Am I Praying? Now On Youtube

Over the past few months, several people have contacted me to say they've searched for my picture book, Am I Praying?, but can't find it. Anywhere. Not even used. 

While it isn't strictly true that there are no copies (there are always a few on Amazon)  most available ones are way overpriced. The first time I checked the Internet I found only two and they cost upwards of $1,000.00 each! One was $997.00 and the other was priced a little higher. I suspect neither of those sold. Usually copies are more reasonably priced, though they still often cost from thirty dollars to over three hundred dollars. 

   Am I Praying?

That's sad for me because I write as a ministry -- not for the money -- and I want everyone to read Am I Praying because of the fun way it teaches about prayer. One time a seventy-two-year-old electrician told my husband and I that after reading the book he knew for the first time in his life when he was praying and when he was not. He 'got' prayer!

I love that! 

I want everyone to 'get' the concept of prayer. Especially children. I want children to hear all about Jesus and all the benefits of following him as early as possible. Did you know that only ten percent of Christians find the Lord after the age of fourteen? And an astonishing number fall away from the faith in their adult years. Though there are no guarantees since God gave us free will, I hope that good solid instruction in how to follow Christ will make a difference, and I believe Am I Praying? offers one small way parents can help establish their children in the faith.

So I hope you will click on the link above, listen to the book in Youtube and then pass the word to your friends. The more people who go to my channel, the more people Youtube will send there. That means even non-Believers will be tempted to listen. And that makes me smile.

 

Satirical Painting: the Center of Our Universe

    I occasionally enjoy painting a good satire, and three weeks ago the urge to create one coincided with the need to decorate a room for my two-year-old grandson's visit to our home. Earlier, I had painted the room where he sleeps bright yellow and sketched the beginnings of a mural: A cow holding onto a clock joyfully danced across the wall in vine charcoal. 

    But because Titus doesn't often visit for extended periods, I didn't want to make the room for children only. Besides his interest in cows has waned recently and he is already adopting the family and national addiction: sports. He loves balls. Every ball. Any kind of ball. He begs anyone in sight to "make a hoop" so he can shoot a ball through the circle formed by arms.  

    I wiped the mural off the wall.

    Making a quick trip to Jo Ann's Fabrics, I grabbed four yards of fleece printed with basketballs, soccer balls and footballs, fringed the edges as a finishing touch, and tossed it over his bed. Adding a couple of pillow shams in the same fabric proved simple.  
    
   Then I created a painting to match. I was afraid Titus wouldn't like it, but he did. Numerous times he asked to accompany him  to the "basketball bedroom" so so he could find and point to each ball in the painting.

    The canvas is a four foot by five foot gallery-wrapped acrylic titled The Center of Our Universe. 

    Does it make you smile? 

   


    

     


   

 

A Fun Way to Keep in Touch with Grandchildren

Every time I’m interviewed for my book Culture-proof Kids, at least one grandparent calls in asking how to develop a relationship with distant grandchildren. During one program three questions in a row dealt with that identical topic. Three! And I didn’t have a good solution.

Now I do.

It’s a slap-your-forehead no-brainer. Simple yet brilliant. My daughter-in-law initiated the idea when she kept her smart phone close at hand and recorded brief videos of her children throughout the day -- usually when she caught them doing something naughty. Then she texted them to me. Right on the spot! I felt like part of their lives. Wow!

After receiving several of those, I wanted to send something back. But what? With nothing better to photograph, I aimed my smart-phone (any digital camera set on “video” would work equally well), at my husband as he carried an armload of sticks down the driveway. (Yep. Sticks.) And with the camera set on the video function, I asked the sort of questions a child might ask. Watch that here.

 A few seconds later, I sent the clip via text to my daughter-in-law, scoring an instant hit.(If I’d used my digital camera I would have emailed the video.) Our grandson begged to watch again and again and my daughter-in-law permitted it since videos of grandparents are guilt-free babysitting for a tired mama, don’t ya know.

Here's what I’ve learned in my vast experience as a grand-videographer.

