese
1 ½- 2 ½ cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line muffins tins with cupcake liners.

Caramel Sauce: If you are not using store bought caramel, make caramel by heating the caramels and sweetened condensed milk. Let boil for 2-3 minutes while stirring constantly. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Set aside.

Cake: Lightly beat eggs, water, milk, and oil together. Stir in vanilla and sour cream and cake mix.

Fill cupcake liners ¾ full and bake for 13-18 minute or until a knife comes out clean. While cupcakes are in the oven, pour caramel sauce into a squeeze bottle with a small tip if available. (Believe me, this will make the process a whole lot easier!)

While cupcakes are still hot, fill with condensed milk/caramel mixture by pushing the tip of the squeeze bottle into them or use a knife to cut out a shallow hole at the top of each cupcake and spoon mixture into the hole. Keep cupcakes in airtight containers until ready to decorate.

Butterfinger Buttercream:
Unwrap the Butterfingers and do your best to shave off the chocolate layer. Take the orange middles and crush in a bowl on in a plastic bag. Sift as much of the candy as possible.
You want to get about ½ cup of orange Butterfinger powder.
Beat butter and cream cheese for 5 minutes. Add as much powdered sugar as desired and milk. Add the sifted Butterfinger and beat well.
Pipe onto cooled cupcakes and use the chocolate shavings and the parts that were too big to sift to decorate.

Enjoy!!!!

16 Years And Counting...

On Friday, we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary! We've had a pretty laid-back weekend, but it's been great. The boys went to Texarkana with my niece, so we had time to go on two dates in one weekend! WOW! I don't think that's happened since we've had children! :) But it has been very quiet & a little strange not having them around! I'm ready to see them tonight!

On Friday night, we went to Nacogdoches and enjoyed a meal at Clear Springs.



Then, on Saturday afternoon, we drove to Shreveport to meet our dear friends, Kim & Eric, who not only share our names but also our anniversary! We ate at the Boardwalk with them at Saltgrass Steakhouse! Yum!!! We had a wonderful time visiting with our friends, too!

Eric,

How time passes so quickly! I can’t believe it’s been 16 years ago today that we walked down the aisles of Rose Hill Baptist Church to get married!

What a wonderfully perfect day it was…

…Until you had to cut through that web of yarn & pulled me down those stairs on the way to the car and...

I fell! I’ll never forget that HUGE bruise on my leg!

And I’m still upset that we didn’t get it on video so we could enter it into AFV! :)

I guess you can say I’ve been “falling for you ever since.” (That sounds like a pun you would say—I’m proud of that one!)

So in honor of our 16 years together, I came up with 16 reasons I'm thankful for you, my sweet husband...

How do I love thee? Let me count the ways…

1. I love it when you sing songs to me! You have such a beautiful voice, and I’m thankful you are using your talents for the Lord!
2. I love how you spoil me and the boys!
3. I love your sense of humor! You make me laugh all the time!!
4. I love it when you give me your undivided attention! With a life in the ministry and two boys, it doesn’t happen too often, so it’s a very special treasure!
5. I’m thankful that you don’t complain when the house gets messy and the dishes get piled a little too high. (Well, sometimes you do complain a little about the dishes, but I am doing a lot better about keeping them in check.)
6. I love it when you wrestle and act silly with our boys! They absolutely adore you and I do too!
7. I’m so thankful that early in our marriage we decided it was your duty and privilege to handle all the bills. Thank you for taking care of our finances. It’s so nice that I don’t have to worry with them!
8. I’m thankful that you are as frugal as I am! (Isn’t that a nice way of saying we’re both pretty tight?)
9. Thank you for always taking care of the “gross” jobs like cleaning toilets, taking out the trash, mopping, killing bugs, etc.
10. Thank you for being a peacemaker.
11. I’m thankful that you love to travel as much as I do! And that you like to drive when we do because there’s nothing like sleeping while traveling! 
12. I’m thankful that you are a servant-leader and that you are teaching our boys to serve as well!
13. I’m thankful that you like my cooking…and I love it when you cook for us—especially when you grill! You are a good cook!
14. I’m thankful that you have such a love for learning. Sometimes I don’t really enjoy the History Channel or “How Things are Made” or “Modern Marvels” or “Mythbusters,” but now that we are homeschooling, I can see the value in them. I love how Evan (and sometimes Ethan if he stops long enough from playing) enjoys learning right along with you.
15. I love how kind-hearted you are and how you are always thinking of others before yourself.
16. I’m thankful that you let us take that giant leap of faith as a family just last year at this time for me to quit my (paying) teaching job to stay at home and teach Evan (and Ethan a little bit). This year at home has been hard work and a learning experience, but it has been the absolute biggest blessing for our family.

You are truly a fine Christian man, and I am honored to be your wife!

My Sweet Boys

I'm so thankful for my two boys...

Ethan, I love the way you are such a free spirit...

I love to see your imagination run wild...

I love to see you explore nature...

The way you make up stories about anything and everything...

I love your contagious smile and laugh...

Evan, I love how you are growing up into such a young gentleman...

I love how you do NOT like your picture taken anymore but you let me take it anyway...

I love how you are trying to have Justin Beiber hair...

And I love your contagious smile & laugh, too!

I love you, Evan and Ethan!

I'm so thankful that God created each of you to be in our family!