YOUR ONE WORD by Evan Carmichael

Prayer Cures Anxiety and Stress

Stress and anxiety often stems out from: 1) doing something that we are not supposed to be doing or 2) not doing something that we ought to be doing.

When others look at my life from the outside, I am doing very well. When I look at my life in terms of counting my blessings, I am doing marvelously well. But deep inside, there a longing for perfection. Deep inside there's something that I feel I ought to be doing but not doing, or not doing well. And that's when my stress and anxiety comes in.

I was at a loss on how to handle such stress. It's not good to ignore it for at some point it comes out like a monster and I find myself snapping at my husband or kids.

It's crazy how we Christians worry too much when there's a source of power and comfort that is readily available to us ..... if only we ask .. and ask accordingly to His will.

I decided that since I was at a loss, and I really do not have the power to change my situation at this time - that I would depend on God's power to do it for me. I am worried about my kids? hey - God holds their future! What I need to do is to do the best I can (even though in my standard I feel like I am not doing the best), and let God do the rest.

This weekend I bought myself a book. It's called "The Complete Works of E. M. Bounds on Prayer". I have always been a fan of E. M. Bounds books on prayer. I owned several of them, although I do not have those books anymore because I tend to share it with people who i know can benefit from reading it.

I now have this book next to my bed and read it before I sleep. It inspires me to trust, to have faith, to be persistent in prayer, to hold on to the promises of God, to pursue righteousness, to simply let go and let God. It motivates me to cultivate a prayer life deeper than a "give me" kind of prayer, and yet it allows me to express my desire through prayer without any guilt that I am being selfish or demanding.

I hope to share with you some of the nuggets I find here. However, I recommend that you get yourself a copy of this book. Let's revolutionize our Christian walk with the power of prayer. Let's do it now.

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I have not participated in Works For Me Wednesday for a while. I think this is a good post to go back in. For more Works For Me Wednesday, visit it's new home at We Are That Family.

The Unexpected When You're Expecting - Must Read

Tomorrow I am attending a Baby Shower, which reminded me that I needed to write a review on this book "The Unexpected When You're Expecting". The quick summary of my review is "This book is HI.LA.RIOUS! - you should read it!".

When I first got asked if I'd want to review this book, my first thought was "oh, I am not planning to get pregnant again, why should I?". But when I saw the cover of the book, my interest got me and I agreed to read the book. The publisher mailed the book to me quickly, I received it an a couple of days.

It was a Thursday when the book arrived at my doorstep. Because that's the day I take my son to the library for tutorial, I grabbed the book and took it to the library with me to start reading it there. THAT WAS A MISTAKE! Just reading the few pages of this book, I started giggling, then laughing. I wanted to laugh out so loud, but for goodness sake I was in the library and I was supposed to be quiet - so I tried to control my laughter. Oh, you can just imagine me with my hands covering my mouth and I was shaking because I was laughing inside! The people around me probably wondered if I was getting possessed or something. The more I try to control my laughter, the more I laugh.

It really is a fun book to read. It does not matter if you are pregnant or not, single or married, this book is entertaining. I love the sarcasm in it. It's a parody of the famous book "What To Expect When You're Expecting" and boy it sure did it' job. It's sarcasm at it's best ;)

I highly recommend this book. Since I am done reading it, I am going to give this to my friend who is having a baby shower tomorrow and I am sure she'd get a kick out of this. Better yet, we should read it out loud during the baby shower for great fun! We'd probably pee on our pants laughing - LOL!

I was very delighted to read that my bloggy friend, Jamie of the Blondemomblog, was able to interview Mary K. Moore, the author of this book. Go there now to read the interview. I am sure you would enjoy it.

I also suggest that you visit Mary K. Moore's website here. Have fun!

Growing Friendships - Part 1

I came home early from bunco last night but "blogging brain" wasn't tuned in the "bunco station", so even though I wanted to post something about it right away, I didn't. I will post about the February bunco later.

If you've been a reader of this blog for a while, you know that the "story about how I felt abandoned and rejected by some friends at one point in time" is a recurring issue. Letting go of that hurt (and fear of being abandoned again) is something that I continually struggle with and pray for that I will overcome. At first I just want to "deny" my feelings about it. At first I thought, I should say anything about it anymore - like "if I don't talk about it, it will go away". But denial works only temporarily, and if I don't deal with this issue on it's root - this "weed of resentment" that Satan is planting in my heart will grow and take over. And I don't want these weeds to take over. I want flowers in my heart, like daisies.