Move Over Spielberg

• I keep it simple and brief because any video lasting longer than a few seconds gets boring. (Besides, my phone flashes “Too long” and refuses to send.)
• Anything with Grandpa is wildly popular. He’s stage hand and leading man. I yelled questions up to my husband when he climbed on the roof. I caught him just waking from a mid-afternoon nap. (The snoring was a fun bonus and – Okay! Okay! I admit I woke him up just for fun.)
• Favorite toys hopping around like puppets is fun. One fluffy pen decorated with feathers primped and chatted with our grandson. (And because Grandpa belongs to the male gender, the pen inevitable fought with another fluffy pen. But I hesitate to speak of the dark side of videoing. Sigh.)
• When city workers came to our property to feed branches into a chopper, I yelled over the noise of the machine to explain what they were doing.
• Since we live on a small farm cows are always in demand, but turning the camera on your dog or cat would be at least as good. Or find a squirrel and capture his antics while you whisper into the camera.
• Blurry videos? Get over it! Who really cares? Professional quality is not a requirement for pleasing family. 

A Surprising Bonus

While you’re at it, try sending the videos to slightly older family members. I discovered that my thirty-something-just-married daughter wants them, so I pass them along to her! Makes me wonder if homesick college students might like to have Grandma and Grandpa stored on their phone as an on-demand-when-needed reminder of how much they are loved.or computer for times they awaken in the middle of a lonely night.

Accidental Tradition

               Nearly forty years ago, I crafted a Santa piñata for my husband’s nephews and niece. Since I had no children and consequently abundant spare time back then, I could afford the long hours necessary to create him. I covered balloons and tubes with papier-mâché, slathered more paste on top and waited for everything to dry. Several days later, I sculpted boots and a face from paper pulp and waited for them to dry. Then I painstakingly glued on string for the beard and hair and, after finishing, filled the Santa with candy and closed up the hole in the back.

        Done.

I stood Santa on the fireplace and admired him during the days leading up to Christmas. I imagined how the kids would love pummeling that piñata. I saw the candy spilling out and heard the squeals of delight.    
But when we took him to the family Christmas celebration, both children and parents refused to beat on him.

I was disappointed.

I insisted. 

They said no, he was too beautiful to ruin. They absolutely would not pound on him. Eventually, we compromised by cutting a hole in his back so my niece and nephews could reach in and grab handfuls of candy. 
I had to admit we had even more fun than I had anticipated. 

I don’t remember whose idea it was for me to fill him with candy on subsequent Christmases, but our papier-mâché Santa quickly became a family tradition. I added inexpensive toys and small stuffed animals that I collected during the year to the candy inside him, and every Christmas the kids took turns reaching in up to their armpits to pull out goodies.

 The tradition continued naturally when my own children were born. And this year Santa is standing on the fireplace in our living room waiting to be filled for our grandchildren.

Poor Santa looks a little tattered after all these years, but since he’s just paper and glue, I repair him when an arm falls off or one of his boots comes loose, and he just keeps on giving.  I wonder which of my children or grandchildren will want him so they can continue the tradition when I'm gone?  

Got a Higher Power? Name Him.

          During Portland, Oregon’s Friday morning show on Channel 12, I heard a reporter change the facts of a story right in front of me! In her intro to a piece featuring a surfer telling of a shark taking a bite out of his board, she referred to what the surfer called “prayer” every time he enters the water as his “pre-surfing ritual.” During the clip he gestured toward the sky and thanked “God” for helping him. I assumed he was talking about the God of the Bible, our Christian God and I was thrilled the channel would allow a mention to God. But . . . well, paste this link in your browser and watch the clip. 

     http://www.kptv.com/story/15771405/oregon-surfer-shark-encounter-was-the-most-intense-feeling

Did you notice how the reporter changed the name of the Being the surfer identified as “God?” She changed the surfer’s “God” to “higher power!” That is not what I heard the man say.

Now I don’t believe she deliberately misled her listeners. I understand what she was attempting to accomplish since I’m a writer and do my best not to repeat words any more often than necessary as I write, but names matter.

My name is “Jeannie,” pronounced with a long e sound Jee’ nee. Like the mythological genie in the bottle. However, it’s not unusual for someone who doesn’t know me to call me “Jenny” like the mule. (My apologies to any readers named “Jenny.”)

So when the reporter changed “God” to the more politically-correct “higher power,” it mattered. There are a lot of “higher powers” out there who are not our God of Love and they are really, really bad dudes. The Bible calls them “cosmic powers over this present darkness . . . spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). Whether you believe in them or I believe in them or anyone else believes in those evil beings is not the point.

