prayer

Another prayer/poem that arose out of Bible Study Fellowship homework, based on Isaiah 24:14-16a

Lord Almighty,
You give the sinner hope.
my hope is in you before the trials.
The joy of Your justice will come.
I rest and rejoice in Your righteousness.
Make my joy complete for my heart laments the godless.
But I look to the future and smile
and pray your glory displaces all sorrow.
I will acclaim with every nation
when the harvest is complete.
Enlarge Your kingdom, O God,
our Banner and our Salvation.
May the chorus of Your redeemed cry out,
every language lift Your name.
Until our tears are wiped away,
may we shed them for your fame.

rar?

last night as i was putting the Numgat into her car seat before leaving SF, she held up her stuffed tiger - the one that makes a roar sound - and said "Rar?" It didn't register to me at first, as I was hurriedly strapping her in, but she kept repeating it imploringly as she held mr. tiger up to me.
Only later as the wife acquiesced to the Numgat's demands in the backseat as we drove home did I realize that my daughter was asking me to play the tiger sound because it delighted her so.

rar! rar!

Numgat Initiative

As is my habit when the Numgat wakes from her nap in the Pack 'n' Plan in our closet, I came to get her first by opening the closet door and turning on the light so she would at least know her freedom was imminent and stop crying, while I made a quick stop in the bathroom.
However, before I could finish in the bathroom, to my bewilderment, she sauntered in, greeted me, and casually tossed her empty bottle into the sink (where we toss the day's used bottles), and sauntered out.

I guess this is less surprising given that yesterday after putting her down in the pack 'n' play, I found her sitting on the changing area portion, having climbed up to it.

I guess her transfer to the Pooklet's old crib came none too soon.

Jesse Tree

At the wonderful wife's prompting, we've initiated a family devotional routine each evening for the month of December. it consists of a little scripture, a bit of devotional material, and the unwrapping of an ornament (which the wife made) that goes on the "Jesse Tree." each ornament represnets a symbol of God's covenant with His people.

Anyway, the real purpose of this post is to record my daughter's adorable (although distracting) behavior during last night's devotions: As I read aloud, she scurried back and forth between me and my backpack, bringing me items from it like my name badge, saying "Daddy" as if to let me know that they belongs to me.

Two kids enter, one kid leaves...

last night was the first night our two kids shared the Pooklet's room (The Pooklet's been in his big boy bed now for about a week).
when mommy put the Numgat in Pooklet's old crib, she pointed back to our room and said somewhat anxiously, "Hannah sleep there." but, after a brief cry, it took.
after a 4am change and bottle, however, she sat up and started talking to her pig-pig, so i broke in and took her out so she wouldn't wake her brother. However - and here is the real proof that the sleep experiment was successful - she hadn't even woke him with her initial 4am cry (which woke me down the hall through two closed doors).
she ended up sleeping in our room from 4:30 on, but all in all, this was a good sign of things to come.

I, however, couldn't fall back asleep.

prayer encouragement

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been praying more and longer than perhaps ever in my life. The Praying Church Sourcebook continues to be a source of ideas and inspiration to me. Today I read about Second Baptist Church in Houston, which, I believe, we visited once when unexpectedly laid over on our return trip from Costa Rica. Their Sunday school attendance grew from 800 to over 5,000 because of prayer. They have members praying 24/7 in a room on their campus, with a phone anyone can call in on at any time with requests. I like commitments like this. It reminds me of the story I heard of Spurgeon's church, which had a basement full of prayer warriors during his sermons.
Pastor Cho of the 1,000,000 member church in Seoul, Korea encourages us to pray for very specific requests because God's answers come more noticeably and offer greater testimonies to His greatness. Personally, what I like about praying detailed requests is that it makes it more exciting when you're praying because it paints a better picture. The more facets of the request I consider, the more vivid the picture, and the more it heightens interest, urgency and passion in the prayer.

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

My mom sent me this link today, and it was just what I needed. I'm going to go listen to our CD of the Hallelujah Chorus now...