A few weeks back, I won a book in a give-away draw held at 5 Minutes For Mom. I don't usually win draws so I know something is up when I get one. The book I won is titled "GROWING FRIENDSHIPS" written by Tracy Klehn. You see, when I saw that announcement of that give-away I commented saying "Oh, I hope I win because I NEED that book". Little did I know that God will use this book to answer my prayers about "letting go" of the past and moving on with "creating and growing" friendships.

I am only on Chapter 4 of this book and I have already cried a cupful of tears and sighed a hundred sighs. This book is like one of those doctors who poke me on examination rooms. You know what I mean? You know... it's like when you go in the exam room and the doctor asks you to lay down on the examination table, poke different places your tummy or chest and ask "does it hurt here?" " or does it hurt here (pressing another area)". So as I was reading this book, I could feel this "does it hurt here" poking and I had said "ouch" in so many areas. I had said "ouch" so much, in so many areas, that I know the diagnosis is something like "yep, there's cancer in there, and you need a surgery, a biopsy, a CT scan, and possible a surgery again as well as chemo therapy".

This book "Growing Friendships" is a God sent book, especially for me. I am going to blog more about my journey on reading this book and getting healed. If you like, come and join me. feel free to comment and give me advice as I go along.

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This is my entry for Works of God Weekend at A Dusty Frame.

Bloggy Talk

Some bloggers face the dilemma of not knowing what topic they want to write about ... and I'd say I'm on the other side of the spectrum. There are many things I'd like to share with you (my dear readers) and many things in my mind that I'd like to put into words so I can reflect on it.... It's a matter of choosing which one to do for the day, because time is limited.

I'm sitting in front of the computer today thinking "which one should I post about today?" I'm tempted t list the topics here but from previous experience, everytime I post about "the subject I will post about in the future", the post about that topic doesn't happen. So I won't tell, so hopefully I'd post on these (yes, the topics in my head that I want to share with you).

I looked at the "Christmas Countdown" below (yes, it's at the end of this page), and I realized it's just 45 days before Christmas. I just read in one of the blog today about this 4o days of devotion they are doing on the book 3:16 by Max Lucado and a brillant idea came to my mind - "I'd like to do a 40 days devotion based on this book as a preparation of my heart and soul for Christmas. Yeah!

I looked at the "Blogiversay" countdown (yes, the one on the upperleft corner of this page) and realized it's only 8 days before my Blogiversary. I'm excited. It's like a child's first birthday - it's a milestone, and that calls for celebration. Yes, there's going to be a celebration here in my little corner of the blogsphere - so stay tuned...

Going back to the "40 days before Christmas Devotion based on the book 3:16", I had another thought... "why not invite you guys to join me? Anyone interested, please leave a comment on this post. Come'on some lovely lurkers - time to delurk - let me know you'd join me on this. I'm excited - I think it's gonna be greeeaaatttt!

If you've noticed, my background turned purple today. I'm celebrating Adoption Month with Elle. I'd post some more on this later.

I Love You More

I Love You More - this is such a heartwarming book. We read our copy several times already and will read it some more. I Love You More is reminiscent of Guess How Much I Love You, I Love You Forever and Good Night Moon - it seems like it's these three favorite children's book of mine, rolled into one. I think it's destined to become a classic.

I love children's books! Can you tell? I've already mentioned 3 of my all-time favorites and one new addition to it. Reading to our children is one of the best times we have as a family. I Love You More is a perfect book to read during one of these precious family reading time, as it shows love from both perspective - the parent and the child.

Child:
I love you more than the longest lollipop ever lasted
I love you louder than the loudest rocket ship ever blasted.

Parent:
I love you higher than the highest bird ever flew
I love you you taller than the tallest tree ever grew.

I Love You More provides a word picture of what love is about. The rhyme wordings, simple and yet rich, exudes such a love between the mother and son. The illustration is beautiful and warm - it's so pleasing to look at. It's a book that parent and child would want to cuddle together and read.

There's so much to like about this book. Check Laura's website and the Hippie and Baldchick site for more information about the author and illustrator - once you get to know them, you'd understand why this book is so "rich".

I highly recommend this book. You can go to Amazon now and purchase it :). The reviews at Amazon on this book is great - 5 stars! everyone likes it :)