COOKIN’ NOODLES AND CIRCLIN’ PRAYERS
March 23, 2014
The Hubster and I were talking the other night, or perhaps I should say that I was talking and he was trying to listen. I was bemoaning the fact that this whole getting free thing is taking a long time. The more I try to **FREE** myself of entanglements, which in my mind means getting organized and scheduled so that every moment is filled with accomplishment, the more constrained I feel by all the organization and schedules. And I don’t even accomplish any more! (Case in point–my whale of an unfinished recipe binder is now beached on the blanket chest in our bedroom. Further from completion than ever!) And I’m exhausted from all the effort! All I’m doing is more of the same running around in circles that I’ve always done. DUH, Debbie Doodlysquat!
The trouble is I’m a big old fat lasagna noodle that cracks up easily unless cooked to a nice pliable consistency. And my stove top burners are so old that low is the only temp that works, so my noodleself takes a long time to cook. My husband does not have this problem. He was born cooked and ready for whatever comes into his mind at the moment. He’s so free he flies through life like a happy bird, smiling down at his goofy wife crawling through the muck like a dried up worm. And this is where the mixed metaphor comes to an end before the cooked noodle bird eats the crunchy worm. Ick!
On a different front, I have a book to recommend! We’ve started a new study in Sunday School on prayer using ***The Circle Maker*** by Mark Batterson. It’s all about dreaming big, praying boldly and watching God perform miracles. I’m very excited about it, so excited that I’ve bought a binder with tabbed dividers, colored pencils, erasers, a pencil sharpener, and those little squishy doodads to put on the pencils to make them more comfy for tight-gripped people such as I. And also a magnifying glass just for fun. All that has very little to do with the book, but everything to do with my latest organizational tool to freedom–a prayer journal where I can draw literal circles around all my prayers in pretty colors! Once I get my prayers sectioned off into days and colors and circles I’ll be all ready for God to do His thing.
But guess what? The Lord has been busy doing His thing without all that falderol. I plan to enjoy my colored pencils, but He doesn’t need them. Just a couple of days after I wrote the February Doodle, God answered a major prayer for our family. After four months of poring over job postings, filling out applications, going to interviews, and praying, praying, praying, our daughter who had moved to Chicago to pursue her dream finally snagged a job, just in the financial nick of time! During an interview at an employment agency, that she didn’t realize at the time placed people in more high end positions than she was qualified for, the man talking to her said, “I think we have a job for you right here! Our receptionist just gave her two week notice.” Does that sound like a God thing to you or what? Even though I had believed the Lord was going to provide employment for our daughter, in the end I was surprised by HOW it came about. I think God likes throwing a little **BAM** ! into His answers to prayer. Makes us sit up and take notice and realize He’s the one who did it, not us.
So I’m looking forward to circling up a bunch of prayers and watching how God will answer them. I think I’ll reserve the RED pencil for drawing the final PRAYER ANSWERED circles. And if a little surprise is thrown in I’ll sprinkle some multi-colored confetti all around it for some party atmosphere! WooooooHoooooo, it’s time to jump on the God train, and serve up some well-cooked squiggly colored noodles in the dining car!