Answered Prayers...

First of all, my little baby is here! What a precious bundle of joy! There is absolutely nothing in the world like experiencing your own child. She was born June 5th.

Anyway...anyone that is a parent knows that the first few weeks are tough when in comes to newborns. Last night started out being a tough one.

First of all, I went to bed while my husband was feeding our newborn daughter. I prayed that God would give me strength to get up when little Sara needed me...before my husband had to get up...and prayed that my husband would get a good night's sleep. This is because he had to get up early for work (I'm on maternity leave..I can catch up on sleep the next day while she's napping), and he was already sleep deprived from the night before.

After praying this prayer and my husband put our daughter to bed, everything seemed fine. She seemed as though she was sound asleep for a little while. Then, about ten minutes later, she's crying. This happened about three times. I was aggrevated....and said to God..."What difference does it make when we pray a request to you...It doesn't seem to make a difference. How do you expect us to feel like you'll listen to our prayers when sometimes it's answered and sometimes it's not. I realize my prayer may have been a selfish one, but it was such a small request. And here she is crying and my husband can't get rest.

By that third time, I told my husband I'd take care of Sara. I decided to shut our bedroom door, go into Sara's room and shut her door. I'd put her to bed and sleep on the floor beside her bed in her room...having the doors shut so her crying wouldn't wake my husband.

Not long after, Sara slept for about 4 hours before I got up and fed her again, then she went to sleep again. I woke up to my husband opening up her door. I asked him if he slept. He said "More like knocked out". I was glad...He needed sleep.

After I was up for a little bit, it had dawned on me that my prayer was answered after all. I didn't ask for Sara not to fuss. I only asked for strength to help her and for my husband to get a good nights sleep. And he did that. I immediately felt a little guilty for doubting Him.

It was a lesson learned again....that whether it's a small request or big request, God always seems to answer our prayers in a way that we don't expect. And because it's in a way that we don't expect, we think He hasn't answered them, when in fact, He has.

Awesome God

How awesome you are God!
You are the grand mathematician. The author of physics, chemistry, biology. The ruler of natural law. Everything you have made dances in perfect step.


You are the good gift-giver. Wonderful gifts! The gift of life...and NEW life! The gift of imagination. The gift of discovery.
The gift of the senses along with the gifts to our senses....The smell of a rose, the taste of saltwater, the touch of rabbit fir, the sight of a sunset.



The gift of mystery...the vastness of our universe, Saturn's rings, molecular machines in each cell of our body, the instincts of a flock of geese, or even an ant's actions leave us scratching our heads.

You make insignificant things meaningful. Sadness to laughter. Hopelessness to Joy. You turn rags to cashmere. Coal to precious gems. Metal to pure gold. You are the all-knowing alchemist.



Your Word and Wisdom are the precious gems in the forest of my heart. Placed there by you, to be discovered.

By You, everything has been given purpose....Our day to day moments have been given meaning and opportunity.
The stars have been placed just where you want them.

You are our Lord and our God, our Creator and Master over everything....everything that can be seen, observed, solved by formulas, and everything unseen...our intuition, our thoughts, love, emotions, our boundless imaginations.

All this....has all been given to us by You. All things glorify You!

It's a GIRL!!!!

3 & 1/2 months to go....
and she's a kickin'!

I'm gonna be a mom!!!!

Estimated due date: June 13, 2008

10 weeks 2 days pregnant!

Yay!!! What a wonderful blessing from God!!

The staircase.....theives....and cops.

I love this story....it is a true story of the mysterious staircase of Loretto Chapel in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

As the story goes...the chapel was constructed in the 19th century by an architect who died suddenly, and after much of the chapel was constructed, the builders realized it was lacking a stairway to the choir loft. A standard staircase could not fit in the small chapel.
The nuns, desparately needing a way to the loft, prayed for nine days (a novena to St. Joseph--who was a carpenter). On that last day of prayer a mysterious stranger, who was a carpenter, knocked on the door and told them he could build the staircase they needed.

He constructed a spiral staircase by himself, consisting of 33 stairs. After it was completed he disappeared without waiting for his payment. The identity of this man is still unknown.

Architects, engineers, and scientists could not understand how the staircase could stand and balance by itself because it didn't have a central support beam. The carpenter also didn't use any nails or glue.

Another mystery to the staircase was the wood it was made of. The wood used in the staircase does not exist in that entire region.

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What I think is also interesting about this story is what skeptics have to say about it. And I believe what the skeptics say is probably very true also.

