Prayer Walk

“Pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (KJV)

The fact that we have the ability to talk to the God of the universe is amazing to me. The fact that He answers us blows my mind. I’ve always been drawn to the power of prayer. I love hearing stories of faithful prayer warriors and the awesome ways God answers their prayers. Behind every powerful Christian giant or every church that reaches many for Jesus there is a prayer warrior. I’ve always felt called to pray for others. I feel so honored when people share with me their prayer requests. Getting to intercede for those I love & even those I’ve never met is exciting. Praying gives me the ability first hand to see the mighty works of God. My heart especially aches over those suffering in the world whether physically or circumstantially. Having chronic pain everyday for years I know firsthand how overwhelming life can be at times. But the Word says to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). And so that is what I do everyday, not just for myself but for many others as well. I have a list of 50 people/families that I try to pray for every week as well as urgent requests I try to pray for everyday. My list includes 13 people living with chronic conditions. On my list I have everyone from close friends & family, to people I met on twitter living with chronic pain, to the President of the United States!

With so many people to pray for, and wanting to devote enough time to each person I was trying to think of a way to make sure I pray for everyone. As I was taking my daily walk the Lord gave me an idea. Ever since May my pain has been slightly more manageable most days. Enough so that I’m actually able to walk a mile about 4 nights a week. It might not sound like much but for a person who was couch bound most of the first 6 months of 2011, walking a mile is a really big deal! So the idea the Lord gave me was to turn my nightly walk into a prayer walk. To split up my list amongst several days and spend time praying for certain people every night of my walk. I love God’s creativity! I would have never thought to pray during my walk but let me tell you my walk is much more enjoyable that way. Of course my Prayer Walk will have to turn into Prayer Elliptical once winter comes:)

So that brings me to all of you. Do you do what the Word says & pray without ceasing? Do you have any praises to answered prayer you want to share? Or are you need of someone to regularly pray for you or a loved one? Do you have a chronic condition, marital or money troubles or maybe a family member who is far from God? I would love to add you to my prayer list. Please know I will not share your requests with anyone else unless you tell me to. If you want to be added to my list please tweet me or DM me @dayspring82 or email me at purposeinthepain@aol.com

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.” 1 John 5:14 (NIV)

“I love the LORD, for he heard my voice; he heard my cry for mercy.” Psalm 116:1 (NIV)

My new favorite blogs!

So this weekend I have been interested...ok mildly obsessed with reading new blogs as well as trying to improve my own blog & add to my readers. So I thought I would share with you my new favorite blogs so all of you can join in on the reading fun! I realize all my new favorite blogs are mommy homeschool blogs which might seem a little weird for a single Christian girl who blogs about living with chronic pain. But working 11 years as a nanny & spending my days loving, caring for & teaching 4 kids means I have the most in common with my mommy homeschool friends. Plus someday if the Lord blesses me with a family of my own I will be more than prepared because of all my years working as a nanny & all the wonderful blogs I'm reading now. So here are my new favorite blogs! Check them out & please share with me your favorite blogs too!

1. My friend Melissa just starting blogging. She's an amazing wife, mommy, Christian business owner & new homeschooler to her 3 adorable kids. You will love reading her journey!

2. Just today I discovered Granola Mom 4 God & am already loving her posts on parenting, homeschooling, healthy eating & green living!

3. Just today I also discovered Happy Brown House. Her Weekend Reading post inspired this post! I am already loving this blog & am especially intrigued to read more about her adoption & budget living posts as those are both topics close to my heart. There is even an opportunity on her site to purchase items to help financially support their adoption. Go over, read, shop & check it out!

4. And lastly my new fave homeschool sites for curriculum ideas, activities, printables, advice & giveaways! Hip Homeschool Moms , Homeschool Creations , The Crafty Classroom & Confessions of a Homeschooler !

Preschool Week 1

This week the older girls went back to school leaving the majority of my days spent with little guy (4 1/2 yrs old) and baby girl (who turned 6mths on Thursday & is getting WAY too big!). So in honor of the girls going back to school we started up our 2nd year of homeschool preschool. We had a blast! I can't believe how much little guy has improved since last year. Last year he could barely identify any colors & this year using Playskool Color flashcards that I got at the dollar store he could identify almost every color & after some practice got them all. He LOVED all of our activities & even wanted to do our "learning time" over going on a playdate. I am so thankful I have such a fun & important job loving & teaching little ones. Ever since I was little I always wanted to be a mom & was interested in homeschooling but not being married with a family of my own I put those plans on the back burner. But God in His goodness has given me a job where I get to do what I love & even when it's tough I'm still thankful. I don't know what the future holds & if I will ever be blessed with children of my own but if I never am I have still been beyond blessed to "mother" & love children for the last 11 years as a nanny.

So now it's picture time! I took a bunch of pics of our first week of homeschool preschool & here are a few! We had 5 workbooks that we used. I got all of them at the one spot at Target. I am all about teaching little ones in a VERY frugal (free whenever possible) way! There are so many inexpensive & free resources & activities for kids. This week in our workbook we focused on letters A & B.

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We also focused on math concepts & numbers.



