Challenged to Listen

Gavin and I are blessed to be a part of a shepherd group (fancy lingo for small group) with our local church, Reston Bible Church (RBC). Though I just deleted several paragraphs describing the group to you, you should still know that I absolutely adore this group of people, and count myself very blessed to have them in my life for this season.:)

We're reading excerpts from a book called Classic Devotionals, which gathers excerpts of sermons, writings, etc. from classic Theologians and Christian leaders throughout history - great little book, btw. The most recent read was by Henry Nouwen about finding solitude in our prayer life. We had a great discussion and I left feeling very challenged.

Our beloved pastor Dave, from the Cambridge Vineyard, issued an amazing challenge a few years back that relates to this very topic. I can't remember how he titled it, but it was basically prayer journaling. The concept is to quiet your mind for the purpose of conversing with God. As you begin to speak to God the way you would to a precious loved one, you right down the conversation that begins to unfold.

It goes something like:
me: Hi, God
Hi
me: How ya doin today?
doin' good, thanks. How you doin?
me: I'm feeling a little depressed. What's going on with me?

..you get the picture. ..and you sit and listen, typing what you hear even if you think that may have just been yourself answering that question. Eventually, you learn to distinguish between your head voice and His. ...I am still blown away, as I read back through those entries, the amazing things my daddy revealed to me when I was quiet and listening, conversing with him.

{...don't judge it, till you try it!! I know, I know, I know what you're thinking; how quickly things like this can be taken to an unhealthy extreme; how you can do some damage with this if what you hear is not held in check with scripture and accountable to someone outside of yourself, and on and on. But! don't judge it, till you try it! Meditation and solitude are consistant themes held throughout scripture. Just because the enemy has taken this concept and twisted it to have a negative association, doesn't mean it is not redeemable, and should not, therefore, be redeemed, to the glory of God.}

The months that I practiced this were some of the most amazing times of revelation in my spiritual life to date. Not only was there power in just taking time to listen and speak little, but the power of carving out time for solitude is enormous. I have great intentions for starting to prayer journal again (Trish do you remember what he calls it?), but in the mean time I am focused on redeeming every moment I can for really listening to God; our amazing God who is still speaking.

Today, I was out and about for a few hours with the girls. I began those few hours asking for God to use my current vulnerability to please speak to me - I was listening. He spoke - so sweetly. He gave me three sweet opportunities to be used by Him. The girls were a part of two of those opportunities. How precious are the things God will show us, if we just stop our inner noise long enough to listen.

As one of our dear friends shared this week in our SG (shepherd group), we just need to get in touch with our sheep-ness. Even though sheep are a pretty dumb animal, at least they recognize their Shepherd's voice, and listen.

Today was a blessing. The challenge is to keep listening....

(to be continued)

Raegan is 6!!!!

Our first born is now six years old!!! I can hardly believe it. She turned six on Saturday, the sixth of October. Her actual party is next Saturday but we had a small celebration this past Saturday. Gavin's parents came up a few days before to be here for her special day. We had her best friend over and all headed over to our local mini-farmer's market. It's called Krops Crops and we are faithful patrons. They sell pumpkins, apple cider, apples, and other produce during the appropriate seasons, and Christmas trees. We've gotten to know the owner's daughter, Lori. She's great.:)

First the girls played in the corn pit (kind of like the ball pit except with dry corn kernels instead), then we had freshly picked apples (SO YUMMY!), and fresh apple cider while we waited for our hay ride. Umm, it was so good. The hay ride was fun and cute. The girls LOVED it! It was a bumpy ride and they laughed every time we hit a bump. We ate our apples on the ride. Eliot especially loved the apples. She sucked on Gavin's like it was a pacifier!

Half way through the ride we got to stop and pick our very own pumpkin from the pumpkin patch! The girls took their time searching through all their choices before finally deciding on the perfect pumpkin. They really were the perfect pumpkin for each one, too. ...so funny.

Then we loaded back up on the wagon and finished our hayride. The girls played in the corn pit a little longer while the adults went inside to buy some more apples and cider.

Once we were home we had cake and Rae got to open her presents. ....there is so much to say, but I won't. I'll just tell you simply that every other present we had planned fell through and we decided on something that we would not normally have gotten her, but are now so happy that we did. Raegen is now a proud owner of a convertible corvette - barbie style, of course. Yes, it had to be convertible, her mommies first car was a convertible. How could I not pass on the tradition.

Even though this gift is a little extravagant, it has been a source of much entertainment. We have all laughed more in the last few days over this silly little car than anything else I can remember of late.

Long time, No Blog....:)

Well, it has been a while since I've blogged because the Long household has been sick, sick, sick. I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired. Thankfully I haven't really gotten it. First Rae came home with a cold and passed it on to Roo. Reece is just like my mom in that her colds go straight into her chest and cause an awful cough. I took her to the doctor and found out that she had strep:( ..poor baby. But she always amazes Gavin and myself with her cheery disposition even though she feels so bad.

Next was Rae: she came down with this really high fever, just as Roo was healing after a week of antibiotics. I felt sure it was strep also and took her to the doctor. She tested negative and they said it must be some kind of virus. Her fever began very early in the morning Sunday and lasted through Wednesday. It was a pretty high fever but no other symptoms. I heard on Thursday that this was a virus going around: high fever for four or five days and then gone, with no other symptoms. Isn't that strange?!

Now little Eliot is sick:( Sickness is so much worse on little ones! I hate it. She can't breathe to nurse, so I'm having to bottle feed her. She can't sleep. She is pretty miserable, and yet also has her moments of delightfully surprising cheer. It's been almost a week. I'm hoping her cold is almost over - or it could always be teething! You never know at this age - but it seems worse than just teething. Who knows! I remember taking Roo to the doctor, completely convinced that she had an earache only to be told that she was cutting a tooth. I couldn't believe it! I felt so silly.

Anyway, I'm coming up for air after several weeks of little sleep, wining babies and short fuses. We're doing okay. Everyone survived! Gavin is unfortunately gone for the week - he's still a little sick - so please keep him in your prayers. Some things are changing with USBX, and therefore, may be changing with his position. This seems to be an entry way back into an entrepreneurial venture for us, and we're excited about the possibilities.