Of course, skeptics are quick to debunk anything labeled "mysterious" or "miraculous"...so they add phrases like "As the tale continues..." or that "this legend has improved over time like good wine" and so forth. They point out these details:

*The original architect died suddenly because he caught the eye of the wife of the bishop's nephew, and this nephew shot him.

*The mysterious carpenter was identified as Francois-Jean Rochas because of a death notice in 1895 describing him as "an expert in wood who built the staircase in Loretto Chapel".

*In a log book kept by the nuns, an entry was found for the payment of $150.00 for wood for the staircase.

*The staircase is built in such a way that the inner circle radius is small enough to act as a central support beam.

*The staircase is dangerous and did not have hand rails until added at a later date.

*It is springy.

*The nuns were frightened to climb it, and came down from the stair case on hands and knees.

*The wood used is identified as part of a family that has ten species in North America.

*Although never mentioned, there is an iron brace that stabilizes the staircase.
(And I want to point out here that underneath a picture of this brace, it's stated that it "reveals the 'miracle' is a partial one."......Huh?? Is there such a thing as a "partial miracle"???)

And leave an end note that it is not "miraculous, it's human...quite fallibly human".



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It's as if skeptics want readers to believe that this story is just a bunch of fabrication and legend to stir up minds. To believe that "the fools will be fooled". And that people must be idiots to hang their hat on this stuff. You think?

I wanted to point out what they skeptics say only because I don't feel that any of their points prove that this isn't a miracle. Yes, there are many human elements involved, but isn't that true of most miracles? So what?

The nuns prayed. God heard. God intervened and answered....
At just the right moment!!
It's miraculous!!


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I think a lot of skeptics are athiests. Or, it seems to me that most athiests are athiests for the same reason that skeptics are skeptics. They seem to question the same things.

I've recently heard this saying for the first time while listening to a radio broadcast. The speaker said, "An athiest doesn't find God for the same reason that a thief doesn't find a policeman."
I think that's very true....neither seem to be really wanting to find him.
In a way, I admire skeptics. I really do. They refuse to be made a fool (from a worldly intellectual perspective). Therefore, they will not believe something without hard, concrete evidence. And I can understand that.

It's the interpretation of the definition of "evidence" that makes the difference.

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I think there is a crossing over that has to occur in the heart and mind of skeptics for God to be found. And when that happens, "evidence" will have a whole new meaning. What will be known is something more concrete and more evident than the materialistic, physical definition of "evidence" they once had.

This is why faith and belief is always a personal matter of the heart. It can't be tracked down by bloodhounds, or proved by an equation the same way love between a parent and child can't.

Another thing I wonder...Why do they state that this (the staircase) is "humanly fallible"....as if they're admitting that being human is indeed fallible. I think a lot of people that read, or maybe even wrote these things probably don't believe in God at all...they look for every way to discredit the idea.

So.....why is it that being human is also being fallible? ...I want to ask them...if they don't believe in an infallible devine...
Aren't they comparing themselves to some absolute standard?

Do you really wonder why a theif can't find a cop?

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"The foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man's strength." 1 Corinthians 1:25

"But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong." 1 Corinthians 1:27

Signs and dream meanings....

Do you believe that "signs" or messages can be given to us just in a regular moment of the day?...Or through our dreams at night?

Personally, I believe this happens.

Recently, my mother told me a story of something that had just happened to her during the week. She told me this story, not in an over-joyous way, but in a tone of wonder and mystery. It's a story about a clock....

This clock sits inside a globe and is made to sit on a table. It has a golden regulator that spins four little golden globes when it is working. It was a wedding gift to her and my father 37 years ago when they were married. The clock has never worked from the first day.
Mom said, "You remember this clock?", as she pointed to it on the table in the living room. I noticed it was working and I had never seen it work before. I remembered the clock.
She said, "This clock has never worked before and it just started working. Its time is a little fast, but it's working."
"Ha", I said, thinking that it was interesting...wondering why it never worked and just started working.
Then she said, "You know, the funny thing is, it's an answer to a prayer. I said a prayer for something and I thought to myself, 'Why can't I have a sign about this? Why can't it be this clock?' Then not long after, it started working."
This touched me. How we need these signs sometimes! I thought. It's a treasure when we're given one. "Is it the answer you wanted?" I asked her.
"Yes."
"I don't suppose you're going to share what the prayer was?", I asked.
"Nope."
I smiled....and looked at the working clock.



