Prayer OF my Daughter

The summer usually brings about the breaking of evening routines. Routines that I love, by they way, such as reading with my son and praying with my daughter. One of the common things my daughter says in her prayer (at least she did as of May)is, "please help my brother and me to get along better and not fight so much."

One would think that as a father, it does my heart good to hear this prayer and recognize that my daughter realizes God is her help and hope to become all that He wants her to be. This prayer warmed my heart for about two weeks. Then I recognized "it ain't happening..." the bickering, teasing, and annoying of one another continued at the same level and at times worsened.

This got me thinking about Ashton's prayer, her ever evolving theology, and how she might be interpreting the fact that there is seemingly no answer. The possibilities I considered are:
1. She believes God is not hearing her which could mean she believes God could be unfaithful.
2. She believes this whole idea of getting along with my annoying brother seems to be even out of the reach of God (which I sometimes find myself believing... ahem!).
3. She says to herself, "I say these words at night as a part of my routine prayer and never really think about it again until it is bedtime and time to pray."

Knowing that any one of those possibilities is... err... possible, and knowing that my son, too, had been known to pray this prayer, I decided to take advantage of a teachable moment. The next time they starting having a mild bicker (because a major one means "meltdown" and "I'm not listening!!") I reminded them how they have prayed this prayer and asked them why they think God hasn't done anything. They thought for a couple of seconds and shrugged. I explained that God was not going to magically place a heart of camaraderie in them, but that He is going to build this in them if they allow Him to do so. When you feel yourself wanting to retaliate and annoy, that is the opportunity to allow God to work. It will take time, it will take intentionality, you will not be perfect.

I wish I could tell you that they fell down, tore their clothes, sat in the ashes and grieved over their behavior and/or celebrated with great songs of praise at this new revelation of the goodness and faithfulness of God, but I can't. That's OK, with me. I trust that God will continue his work and I am well aware that there are still SEVERAL opportunities a day for this prayer to be answered. I believe it is happening.

This same kind of thinking is present in adults, too. It is seen in the frustrated couple who prays God will help them love their spouse again, yet continues in the same distant, dysfunctional interaction that does nothing but further estrange them. Or the person who prays for a new job and does nothing but wait for the phone to ring. We miss opportunities for God's work in us all the time. MY prayer is that I begin to recognize them more often in my life. God is faithful.

Well, Hello Dolly...

Well, we just had a ill-planned trip. My brother's family and my family coordinate our trips to Harlingen (Christmas and Summer) so that we can all be there together. With our daughters in adolescence, the calendars fill up pretty quickly. So the only time we could all be together was SUPPOSED to be Saturday through Wednesday. It became clear by Sunday that we might have to leave a little sooner than expected because of a little hurricane brewing in the Gulf. By Monday, my step-mother was urging us to leave on Tuesday.

Judging from the initial reports on Sunday and Monday, I wasn't so sure we were going to encounter more than some harsh wind and rain and thought everyone was just a little paranoid.

We decided to go ahead and cut our trip short but not without going to our favorite Mexican food at Las Vegas Cafe. YUMMMM!!!!

I am glad we came back! My uncle and step-mother both had some damage and have been without power since 10:00 Wednesday morning. All are safe... Hot and bored... but safe.

Meanwhile, we had a great lazy last day of vacation yesterday while my family nearly blew away. Went to see Get Smart together ("that's not cheese!"). As we were leaving the theater, Seth offered his insight that it Get Smart was probably the best choice of movie for our entire family to see together since the boys didn't want to see Mamma Mia and the girls don't want to see Hancock. Dad is the only one who wanted to see Dark Knight. I still CAN'T WAIT to see it!!!

I liked having a day at home to recover from travel before going back to work.

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Yesterday evening, I came home from work, grabbed a quick snack and changed clothes to go mow the thick, lush grass that we had hydromulched in only 5 weeks ago. Of course, according to our water bill, it should have been lush and think or heads would roll... but I digress. For the last 20 years, I have only used a push mower because of the size of the lawns and a few weeks ago we purchased our first riding lawn mower (nothing runs like a Deere!). Along with the push mower came the necessary wardrobe of jeans and sneakers (or work boots). Yesterday, however, I made a conscious decision to start dressing differently when hopping on the Deere. I put on shorts, t-shirt, and an old pair of open-toe sandals. I stepped off the driveway into the thick, lush grass and IMMEDIATELY felt a sting on one of my toes like I have never felt before.

Before I knew it, I had dashed back on to the drive way, kicked off my shoes and was yelling, "OUCH!" a few times and louder than I ever intended. After I recognized how loud it was I was embarrassed and looked around to make sure no one was out in their yard to witness this display. I went back to the edge of the grass to see if I could see something crawling or flying away. I saw nothing.

I went into the house told Laurie about the incident and she gave me something to relieve the sting.

Returning to the job at hand, I backed the Deere out of the storage building and took it over to the driveway for some simple maintenance before trimming the thick, lush grass. I started to feel tingly all over and dismissed it thinking it would go away. I hopped on the Deere and started mowing realizing that the tingling getting more specific and moving up my body. Still, I was not too uncomfortable to be concerned. As I continued mowing, I began to notice that the area around my mouth started to feel numb and soon realized these bumps coming up on my arms that resembled small mosquito bites and knew I probably needed to stop mowing.

Laurie gave me 2 Bennadryl (sp?) and loaded the family into the suburban on our way to the minor emergency clinic. As we drove, I noticed those bumps and rash spreading along with the itching. I looked in the mirror and noticed my lips swollen to the point of looking like a character out of the Simpsons.

You know it is fairly serious when EVERY SINGLE PERSON at the clinic takes one look at you and immediately changes their countenance with looks of sympathy. The doctor walked in and within 10 seconds said, "Well, you certainly are allergic to something!" One booty shot and a Zantac later, the doctor says, "I want you to hang around a little bit to make sure." Discharge came about 20 minutes later with a little relief.

Next time, I'm wearing my jeans and work boots.