Help me, Thank You, Wow God!

Prompt of the Day #2 based on Help, Thanks, Wow: The Three Essential Prayers by Anne Lamott.  The task to simply write out a message in one of those 3 veins:

1. Asking for help

God knows I have never been one to ask for help.  If I’m honest, the thought of it tears at my soul; I have learned that it is an insecurity based in pride.  I was raised to be independent, so admitting that I need someone else it goes against everything that has been engrained within me.

Three years ago, God brought me to a point that I had to ask for help.  It was humbling, and at the same time freeing.  It brought depths to my marriage that had not been there before.  I realized that in my independence, I had shut my husband out of part of his role as a spouse.  It was his opportunity to step into that, and he did it so well.

I am still learning to ask for help.  I would ask God that learning to ask for help would come easier for me.  I know that I serve a God that wants to answer my requests.  I am thankful that I serve a God who knows me better than I know myself.  There are many times He answered the desperate, silent cries of my heart even without my spoken request.  He has proven that I can trust Him.

I would ask that God would help me know what I need.  Asking for help is such a foreign concept, even identifying my need is a struggle. I would ask for help identifying areas I should ask for help.  I struggle not wanting to be a burden, but also acknowledge that in doing so I rob others of the opportunity of helping and from developing their gifts and abilities.   I would ask for God to reveal the people who I should ask for help.  It is easy to stay in a close circle of people, but God called me to be bold, not safe.  I want to learn to listen to the still small whisper that stretches me to go outside my comfort zone.

I would ask that God would help me to make bold requests of Him.  Requests that hold Him to His promises.  Requests that stretch my faith.  Requests that just allow God’s power to show up and meet the tangible needs of those around me.  Requests that leave no doubt that all glory belongs to God.

These are the things I would ask of God.

2. Detailing your gratitude

God, I have so many things to be grateful for, too many to count.  I am thankful for God the Father who loved me so much that He gave His only Son to reconcile me back to Him.  I am thankful for Jesus Christ, who willingly laid His life down for me even though I fail Him often.  I am thankful for the Holy Spirit, who guides me, directs me, comforts me, and never leaves me despite how much I try to go my own way, reject the comfort, and try to run.  I am thankful for His unfailing love.

I am thankful for my husband.  I have learned so much from him.  I know my walk with God wouldn’t be where it is if it weren’t for Tim.  He has never stood in my way of seeking God, and has taught me so much that mirrored God’s love for me.  Even in my darkest times, he was there for me.  He has been my rock, the one that I could just release myself into when the world is crashing down around me.  He has also been my greatest challenge, as we have faced many battles against each other and with each other.  I am thankful for the twenty-six years we have been together and I am looking forward to all that are yet to come.

I am thankful for my children.  God blessed me with three amazingly different children.  Each of them astound me with the depth of their grace, their love, their sacrificial attitudes.  They each have a unique personality, are filled with tenacity and a little bit of orneriness.  I love seeing God at work in their lives and through their lives.  I am thankful for every bit of time that I get to spend with them and talk to them.  I am thankful for our adult relationships and that they each still include me in their lives despite my many failures as a parent.

I am thankful for my grandchildren.  I never knew how much my heart could love until they came along.  I am thankful for every moment that I get to treasure them.

I am thankful for my family – my parents, siblings, aunts, cousins, nieces, nephews, in-laws and out-laws.  I am thankful for the biblical foundation that was laid early in my life and the value that was placed on family connection. There is no one I enjoy doing life with more than my family.  We may not be as close as we used to be, but I know I can always count on them.

I am thankful for the amazing jobs I have had in my life.  I can honestly say I have always truly loved the jobs I have had.  I am thankful for the amazing people who I have met through jobs.  I am thankful for how they touched my life and the small impact God  used me for in their lives.

I am thankful to the spectacular body of Christ that He has place me in locally.  I am thankful to be part of a church that challenges me to grow and step out in to all that God has called me to be. I am thankful for Christians who reach out and love on me and encourage me in my walk.  I am thankful and inspired when I see God’s people breaking down the walls of denominations and rising up to be His hands and feet in the hurting world around us.

I am thankful for the friends that God has placed in my life.  People who love me just as I am.  People who will laugh with me and cry with me.  Friends who listen and care.  Friends who support me.  Friends who do life with me in a literal sense.  I am blessed with great friends.

These are just a few of the things I am grateful for today.

3. Sharing your awe or wonder, at anything, big or small.

I stand in awe of God.  His ways are so beyond the little box I try to put Him in so that I can understand Him.

I stand in awe of the cross.  I cannot fathom how something so cursed and ugly could produce such beauty and perfection.

I stand in awe of creation.  The majestic colors, the variety of creatures, the simplicity and yet complexity of life – it all amazes me.

I stand in awe of God’s Word.  The fact that something could be written by so many different men, over a wide span of time, thousands of years ago with such consistency is in and of itself a miracle.  Add to that, it is still relevant to every culture and every situation thousands of years later and I am astonished.

I stand in awe of the little ways that God shows me that He loves me.  Those small little things that He knows would mean so much, that only He can do.  The graphic today is a small reminder of how much my God loves me.  It is from a trip to Puerto Rico last April that my husband took me for my birthday.  My mother had passed away the month before and so it was my first birthday without her.  My Facebook post that day said “It has been an amazing day, and I know beyond any doubt I am loved by friends, family, and most of all God. The pictures won’t do it justice, but it’s been overcast every day, so sunsets have been dreary. I asked God for a sunset, with a little yellow cause I have been missing mom today and He out did Himself.”  It still amazes me when He shows off.

These are just a few of the things that I stand in awe of.