Praying for my mother

Dealing with a sick parent has taught me a lot about the power of prayer. In 2003 my mother was in a coma for a week and I sent out a prayer request and God opened my mother’s eyes and a week later she was talking and ready to go home.

It feels like deju vu this week. I stepped into the hospital room and my mother was hooked up to the ventilator machines and unconscience.

It is so hard to see her like this, but I do believe God is able again. I’m asking for your prayers again. Lift her up today.

I know prayer works and I know God can heal her again.

Please pray for me and my family as we wait patiently for her to open her eyes again. Each day is hard, but with the help of God we get through it.

For those who are praying and continue to pray, thank you. Your prayers on our behalf have truly blessed my soul, knowing other’s have your back, make the hard time so much more bearable.

Keeping busy helps me stay focus.

The Friends We Keep/40 Minute Bible Studies Blog Tour

The Friends We Keep

During a particularly painful time in her life, Sarah Zacharias Davis learned how delightful–and wounding–women can be in friendship. She saw how some friendships end badly, others die slow deaths, and how a chance acquaintance can become that enduring friend you need.

The Friends We Keep is Sarah’s thoughtful account of her own story and the stories of other women about navigating friendship. Her revealing discoveries tackle the questions every woman asks:

• Why do we long so for women friends?

• Do we need friends like we need air or food or water?

• What causes cattiness, competition, and co-dependency in too many friendships?

• Why do some friendships last forever and others only a season?

• How do I foster friendship?

• When is it time to let a friend go, and how do I do so?

With heartfelt, intelligent writing, Sarah explores these questions and more with personal stories, cultural references and history, faith, and grace. In the process, she delivers wisdom for navigating the challenges, mysteries, and delights of friendship: why we need friendships with other women, what it means to be safe in relationship, and how to embrace what a friend has to offer, whether meager or generous.

40 Minute Bible Studies

The 40 Minute Bible Study series from beloved Bible teacher Kay Arthur and the teaching staff of Precept Ministries tackles important issues in brief, easy-to-grasp lessons you can use personally or for small-group discussion. Each book in the series includes six 40-minute studies designed to draw you into God’s Word through basic inductive Bible study. There are 16 titles in the series, with topics ranging from fasting and forgiveness to prayer and worship. With no homework required, everyone in the group can work through the lesson together at the same time. Let these respected Bible teachers lead you in a study that will transform your thinking—and your life.

Titles Include:
•The Essentials of Effective Prayer •Being a Disciple: Counting the Cost
•Building a Marriage That Really Works •Discovering What the Future Holds
•Forgiveness: Breaking the Power of the Past •Having a Real Relationship with God
•How Do You Walk the Walk and Talk the Talk? •Living a Life of Real Worship
•How to Make Choices You Won’t Regret •Living Victoriously in Difficult Times
•Money & Possessions: The Quest for Contentment •Rising to the Call of Leadership
•How Do You Know God’s Your Father? •Key Principles of Biblical Fasting
•A Man’s Strategy for Conquering Temptation •What Does the Bible Say About Sex?

Sarah Zacharias Davis is a senior advancement officer at Pepperdine University , having joined the university after working as vice president of marketing and development for Ravi Zacharias International Ministries and in strategic marketing for CNN. The daughter of best-selling writer Ravi Zacharias, Davis is the author of the critically-acclaimed Confessions from an Honest Wife and Transparent: Getting Honest About Who We are and Who We Want to Be. She graduated from Covenant College with a degree in education and lives in Los Angeles , California.

Kay Arthur, executive vice president and cofounder of Precept Ministries International has worked with her teaching staff to create the powerful 40-Minute Bible Studies series. Kay is known around the world as a Bible teacher, author, conference speaker, and host of national radio and television programs.

He Has Your Back

Last night I was thinking about my time in bootcamp and how my bunk mate got in trouble and they moved us both to different spots. It was the first time I cried in bootcamp. I’d been trying to stay strong the whole time, but this move upset me because I’d made friends with the girl in the next bunk and she helped me get through the tough days. How was I going to make it for the last few weeks?

Back then I wasn’t saved, but I did believe in God and that night I prayed that I survived the next weeks and didn’t get set back.

As I lay in bed last night I realized God always had my back even when I didn’t know it. He moved me next to the woman who would become a lifetime friend. Lenore came in the Navy with her best friends, but the Navy changes you and she and her friends, didn’t hang out as much, so guess who she hung out with?

God knew we were going to be good friends. I can smile now because the person I was so upset about moving away from, I never heard from her again after bootcamp. However Lenore and I kept in touch. We wrote long letters and came to see each other over the years. I blogged about attending her retirement from the Navy.

My point to this blog, God has your back, even when you don’t even know he does.

Here I was upset about losing a friend and God already had a new one in the wings. I know now that he is the only one I can depend on. When I'm down, he listens. When I need a friend he's there and when something exciting happens, he's the first I tell.

Thanks God for having my back when I was scared 18 year old wondering why I’d joined the Navy and now at 42 wondering where my life is going.

Do you know that God has your back?

In a funk

This is my first time being in a funk. For those who have experienced one, my prayers go out to you. It has been hard pulling out of the funk. It started last year and instead of getting better it seemed to get worse.

I tried to write, but why I kept wondering. I’m not going to sale, why waste your time. My mind refused to listen. It continued to create characters in my head. It introduced me to different ideas for future books.

The good thing about this funk is my relationship with God. I think I’ve worn his ear off with our conversations. I’d been questioning my faith and my purpose in life.

The funk had me skipping church and staying home. I just didn’t have the desire to fellowship with others. I know that’s wrong, but at the time that’s how I felt.

Last week we had Vacation Bible school and it was like a revival for me. God whispered in my ear that it was time to step out of the funk and know he is still in control.

I have two weeks before the SORMAG online conference and I’m looking forward to a week of talking about books and writing.

How do you stay clear of the funk?