I've had a couple of experiences myself where I believe God was telling me something. Like everyone else, I've also had many dreams, but only a couple that I believe were truly something God was wanting to tell me. I've always kept these things to myself...always remembering that my imagination can make up a wide variety of things and better not to throw out a stumbling block if I'm wrong. I say this because I also think there is a danger of interpretting these kinds of things to mean what we want them to mean. In a way "seeing what we want to see" so-to-speak. But I believe that God does give such things as a gift when we really need assurance. We need to keep our focus on Him, not only what we want for ourselves.


It seems though, in the Bible stories, that God TOLD them that "this is a sign to you...", so how could they get it wrong?

Is it just me, or does it seem like science (and I love science) has seemed to cause people to take a reductionistic view of what once were seen as "magical" or "mysterious"...as something from God?
For example, before science could give a scientific explanation for lightning, it was probably seen as one of the mysterious creations from God, and something that lead people to be awestruck, and at times maybe even thought it as God communicating something (not always but maybe more so than today). Now...although it is still a creation from God, we probably are more likely to see lightning today and not think much of it...Such as it being just the charged electrons reacting when hot and cold air collide...and so forth. In other words, explaining it away or dismissing it because there's a physical scientific explanation for it. Or...maybe...dismissing it just because we're "used to it" or take it for granted.

One example would be the rainbow God sent as a sign to Noah (see Genesis 9:12-17)
God sent the rainbow, but in the verses it says that "God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant'...." But when we look at a rainbow today, yes we think they're beautiful, but do we remember it as a sign from God, or just think about how it is the reflection of rays from the sun and those rays are bent from water in the air?

I remember once about a few months ago, I was wandering through a large bookstore and came across a book by Frederick Buechner (a great author, by the way!). I picked up a book I've been wanting to buy since it first came out and just haven't done it yet. It's called "Secrets in the Dark". And I remember randomly flipping through the pages and I came across the beginning of a story in the book that told about a young boy. I don't know how old he was, but young...maybe pre-teen or something...with a mouth full of bubblegum, and he was gazing at the stars. The book gives a desciption of the stars he is gazing at...They spell out the words..."GOD EXISTS" (or something really close to that...I'm going by memory here). And as the young boy gazes, wide eyed...staring, chewing on his gum, his response is...."So what."

When I think of signs, our personal signs from God, some people may wonder "Why don't I receive a sign from God about this?"
Well, are we truly looking for it? Do we really believe a sign will be there if we ask Him? Are we keeping Christ at the center of our universe and not ourselves? After all, when we do see a sign, sometimes we realize it has been in front of us all along. Has it always been right in front of us....and we've only been saying "So what?"

If God truly knows our hearts better than we know our own hearts, doesn't he know whether or not we'll recognize a sign when he sends it? Maybe He doesn't send one because He already knows we won't see it for what it is.

I believe we need these signs from time to time. Something inside us needs this wonder and mystery...to know that we are being watched over by someone much greater than ourselves.

I want the eyes of my heart to be open.





Just some thoughts.

Flying Pencils

I once worked in an office where many of my co-workers formed this certain habit. Whenever they would receive a phone call from a customer that would cause them to have to get involved in some sort of problem solving, they would roll their eyes and throw their pencil up in the air....so high sometimes they would stick in the ceiling tiles.

This became so common that there were many times, on my way to get coffee, I'd walk by an office area that contained three separate desks divided by partition walls, and sure enough, there would be a pencil flyin' up and twirling above one of the walls. What would our customers think if they knew how much we rolled our eyes at them?

It's hard sometimes to try to keep from catching a negative attitude the way we try to avoid the flu. I remember trying to feed positive thoughts in my mind to counter the negative atmosphere...It's a contagious thing--negativity.

Why is it that we get so burned out? Our country is so blessed beyond measure in our comforts and the things we have, but yet we still get so negative and so burned out in our jobs. Why? Is there a secret to keeping everything "fresh"...or what I mean is, every situation unique...so that we learn something new every time -- even when the work day seems the same as the day before and the day before that?

Maybe it would be possible if we start realizing the reality of the soul behind the person on the other end of the phone or sitting in front of us. They are a unique person, like you, like me, with their many unique qualities and situations and thoughts....And God loves them...even when you find them the most obnoxious and annoying person on earth. (Many times I've confessed to God that "I'm glad He loves this person because I sure can't!" --- I know this must sound awful...after all, "to love God is to love those that he loves...right!?).

I wonder these things sometimes. I try to remind myself that all my actions are being watched by others. Every action says something about me. Every action they do says something about them. What would they see? I know what I would hope they'd see, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be it. We're always setting an example...either a good one or a bad one.

I think the trick is changing from the inside what we know needs to be changed. If we only change from the outside, we become fakes. But if we change on the inside and not worry about the outside, we have integrety...and that's admired.