Beautiful Daughters Leah & Heather

I hope you had a great Easter holiday with family and friends. Ray had to work a shift at the hospital, and Eden and Jacob weren’t able to make it this time, so Heather, Leah and I had our own little, intimate Easter dinner: Ray’s special holiday ham, green bean casserole, potatoes au gratin, and multi-grain brown rolls with a honey-butter spread. “Food is for eating, and good food is to be enjoyed… I think food is, actually, very beautiful in itself.” – Delia Smith

Then Leah and I watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion movie. I spent the evening before bed, thanking Jesus for all He’s done in my life, asking for His wisdom, guidance, and blessings for this week, and  praying over our family. From the book, The Busy Woman’s Guide to Prayer by Cheri Fuller, we read:

“Often we think it’s our work and our efforts that will make the most impact in bringing success or needed changes. But understanding prayer is the major work and thus the most productive use of our time makes a huge difference. The enemy doesn’t want us to pray because he doesn’t worry about our prayerless work, prayerless parenting, prayerless self-efforts; on the other hand when everything we do is bathed in prayer, he has a real problem! The prayers of the weakest, youngest, poorest, least influential, or newest believer who is right with God through a relationship with Jesus Christ can pierce the darkness.”

Sometimes you may feel like your prayers aren’t doing any good. You’ve been praying and praying for something for a long time, and nothing seems to be happening. Dear friend, don’t stop praying! God hears your voice, and your prayers are making a difference! Your prayers will get the job done.

The Bible indicates that our prayers are accumulative. There are bowls in heaven in which our prayers are stored. We don’t know how many bowls there are, but maybe you and I have our own bowl. God has something in which He stores our prayers to use at the right time:

Revelation 5:8 says, “And when He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, having each one a harp, and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints.”

Then we read in Revelation 8:3-5: “And another angel came and stood at the altar, holding a golden censer; and much incense was given to him, that he might add it to the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, went up before God out of the angel’s hand. And the angel took the censer; and he filled it with the fire of the altar and threw it to the earth; and there followed peals of thunder and sounds and flashes of lightning and an earthquake.”

According to these verses, when God knows it is the right time to do something or when enough prayer has been offered to get the job done, He releases power – thunder, lightning, and an earthquake!  He takes the bowl and mixes it with His holy fire from the altar.

The bowl is being being filled up from your prayers. Your answer is on the way!

I believe each situation is unique. I think sometimes we can pray one short little prayer in faith, and God immediately answers it, such as when Jesus rebuked the storm on the sea. At other times, I believe God tests and stretches our faith, and we have to persevere in prayer. I share about perseverance in prayer in my ebook, Walking With God, when Ray and I prayed for two years for our daughter Leah’s healing. The book also includes other powerful testimonies of answered prayer.

Yes, God hears your prayers. If you’ve been praying in faith for something, don’t quit! Keep praying, and God will respond in power. Breakthrough is just around the corner.

***To learn more about prayer, be sure to check out my ebook Walking With God at my Estore. Just click here.

This past week, Leah and I did a little shopping at Walmart and while I was waiting outside the dressing rooms as Leah changed clothes, the Walmart clerk with just one arm, Diana, spoke to me and asked if I had enjoyed the Balm Immanual Baptist Church ladies’ retreat. She had seen me there and remembered my face.

I told her I did, and it was the first time I’d ever been to it. I asked if she had enjoyed it. She said yes, and told me how the keynote speaker had come during the break to personally talk to her and asked her how she had lost her arm…and wanted details about it. “She’s a writer, so I’ll probably be in one of her next books,” she said. I smiled, because as a writer myself, I know that anything is potential content!

But Diana’s directness about the loss of her arm took me aback since I don’t even know her. Later I found out she had also lost her leg; she’s a double amputee.

When you see someone who has lost a limb or had some other similar tragedy, the natural human response is discomfort. You don’t know what to say. You know it’s rude to stare and maybe even ask questions that might frighten the person from their memories of the trauma, or somehow make him or her uncomfortable. They just want to be treated normally, not like a “freak.” But since Diana brought up the topic, I felt more at ease about asking her questions.

“How did you lose your arm?” I asked. She told me that when she was four years old, she was electrocuted. She doesn’t remember the accident. But Diana said she is thankful for her parents, who had a strong faith in God and wanted her to live as normal of a life as possible. She heard all her life that she had to figure out how to do things.

Her father wanted to be sure that she didn’t have to ever depend on any man. She was taught to dress and take care of herself, write, cook, change a tire, change the car oil, and more. Diana also had a daughter, so she had to learn to be independent.

