I'll Pray for You

Have you ever had someone tell you about their lives and you tell them "I'll pray for you," then you leave the conversation and you never even think twice about saying that you would pray for them? Yeah, I'm totally guilty of that. I mention this because prayer has been some thing on my mind lately. Why? I have a confession: prayer is something I really struggle with. Not that I don't believe that it works - I've seen proof of that but I often just don't take a lot of time to spend in prayer. I feel horribly guilty about and have tried to get better out. About three weeks ago I went on a retreat and for the first time in a long time I had a heart to heart talk with God. You know that mountain top feeling? Yeah, I was on Mt. Everest! It was on that retreat that the idea to set up a time to for our college group to get together and pray for those who needed Jesus or needed to get back in touch with Jesus was presented in one of the lessons. After talking to some people we decided to go ahead and set that up. Because I helped set it up obviously I was committing to go to it. I was saying that I would go to a prayer group every week when prayer is so not my strong suit...at all. Don't get me wrong, I'm not boasting about anything, I have a long way to go in this, but in all these posts I feel God laying it on my heart to share these things and today its my prayer journey. Since I've started going to the prayer meeting I have learned some things I'd like to share. One, prayer offers a connection to God that is almost describable, not all the time though, but sometimes, you really feel a connection to God. Secondly, never ride off how important having others to keep you responsible for something. Whether that is helping you work your prayer muscles or a different personal struggle of your own, God gave us a Church for a reason. I'm not talking about the building I'm talking about God's people who are living and breathing. Going back to the beginning I want to encourage you to take a moment next time you say you're going to pray for someone and sincerely do it. No, you don't have to get down on your knees in the middle of public (don't be goin' all Pharisee) but do make a conscious effort to talk to God about another's problem. Anyway, I hope you've been blessed by my random thoughts at random times! Love to all! Taylor

Between Good and Better

Do you ever have those days where you just reflect on some of the decisions you've made in your life and thought maybe you should chosen something else? Then you end up sitting on your bed in your favorite nightgown watching the Yin Yang episodes of Psych. No? Just me? Hmm...well anyway; today has been one of those days. Sometimes its hard to pill to swallow when you realize that one day you may regret your decisions. I'm not talking about consequences to bad decisions I'm talking about those times when you're faced with a choice and you have to decide what you want. Sometimes you've chosen well and you live happily ever after, then sometime you wake up and think "dang, I should have handled that differently." There are factors that change the outcome (parameters as we say in Exercise Science)timing, place in life, etc, all effecting the way you make those decisions. It's really hard when you have to decide between good and better not knowing how things will work out in the long run. It's these times when trusting in God is so hard yet essential. God sees the big picture and sometime we screw up the picture but he still works with it and makes it into a beautiful masterpiece. Cliche, I know, but it is true. It's something I have to remind myself on days like today. Sometimes you have to look at it and go "welp, maybe that wasn't the best choice to make but what's done is done and God is in control." I needed to write my thoughts down but I also want to encourage anyone (as few as they may be) that whatever bad choice you made (sinful or just ones that aren't the best) that it's ok and God can work with you anyway because God is the incredible all power creator of the Universe! Then I also want to say, even those little decisions matter, so think long and hard before you make your choices, one Saturday you may wake up and regret it. Love to all! -Taylor