When my children were little, I would often find their little sticky handprints all around the house, especially on the windows and sliding glass door in the kitchen. I could see the perfect outline of their tiny hands and noses where they had leaned in to the window pressing against it to eagerly watch snowflakes falling or a hungry bird at the feeder. Those little prints said, “I lingered here. This was important.”

Last Wednesday, Mary and I launched our first online Bible study, The Simple Life (still plenty of time for you to join us if you would like). In the first week’s lesson, author Cynthia Heald asks a question on page 16 of Becoming a Woman of Simplicity: “What do you sense the Lord is saying to you about what a life lived in single-minded devotion to Him would look like?”

To me it looks like a handprint ~ God’s handprints.

I like looking for God’s handprints in His world, particularly in the little, simple, often-overlooked things in nature. They’re there, all around us, but it takes time and intent to see His handprints in the small things. And in a typical over-scheduled day in my life, I don’t leave myself much time to slow down and savor things.

I wonder how much I’m missing.

What small gifts has God put right under my nose that I’m missing because I’m not looking for them? Instead, I have my eyes firmly fixed on my schedule, complete with my check-off-the-next-thing-on-my-list glaze in my eyes.

I love that this study makes me reevaluate what I’m doing. And one thing I want to do is to put my eyes on God so that I don’t miss His handprints that say “I lingered here. This is important.” Each one is a gift. Sometimes the gift is purely for my enjoyment, as when I bask in the radiance of a creamsicle-orange sunset. Or when I see the smooth, mahogany acorn nestled among the rocks and leaves in the woods. Other times these small gifts hold a lesson for me to discover, like the methodical persistence I see in the caterpillars I captured in the amazing video below. I almost missed that, but fortunately, God got my attention.

I want God’s sacred and my everyday to meet in a holy collision of life lived in single-minded devotion to Him. I want to see His sticky handprints wherever I go. That’s my answer.

Pray on!

photo credit: Duncan Brown (Cradlehall) via photopin cc (Changes added in PicMonkey)

Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. James 1:13

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a favorite holiday, because it causes me to stop and reflect on the many blessings God has given me. Even in the years that were difficult, I could always find something to be thankful for.

This year, we’re again offering a Thanksgiving contest. I’d simply like you to reflect on the above verse and then share with us in the comment section below what one of your gifts is that God has given you this year that you are thankful for. It can be a few words or a longer story, but I’d like you to share why the gift is meaningful to you. The contest is open to both adults and children, and we’re offering two separate prizes. You have until the end of the month to post your comment. Be sure to check back the first week of December. I will announce the winner and leave instructions on how to have the winner send me his or her contact information so that I can mail the prize.

For the adults, we are offering a hand-knitted prayer shawl that I (Jane) made. For the children, we will be awarding another prize, yet to be determined.

So, let’s encourage each other and lift up our prayers of thanks to Jesus this Thanksgiving.

Blessings to you all!

Are you a good singer? Do your basketball talents rival Michael Jordan’s? Perhaps you can cook like nobody’s business! God has given all of His children gifts and talents and He is very interested in how we use them! Please click on the link to do our last Lenten Devotional, Talented and Gifted Program.

 

Image: Simon Howden / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Did you re-gift a gift this year? Did you know that re-gifting is a Biblical concept? God is the author and creator of everything–even re-gifting! To do the study “Re-gifting to the King,” please click on the link!

Image: Naito8 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

 

Perhaps one of your New Year’s goals is to pray more. Well, January is a good time to pray and ask God what major issues or topics He wants you to zero in on for the year. Of course, as the year goes along, you’ll find plenty of things, people and situations to pray for. But right now we can all take some time to seek God on what ongoing requests He wants you to focus on for 2011. Mary and I were just talking about this the other day and decided to share our Top 6 Prayer List of what we’re focusing on this year.

Top 6 Prayer List for 2011

1.     Pray that we can love God with all our hearts. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

2.     Pray that we can believe God to do big things in our lives. (Ephesians 3:20,21)

3.     Pray for perseverance. (2 Peter 1:5-7)

4.     Pray for persecuted Christians. (2Thessalonians 3:1-2)

5.     Pray for justice for the oppressed. (Psalm 103:6)

6.     Pray that we would be developing and using our God-given gifts. (1 Corinthians 12:4-11).

You may be led to similar prayer goals, or God may reveal to you totally different goals. One of the challenges with goals is actually doing them or keeping them. What I decided to do to help keep these fresh before me for the whole year is to write each goal on its own index card and keep it in my prayer card file. I’ll use a larger 4 x 6 size card. (See Ready, Set, Pray if you need suggestions to help you establish a prayer time.) As I go through the year, I’m going to record any specific requests or how I see God working in these areas on the appropriate cards.

Set aside some time tonight or over the weekend to ask God what your prayer priorities should be this year. If you want to share any of your prayer goals for the year, just leave a comment. We’d love to hear them.

Click to listen to the Pray Your Way Through 2011 podcast.

Pray on!

Have you ever wondered if God could use a “person like me” to further His kingdom? I know I’ve asked God that same question! To see His answer, please click on the link for the “Outcasts: Giving Your All” Bible study.