And the Praises Go Up

First of all I have to say thanks to everyone who prayed for my Grandpa Smith. He had a heart catherization at 6 last night, and the doctor found no blockages, no problems with his previous stint, basically no problems with his heart! The doctor said he wasn't quite sure what had happened and listed off a few possibilities of what it might be, none of which were serious issues. Then my grandma just told the doctor that she really thought that God had just taken care of whatever the problem had been. And I say amen to that! Because countless people were praying! Thank you for your part in the prayer support!
And from what I read over at Heather's blog this morning we all have a lot to praise God for this morning! God truly loves His children. That is true whether He answers our prayers in our way or not. But sometimes I think He likes to pour extra blessings out on us just to show us how much He really cares!
I may or may not be around next week. I'm flying out to Honduras for work, and I'll be there Monday through Friday. The days get hectic, and computer time is rare, but I will try to squeeze a post in if I can! But if I don't, don't worry, I'll be back the next week! I could never leave my blogging buddies for too long!

I'll leave you today with today's Bible Gateway verse, which is once again very appropriate ('cause God's just awesome like that!)

II Chronicles 7:14, "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."

Now it seems to me that in the last 24 hours lots of us have been humbling ourselves and praying. And God has definitely heard from heaven. Praise the Lord!

Say a Little Prayer

Hey everybody! I just wanted to ask you all to pray for my grandpa, Lloyd Smith. He went to the hospital last night for chest pains. It doesn't look like he has had a heart attack, but he will be having a lot of tests throughout the day today. I know that I can depend on all of you to pray!

Now, you aren't going to believe this. Well, you probably will because you all serve the same totally awesome God that I do. But when I went to Bible Gateway to check out today's verse, I got just what I needed. And what was that you might ask? Well, this little reminder found in Romans 12:12:

"Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;"

This verse is a part of a list of things that Paul reminds us to do in Romans 12. But this verse is just what I needed to hear this morning. I needed to remember that I can rejoice. Because as I talked about last week we do have hope. Eternal hope that can't be taken away.
And I totally don't think it was a mistake that Paul mentioned hope BEFORE he mentioned tribulation. He wanted to remind Christians that we have hope even when tribulations arise. So we can be patient in tribulation because we know that WHATEVER the outcome, we can rest in that hope.
And the last part is so awesome. I mean think about it. We can go to God anytime. And not only that, He WANTS us to come to Him. Continually. So on this day when my family is facing a bit of a storm, God blessed me and gave me just what I needed. And I'm going to hold tight to it throughout the day.
I pray that someone else might be blessed by it as well! Thanks again for the prayers!

God's Still in the Calling Buisness!

I don't know about you, but I totally think it's awesome when I hear about a young person doing something for God. Whether that thing be large or small! Today I heard about a guy named Michael who is doing something huge for God. He is moving to Latvia! That's right! He's going to pack up all his stuff and move over there to share God's love with these people as a missionary! Is that awesome or what?
I'm putting a link to his blog on my sidebar under the "Things to Pray For" section. Be sure to click over there regularly to see how things are coming along for this young missionary!
(By the way, he is Laurel's cousin!)