Pepperoni Rolls and Prayers of Praise

Mornin' y'all. Take a gander at the time. No really....go ahead. Scroll to the bottom. I'll wait for you here.


Yup I posted this at 2:30ish and No, it is NOT because this is the only time I can get some free wireless Internet, though if you could see me now you would so laugh! I have to sit just right on my bed and have a pillow shielding the computer screen so as to not wake up Hubby! What a sight. And NO, this does not fall into the "she rises while it is yet night to prepare meat for her household" category either.

Crickets make a nice backdrop for this post.

SO...... the real reason I am up at this blessed hour.















Um, it's the Holy Spirit.
















See I new you wouldn't be shocked.









Friends of ours are in town visiting us and of all things I had an idea to make homemade pepperoni rolls for a picnic lunch tomorrow at the park. This involves using frozen bread dough (ok ......SEMI homemade....smile) which needs to thaw a while.......like 5 hours or so a while...... and last night before closing my eyes to sleep I asked the Lord to wake me in enough time to get the dough out and thawing so that it would be ready to roll (ha ha good pun!) first thing when I got up. (meaning after I went to bed after thawing the bread and THEN got up for real. :)

So the sweet Lord tapped me on the shoulder a half an hour or so ago and I thanked Him for remembering my request and getting me up. I shuffled around the kitchen getting necessary pans and such and realized that God woke me up. Ok before you think I cannot think too clearly in the AM let me explain....

Alayna had not cried and woke me up needing to be fed. No one is stirring......"not even a mouse. The children are nestled all snug in their beds......." (Sorry I digress...) There was no other reason for me to be "bing-bang awake and whistlin' a happy tune." Goodness knows that I am hardly awake first thing in the morning WHEN I AM awake.....let alone sharp mentally and not even drowsy minutes after my feet hit the floor in the wee hours of the night! THIS is the Lord's doin'.

So I continued to get my dough ready, then made my rounds to check on all the chillin's. I head back to my bedroom and spot something.


It's the couch.


The Holy Spirit says...... "Why don't you spend some much needed praising time right there??"


I say, "Sounds good to me."



Lately I have had that feeling again. (No this doesn't involve butterscotch...) I mean that feeling that I blogged about a while back about that "getting on your face before God, speaking to Him and waiting on Him, praising Him, and looking semi-Charismatic" feeling. THAT feeling. Well here was my opportunity.

In a nook in my couch I buried my head and knelt before an All-Powerful God. The other night in bed I lay there wanting to be closer to God. Not in a "sin is separating me," way, but just closer. So while Hubby dreamed I reached as far as my arms could reach lying in bed and just closed my eyes and thought on He who is the Creator of all things. I was 2o odd inches closer to Him, closer to heaven and just talked with Him with my arms outstretched as if to welcome a heavenly hug at any moment. For me, bowing, kneeling, falling prostrate before Him is so important. It is my body humbling itself and reminding my spirit that I am just dust before a holy and just God. Some can sit and pray and some can even pray with eyes wide open.


Not me.

And especially when it has seemed like forever since I spent quality time with God. I need to humble myself and wait on Him, to fall on my face or knees and show my flesh that "we mean business." I tease and use humor, but this is serious to me. I am so full of pride that I HAVE to bow before God.

Back to the couch. I am beginning and the Holy Spirit prompts me to praise Him. I am not here to intercede for anyone. I am here to praise God. Right then in Heaven Jesus was pleased to tell his Father that 14 West Haywood says, "Thank you."


They thank you in the middle of the night for:

Hearing my simple request and waking me to prepare to try to be a blessing to my friends with a treat for lunch tomorrow.

Giving me this day, a wonderful new start.

Creating me and making me exactly the way I am, quirks and all.

The sweet lady at church who you impressed to give me vitamins I would not be able to afford to help me much physically.

This couch, this house that has welcomed all of my babies for 9 years.

My recent hardships that keep me dependent on you.

Daily bread.

Finances that again keep me needing you.

Political unrest that turns our prideful selves to you seeking help.

Discernment.

Wisdom.

The unconditional love of a good, kind man.

Isaac, Abby, Caleb, Nathan, Anna and Alayna.

Keeping air flowing through Alayna's lungs.

Stimulating her brain to remind her to breathe.

Providing for red carpet 10 years ago so I could get the same feeling I did when I was at the McNeilly's house.

Weaknesses.

Strength.

Hearing this tiny speck in a magnificent universe.

A love that only His children can know and experience and show to others, signifying that God does love them.

Drawing me to Him tonight and each day.

Sherri, Tammy, Val and Patty. Friends I hold dear to me.

This moment with Him.

Reminding me to share this on my blog.



Really there were too many things to list here, but these are some of them. I did not just now sit and think of them. These were praises I thanked God for while burying my head in the couch. Recently God has been answering my every request.....seemingly small requests......you know, those, "Please help me find...." requests that only mean the world to you. Those kind. Tonight I am in awe of an Omniscient God. a God who created me to praise Him and who thinks enough about me, for me, to wake me up to thaw dough for pepperoni rolls. THIS is the God I serve. The God I love. And He knew that once I realized at 2:30 in the morning truly what He had done for me in remembering my silly request, that I would praise Him for every single thing I could possibly think of and just enjoy His presence a bit while the people I spend so much time and effort ministering to were sleeping................... so He could minister to me.

Yes. He delights in us enough to wake us to hear us praise Him.

He missed me. And I am glad it took pepperoni rolls to remind me that I missed Him.