They exist.

They’re malevolent.

They are your enemies.

They all work with Satan who “goes about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour” (1 Pet. 5:8). That means they all want to destroy that surfer. And they want to destroy you.

So if you have a “higher power” know who he is and use his name. Saying “God” works fine,  just don’t be vague in your own thoughts about his identity. Know that your higher power is 
the Creator of the Universe, 
the King of Kings, 
the God of the Old and New Testaments, 
the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
And if someone calls him your “higher power” don’t let them get away with it.

How to Use the Bible to Help You Pray

 Since this is the day I post a prayer on my Weekly Prayer blog, 

I thought I'd include ways you can use the Bible 

to teach you to pray and enrich your prayers. 

• Change any scripture into prayer by personalizing it.

“Help (ask this for yourself or insert a loved one’s name) begin to understand the incredible greatness of your power for us who believe you. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead” (based on Eph. 1:19).

• Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal how you should pray. That’s based on Romans 8:26, which tells us the Spirit helps us in our weakness when we don’t know what to pray for.

• When praying for the younger generation, pray Psalm 119 which tells how to live a godly, successful life. (It’s a long chapter so it may take several days or weeks to get through it. Pray only the verses that strike you as you read.)

• After you’ve failed miserably, pour out your grief to the Lord with Psalm 51. Then claim Romans 8:1, “So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus . . . “ and Romans 8:38, 39, “ . . . Nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus . . .”

• For loved ones in danger, or for all soldiers and American civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan, pray Psalm 91 daily. It is also a great Psalm to pray during natural disasters.

• Pray along with any prayer in the Bible. Start with Paul’s prayers in the early chapters of Ephesians and Colossian then, changing the specifics to fit our own nation, pray Daniel 10: 7- 19.

• Anything God says is a promise. When you find a promise as you read, claim it for yourself. Thank the Lord for it. That sort of grateful prayer delights him.

• Below is a “wrecking ball prayer” to pray daily for yourself, your family or your friends. Written by Barb Martin, based on a concept in Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets:

“Knowing God’s weapons for fighting the stubborn problems (strongholds) in my life are spiritual (see 2 Cor. 10:3 – 5), in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I destroy you, strongholds of (see below).  I declare no weapon of Satan will prosper in _____________’s life.”

(Ask the Holy Spirit to identify strongholds for you. Some possible strongholds: fear, feelings of worthlessness, rebellion, pride, control, defiance, procrastination, laziness, denial, passivity, rebellion, selfishness, lying, intellectualism, strife, self-sufficiency, contention, competition, domination, manipulation, hiding, negativity, anger, lack of wisdom, skepticism, workaholism, god of science or sports, hedonism, self-indulgence, materialism, resentment, occult, religious spirit, stubbornness, adultery, lust, other sexual sins, etc.) 

The above suggestions barely make a dent in the many ways you can turn to the Bible for help as you pray. There is nothing better than praying God’s own powerful words back to him. You can’t go wrong when you do that.

© Jeannie St. John Taylor

Prayer Request.

    People from several countries around the globe are reading my novel  City of a Thousand Gods on my blog and on the online newspaper The Cypress Times. Many of them are from strict Muslim countries where converting to Christianity could result in death. For their protection, I choose not to name the countries. I have no idea if these readers are seeking the True God or are already Believers or if they just like an exciting read. Even if they come from the latter group, I believe that by opening themselves to a story about God they open a path for him to speak to them.

• Please pray that more people from those countries would hear about or stumble onto the book.
• Pray they would feel drawn to the oft-stated theme of the book --  there is ONLY One True God.
• Pray that God would strengthen them and increase their desire and willingness to know the God whose story appears in the Old Testament and continues into the New Testament with the revelation and subsequent death and resurrection of his Son. 
• Pray that the One God would be understood for who he is and not confused with another god.
• Pray for their protection. 
• Thank the Lord for them. They're your brothers and sisters.
• Pray for them to obtain a Bible if they don't have one.
• Pray for the Holy Spirit to flow into and through them. 
• And please remember to pray for the young pastor in Iran who has been sentenced to death for converting to Christianity. Pray for his wife and two children and for the people he ministers to in house churches. Pray for protection, courage and determination that the name of the Lord will be glorified.

Thank you so much.