365 Days of Praise Challenge-Day 338

We made our annual trek to the Boo at the Zoo event for Halloween. It is a safe place to take your kids to run around getting treats, seeing some animals and the best part the mini haunted house. This year the hours were extended so we took off early and actually did it with daylight to avoid the cold that would set in after dark. The first year we took our daughter through the haunted house, she screamed bloody murder. She wasn’t so sure about going again the following year but we managed to coax her into it and she survived. This year she went in with the attitude of “it’s all fake” and got through without a scream, although she jumped a little here and there with the surprise monsters coming out. As awesome as all that was the one thing that caught my eye this year was a tombstone in a fake graveyard that said “He loved bacon”. It just made me think of how we so easily can put other idols in place of God.  Now don’t get me wrong, I think we can love bacon or watching movies or chocolate or whatever but if it gets on your tombstone or if it is what people are left with remembering you for than you have missed the mark on truly worshiping and loving God. When all is said and done, I hope people will remember me as someone who loved God. What can I do, say or be that will make the love I have for God shine? Praise you Lord for this reminder of you in the midst of all the Halloween stuff!

"...you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment." Mark 12:30

365 Days of Praise Day 86

I think every child out there at one time or another or for some more often than not experience the unrealistic fears of the monster in the closet, the fear of clown dolls or fear of the dark. My daughter had some fears that had her waking me up at 3am last night. Turns out this time it is a fear of the hand that comes out of the closet. Her friends are telling her scary stories about the headless horseman and hands in closets. I crawled into bed with my daughter and she curled up, closed her eyes and said "I feel safe when your hear." I cuddled with her for a little while and than started to get out of bed. She, of course, popped her eyes open and lifted her head up asking where I was going. "I am going back to bed, you have to close your eyes and remember God is right here with you." So, she did and fell back to sleep for the remainder of the night. She told me this morning about her fears and that she made her fears do something funny together in a dream. Her dream was in the bottom of the Ocean in Sponge Bob's pineapple house. I was there with a bunch of other stange people and the headless horseman and the hand and we were all on a dance floor dancing together. I said God is using your own imagination to help you conquer your fears. All of this really made me think about choices and how if we have the holy spirit within us it us up to us to call on the holy spirit to help us. We can conquer our own fears by calling on our helper.
Psalm 91:14-15 I will protect those who trust in my name. When they call on me, I will answer.