Pray For Us

Pray for us that we would have strength and courage.  We who go out into the world every single day to work and to go to school, we need you to pray for us.  We can’t do this alone.  Pray that the strength would be the right kind – the kind that comes from the joy of the Lord.  Pray for us that we would have courage because our God is with us.  Pray that the strength wouldn’t be replaced by brute determination and the courage wouldn’t be overtaken by angry cynicism.  You who are older and stronger, pray for us who are young.  Pray when the days become weeks and the weeks become months, the months spent among those who don’t love our God.  Pray when the day by day of this breaks us down.  Pray when what we have believed and confessed seems to retreat to head knowledge.  Pray when we need God so badly and seem so far from Him.  Pray when the sin we see becomes normal and acceptable.  Pray when the cynicism that we don’t want grows up in us, until it tells us the Sunday services that we so need and want are just a joke, that the people at church are deluded.  Pray when the jokes at work become funny. Pray when the language we hear becomes the expected, even fitting response to situations.  You elders, we see what you do for the church, how you stay out late at meetings instead of being home with your family, how you deal with hurting people and hard situations, and we thank you and pray for you.  Fathers and mothers, we see how you raise your children and how that can be hard and we thank you.  But please pray for us too.  You who stay at home with your children or work in a Christian workplace, pray for us who go out into the world every day.  You who are older, who have grown up in a Christian country and deplore the way the world is going now, pray for us who have grown up in this.  You to whom the current state of things is shocking and horrifying, pray for us for whom this is normal.  Pray, because what you see as new developments in human depravity, we see as normal.  This is the world we were born and raised in.  It is hard for us to believe in beauty and good and love because outside of the church, outside of our homes, we don’t see it.  It becomes easier to believe our people are deluded than that good actually exists, when we go out into the world every day.  Pray for us at this time, when we feel so close to slipping away from our faith and the light of the gospel.  We need you so badly, we need the church, we need the gospel.  Don’t try to become “relevant” or “current”.  We need the traditions and the old songs and the straight truth.  We need the ties to our past and to others who have followed Christ before us so that we may walk in this way.  Pray for us when grace and mercy seem irrelevant, when the way to get through life is by creating a shell around ourselves, glaring at any who may come to interfere. Pray when we cease to love those around us and shut others out to keep safe.  Pray when trust is hard because the women we are surrounded by talk behind each other’s backs and the men talk about women as objects and not people.  Pray when the day to day of going to work is easy – the people are friendly and the work is pleasant enough, but the weeks and months turn into a weight.  When it is hard to believe the sincerity of anyone who truly loves God, and yet we want so to love Him that much, to be in close communion with Him, what are we to do?  Pray for us courage and strength, love and joy and peace and light and good. 

Well now.

Because Hi is too boring a title.
~I burnt my finger at work tonight. I wanted to know if the stove was still hot. It was.
~Consolation for that: I saw a beer ad that said, "It's okay to have a blonde moment."
~Someone should start a radio station in this area that plays some of my favourites, such as Stuart Townend, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Jamie Soles, Casting Crowns, etc. Then they should get a good strong transmittor so I can get it in a back kitchen sandwiched between two buildings.
~Today I chatted with my friend who lives seven hours away via facebook. I miss having her ten minutes away, but I'm glad I could chat with her.
~Tonight I worked with a girl who I'd never worked with before. She is taller than me!!! Okay, so I'm not that tall, but most of my coworkers are shorter than me. She's also a lot of fun. So, after working alone two nights this week, it was great working with her.
~These last few days it hasn't been humid. I am enjoying it.
~My sister is reading "The Help". When she is done I get to read it. I read the first few pages, but I better not keep reading because she won't be very happy.

Okay I'm done with point form. :) So we had a sermon on Sunday about friendship, particularily the friendship between David and Jonathan. Now in such a deep friendship, people share the deep things in their lives. My question: how much is right to share? Should we fill our best friend in about all the little details? When we are sharing what is bothering us, what is the line between appropriate sharing and complaining? How do you find a friend who you can open up to like that? Now here's another topic for questions. To what point ought we to express ourselves? Where is the line between being too self-centred/whiny and not bottling it all in? Where is the line between being strong/good/cheerful/caring and showing others the weakness and troubles in our lives? At what point can I stop trying to be a strong big sister and helpful daughter and actually speak of my weakness and messed-up-ness? Ok I better stop before I say too much. lol
On a lighter note, we were reading about the creation of Adam and Eve the other day. Mom asked Nadia what God took from Adam to create Eve, and Nadia said, "His ribbons." When Emily was about that age, she said, "He took a piece out of him."

Justine

Snow!

We have about a foot and a half of snow! Lots of fun for romping in. Yesterday we were running and jumping in the snow, but whenever we fell down we had to get up right away so Casper wouldn't lick our faces. He liked to run through the snow, too, and would come up with his face covered.

Today I started work at a nearby chicken barn. I gathered 21 900 eggs, though not singlehandedly since I was training. Actually I only stack flats, load carts, check for cracks, and supervise. The rest is done by machines and conveyor belts. I will be working every Thursday morning. Allison will work Wednesday mornings, and several other people do the other days. I enjoy the work, since it is on a farm. The only thing I don't like is that Leah has to take over the care of our chickens, to reduce the risk of potential spread of disease.

Justine