Diana once asked her parents why God didn’t just take her life in the accident. What was her purpose?  Why did He allow this to happen?

She sought the answer to this question all her life, she told me. Since I’m all about prayer, purpose, and passion, I was intrigued by this conversation and waited to hear more about her self-discovery.

“I’m 55 years old,” she said. “And I think I’m just now understanding what I’m supposed to do. I’m a teacher. I am supposed to teach others. I can do everything you can do, and probably better, with just one arm and one hand. I’ve had to learn to do that to survive. Now I want to teach others like me, who have been in accidents – as well as senior citizens with failing health, stroke victims, those with carpal tunnel, war veterans, and others – how to do the things I’ve learned and know how to do.”

She said she’d like to make a little money at this, but it’s not about the money ~ it’s about helping others.

Diana has begun recording videos and uploading them on YouTube, teaching people missing an arm, leg, etc., how to do basic things and to take care of themselves: making a bed, peeling a potato, cleaning. She wants to teach people these skills in their own homes, rather than in a hospital setting.

You can view Diana’s videos by clicking here at YouTube.

Diana has pushed through all obstacles to get where she is today. Now she has this vision in her heart to help others like herself to be overcomers.

After listening to Diana, I think it’s time for all of us to lay aside our excuses of “I can’t” …and just do it.

“I have strength for all things in him that gives me power.” ~ Philippians 4:13, Darby Bible Translation

Gianna Jessen

In today’s devotional (March 25) from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young, it addresses the issue of gratitude, which reminded me of a movie I saw yesterday, Octoberbaby. Sarah writes, “A grateful attitude becomes a grid through which we perceive life. Gratitude enables you to see the light of My Presence shining on all your circumstances. Cultivate a thankful heart, for this glorifies Me and fills you with joy.”

What does gratitude have to do with Octoberbaby, which deals with the issue of abortion? The movie is based on the true-life story of Gianna Jessen, who was born alive after her biological mother had a saline abortion at the age of 17, resulting in Gianna’s cerebral palsy. The cerebral palsy was caused by the lack of oxygen in the womb during the procedure.

The nurse at the abortion clinic was shocked that she was alive and called an ambulance to take her from the abortion clinic to the hospital. Her medical records state, “born during saline abortion.”  She weighed only two pounds at birth and had to stay in the hospital for three months. Ironically, the abortionist had to sign her birth certificate.

Today beautiful Gianna is a vocal pro-life advocate and has spoken to the American Congress and the British House of Commons. She wasn’t expected to be able to hold up her head, sit up, or walk, but now walks with a limp. She completed a marathon in 2005, and a London marathon in 2006. She sings, accompanied by her friend Michael Logen, and has written and recorded songs, including one in Octoberbaby called “Ocean Floor.”

I briefly met Gianna once at a pro-life conference, where she spoke. She’s a devout Christian, full of God’s Spirit, love, joy, and peace. She’s a gifted speaker. The holy presence of God surrounds her when you meet her, and she has a radiant smile.

She exudes gratitude – for simply being alive. Her life truly glorifies God.

After surviving all she has, I don’t think it’s likely that Gianna is going to be moved too much by some of the bad reviews about the movie.

The critics have called the movie Octoberbaby “indecent propaganda,” “extreme agenda,” “drippy,” “weak,” and “unlikely to be seen by the uncoverted.” One critic said, “the film communicates in the language of guilt and fear.”

Of course, the movie has an agenda. Every movie does! The movie did move a little slow, but I wouldn’t call it drippy or weak. My daughter and I laughed at the bearded character B-Mac driving a blue V.W. bus, who reminded us so much of Hugo in the LOST t.v. series. There is guilt and fear before, during, and after an abortion.

As for the uncoverted, I wonder if they’ve known the pain and regret of an abortion.

I felt that this movie’s strength lay in Hannah’s hurt questioning of why she was so unwanted by her biological mother and in the character of the nurse, Mary (played by Jasmine Guy), who shared with Hannah what happened the night of her live birth. “I didn’t see non-viable tissue,” Mary said. “I saw the face of a child.”

These were powerful scenes. But the one which surprised and impacted me the most was the one AFTER the movie, when actress Shari Rigby shared in a brief video clip how this acting role was God-ordained and so closely portrayed her real life over 20 years ago.

Whether you are pro-life or pro-abortion, or a post-abortive mother, I recommend this movie Octoberbaby. And I urge you to stick around awhile AFTER the movie to listen to Shari share her heart.