A Review of "Your 100 Day Prayer"

     I just finished reading “Your 100 Day Prayer: The Transforming Power of Actively Waiting on God” by John Snyde, which I received as complimentary copy from BookSneeze.com The book is designed to help the reader pray specifically and consistently for 100 days regarding an issue of greater than average difficulty. The goal is to help the reader understand that God created us to pray, to help the reader see how God is present in prayer, and also help the reader grow closer to God during the waiting period.

  

   I can honestly say that this book transformed my prayer life. If you pray a great deal for others, but rarely for yourself, then I think you could really benefit from this book. Each day is numbered and contains a short, two page devotional with a relevant Scripture passage. This layout makes it easy to process information and get to the important part – prayer. Space is provided for you to journal your thoughts and progress.

     

Even while you use this book to pray for an issue in your life, Snyde consistently reminds you to pray for others and for God’s kingdom purposes. He also reminds you that God’s could answer “No” to your prayer, but that He is still good. Snyde offers Biblical advice related to accepting God’s will regardless of his answer to our prayer. The book helped me begin praying very specifically for exactly what I hope for, because God knows already, anyway. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to transform their personal prayer life, get serious about prayer for a specific issue, and/or see God at work in very specific ways.

You can see more about the book here:

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Beauty Out Of The Broken

Today was a lovely, sunny yet brisk and breezy sort of fall day and I decided to open the windows when I got home from work, figuring this might be one of the last days I'd get to air out the apartment. I enjoyed the breeze at the kitchen window while I washed the dishes, but as the evening wore on, it started to get a little chilly in the apartment and so I went to fight with the always sticky kitchen window. In my struggle to get it closed, my elbow bumped the sand dollar that has been living on the windowsill for the last 3 years, and the edge of the sand dollar slipped under the window right as it came crashing down.

I was immediately very, very sad. I picked up that sand dollar on the beach in North Corolla down in the Outer Banks just over 3 years ago, during the first week of October 2008. I, my boyfriend at the time, and my college roommates and their significant others took a week long trip to OBX. It was a glorious week - just warm enough to sit on the beach in out swimsuits and get a tan without scorching, and the water still plenty warm from an entire summer's worth of sunshine. We saw the wild horses, sang karaoke, ate seafood, went running and walking on the beach, played games, cooked for one another, and I thought Aaron and I would be married. It was a fabulous week in the middle of a wonderful year at a very special time in my life. It was one of those times that you look back on and think how perfect it was, how unified you all were, how fun and easy your life was (even though you know not all of it - maybe none of it - is or was necessarily true). Basically, I loved looking at that sand dollar. When I washed dishes. When I got a drink of water. When I filled pots to make dinner. When I folded laundry in the kitchen. Many, many memories from a wonderful week in the middle of a wonderful time in my life were all tied up in that little white sand dollar.

But, when I picked up the one larger piece that remained intact, the little pieces from inside came tumbling out into my palm and what a surprise I found! I had completely forgotten about the birds that live inside of sand dollars. Did you know about the birds? Five little tiny white birds live inside each and every sand dollar. I don't know what they are, or what their purpose is. Because sand dollars are living creatures in the ocean, I imagine that the birds inside are part of their bodies. Regardless, I forgot that I knew about the birds when I was a little girl, and when those little pieces came out in my hand, it was as if I was magically transported back to being a little girl, cracking open a sand dollar for the first time.

So, I started wondering - are there other things that I knew as a child and I have forgotten since becoming an adult?

Then a friend reminded me that we often find hidden beauty when precious things are broken. I couldn't stop thinking about her point, and how true it was. This is how I feel about my faith in God and Jesus Christ. My faith is a beautiful, wonderful, immeasurably valuable thing which I only found after I was broken. And because I'm human, I value myself. I value my safety, my comfort, my health, my own opinions, my own idea, my own way of doing things. When all of those things were broken, it was painful, and it was sad, and something very, very beautiful emerged from the center of all of it.

So, what do you think? Have you stumbled upon things you forgot you once knew as a child, only to be wonderfully surprised when you rediscover them as an adult? And what kinds of beauty have you discovered when something important to you has been broken?

What I Did Over Summer Break

What I Did Over Summer Break

I certainly have many things I ought to be doing right now, but I can't resist creating my own take on VUE Photography's Summer Essay Project. Driving to and from work yesterday, I got stuck behind several school buses, and today's lunch conversations were dominated by stories of everyone's kid's first days back at school.

And so I remembered going back to school and everyone, teachers included, asking "So, what did you do over your summer break?" and while I certainly did NOT have a summer break, I still love the idea of documenting my summer in photos.

This summer, I started an internship, photographed my first big wedding,celebrated my Pop Pop's 80th birthday, went to Nashville, toured the Jack Daniels Distillery, saw over 20 country artists live in concert, visited a friend, at delicious pancakes, stood on the Grand Ole Opry stage, reunited with old friends, learned new assessments, walked along the river, made a new friend from Alabama, turned 28, had lots of breakfasts with friends, got a second job at a bookstore, photographed a quinceanera, celebrated babies, got a cat, visited a new park, saw more rainbows in 3 months than in the last three years combined, sat in FRONT of the camera for once, went to IKEA, went to the beach for a day, ate fried oysters, got a flat tire, prayed A LOT, photographed birthday parties and scooter rallies, made new contacts for my thesis, overhauled my dresser, met my SGKBC3Day fundraising goal, read an awesome new book, and those were just the highlights! I know there were so many more tiny, wonderful moments that I can't even remember anymore! I vow to do better about that!

Click on image to view larger.

Consider writing your own "Summer Essay" to review all the fun you had and prepare yourself for the beautiful autumn season which is rapidly approaching! I don't know about you, but I sure am excited for Longwood Gardens in the fall, day trip to Pittsburgh, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3 Day walk, making progress on my thesis, Apple Harvest, carving pumpkins, eating pomegranates, and seeing what's in store for my job. Summer 2011, you were great. Fall 2011, bring it on!

Girls' Day at Cape May

I don't know what it is, but there is something about being at the beach that makes you feel as though life was never any other way. Never anything other than warm and calm, with nothing to worry about except when to reapply your sunblock and keeping your diet coke on ice. Even if it was only for a day, what a wonderful escape it was, and how wonderful it is to have friends willing to rally around an idea, take days off work, get babysitters for the kids, and make the day happen. We enjoyed a beautiful sunrise on the drive there, many warm hours on the sand, and yours truly even faced my fear of water and went in to my shoulders! We saw the Cape May lighthouse, fought for parking, explored the beautifully colored town and had dinner at the Ugly Mug before heading back and the quality conversation flowed the entire way back. Thank you, Ashleigh, Jana, and Lesa, for the gift of your friendship.