And my favorite is the workbook we got on countries. Each week we have a different country to focus on & I plan to get additional library books & crafts/activities online to correspond with each country. My librarian even showed me online library resources for kids to study different countries. I think it's so important to expose kids to different groups of people & I'm excited for this workbook. Our first day wasn't a country but a mini lesson on Earth. We colored a map. I helped little guy by coloring part of the ocean while he focused on the continents. He pointed out to me how I colored over a few islands accidently:)



In addition to our workbooks we read all these books from the library! Little guy's favorites were Eating the Alphabet: Fruits & Vegetables from A to Z by Lois Ehlert and We all Went on Safari: A Counting Journey through Tanzania by Laurie Krebs & Julia Cairns.

I LOVE the library! It's such an easy, free way to expose kids to a variety of topics. Plus our library also has storytime & variety of classes & crafts geared towards kids. It is an amazing resource.

Little guy was interested in dinosaurs so we declared Thursday Dino Day & had a blast with all the library books & movie we found as well as dinosaur coloring pages we found online. I can't wait for next week when we study Antarctica (to correspond with our workbook) & Fire & the Vikings (Little Guy's choice). What activities & lessons have you been doing with your little ones lately? I love new ideas!

Dream a little dream with me...

I have a dream. Ok actually I have a lot of dreams. Some of my dreams are very different from each other & some compliment each other well. Some days certain future plans sound really good to me and other days they don't. I feel like I've always been this way-dreaming big dreams, not content with ordinary (boring!) living. While I need to be content no matter what I don't think it's wrong to want more than an ordinary life because I don't think Christians are called to ordinary living. The Great Commission isn't exactly a boring command. Looking at the lives of the early church in the book of Acts makes it clear they were doing anything but ordinary living.

But dreams are also limiting. It's easy to daydream about all these wonderful things I want to do but never actually do any of them. Dreams are safe. Living them out is far more risky. When dreams become reality that's when the hardwork, obedience and most importantly faith come into play. All that I want to do is be in the center of God's will because I know that is the best place to be. And while I pray for God's will in what to pursue, I also know that God's Word already tells me to do many of the things I dream about doing & I don't need any more confirmation than that!

So without further ado here are some of my dreams. I'm usually an open book sharing my life but for some reason it feels so personal to share my dreams. Maybe I'm afraid if none of them come true I'll look like a failure. But we're all friends here so I'll share away ;) I want to hear your dreams too! Share them in the comments or better yet write your own "dreams" blog and share the link.

-I dream of writing a book based on my experiences & what God's word says about finding purpose in living with chronic pain.

-I dream of traveling the world & caring for the least of these-the poor, sick, orphans, widows-meeting practical needs & most importantly sharing the gospel

-I dream of taking care of the least of these in my own backyard

-I dream of marrying a Godly man, having children (maybe?) & devoting myself to supporting my husband, teaching my children about the Lord & having a family that is devoted to service & sharing the gospel.

-I dream of writing & leading Bible studies

-I dream of creating a ministry to support those living with chronic conditions-a place where people can be encouraged, prayed for, study God's word and learn practical ways to cope with chronic pain

-I dream of finding Christian families to adopt the millions of orphans around the world

-I dream of traveling the country & opening the eyes of apathetic Americans (myself included!) to the plight of the poor & marginalized around the world & getting them involved with organizations that reach these groups of people.

-And lastly I couldn't leave this off. I dream of moving somewhere warm (with my family hopefully coming too!) and having my fibromyalgia go completely away!

So what are your dreams?

Homeschool Preschool!

I'm back! Summer has been busy as usual for me. It's always my craziest time of year-nannying for 2 families, working for a local company & a friend from home & this summer doing the musical Ragtime too. This summer has been so much fun & I'm sad to see it come to an end.

Since summer is winding down I've been thinking about the older kids going back to school which leaves the majority of my days spent with N who is 4 1/2 & L who is almost 6mths old. I am excited for less commotion especially since I spent most days of summer watching anywhere from 4-6 kids! So now I'm gearing up for year 2 of homeschool preschool with N. Last year I was all gung ho and read every book on homeschooling the library had (seriously!). I wrote my own curriculum and we had a blast. This year I'm a little more relaxed. N will be in actual preschool a few mornings a week which means I won't have as much time for fun lessons with him but I still plan to have a few activities for each day I watch him.

Looking over last year's curriculum I'm amazed at all we learned and I love that he still brings up his favorite lessons. We did lessons on Vikings, Ancient Egypt, the Titanic, Pompeii & Volcanos (his personal favorite-he literally painted volcanos everday for weeks!), French, Chinese, All 4 seasons, Every letter & numbers thru 10, Ancient Rome & Greece, Magnets, Colors, Rainbows, Holidays, Archaeology, Character lessons with the Help Me Be Good books, Jamestown & the American Revolution,Chemistry, Butterflies, Airplanes, Abraham Lincoln, JFK, Martin Luther King Jr. & studied Russia, China, Japan, Italy, & India. We watched documentaries, did crafts & took field trips to correspond with our lessons. I tried to get children books on these topics whenever possible & the best part is it was all free with library resources. But my favorite thing of all was him asking his parents for magnets & a javelin for Christmas. How many 3 year olds ask for that! In my reading on home schooling I often read about how children lessons don't have to be dumbed down & I can attest to that. We had so much more fun learning about the Vikings that reading See Spot Run. I am thankful for the fun year with had and can't wait to start learning all over again and this time we have another little one learning with us. I'm thinking of starting her with baby sign language! For all you mommys & nannys out there do you have any fun lessons or ideas for preschoolers???