Passionate Prayer

We are home, and I am so grateful. It is so true that you don't appreciate what you have until it's gone. My home may be small, and it's never as clean as I would like, but none of those things matter when I have been away for a few days. Mia came down with a sore throat while staying at my mom's. Her throat is swollen and has a few white spots, so I'll probably take her to the doctor tomorrow to see if she has strep. She's cuddled up close to my side right now and hasn't been more than a few feet away since we picked her up.

I got a lot of reading done on the ride, which was great. It certainly made the trip go by a little quicker. We didn't take much time to take a look around town yesterday, but this morning before we left, Jesse, Doogie, and I drove around Duluth. I also picked up some tourism guides to the area, and I can't believe all of the activities up there! There's an aquarium, zoo, Omnimax theater, trains, ships, and lots of museums. We're already planning our trip back up in July. Along with the big city attractions, the downtown area has a small town feel with brick streets and lots of little shops. Next time we'll take Mia; the first place she wants to visit is the aquarium.

Passionate Prayer by Catherine Martin is a new release from Quiet Times Ministry. Prayer is the best way to become closer to God. It's our way of communicating with Him, as well as quiet time to listen to Him in return. I've long wanted to deepen my prayer life, and when I saw that Martin had released a book about just that, I couldn't wait to read it. I am a huge fan of her writing; I've learned so much about faith and myself because of her books. The book is a 30 day adventure and is broken up into five six day weeks. The first five days are short chapters about a particular type of prayer, and the sixth day is an indepth study session with lots of Scripture to look up. There is a place in each reading for readers to record their thoughts and learnings. I was regularly jotting down amazing quotes about prayer from famous theologians and pastors like: I want to tell you a growing conviction with me, and that is that as we obey the leadings of the Spirit of God, we enable God to answer the prayers of other people. I mean that our lives, my life is the answer to someone's prayer, prayer perhaps centuries ago...I have the unspeakable knowledge that my life is the answer to prayers, and that God is blessing me and making me a blessing entirely of His sovereign grace and nothing to do with my merits, saving as I am bold enough to trust his leading and not the dictates of my own wisdom and common sense. -Oswald Chambers The book is filled with wisdom and real advice to help deepen your prayer life and strengthen your relationship with God. Martin offers reasons to prayer and results of prayer. The story about a hot water bottle gave me goosebumps! I've passed the book on to my husband, and when he finishes, I will most certainly pass it on to someone else, because it's too good to keep to myself!

Tomorrow I'll kick off the first of two contests this week, one just in time for Earth Day!