Chris' prayer: Jars of Clay's "Needful Hands"

I feel your hands around my heart

As men and women, we have an innate need to be touched. We crave, subconsciously, and sometimes even consciously, human touch.

I was reading Purpose Driven Youth Ministry, a book on how to create a successful youth ministry program, a few weeks ago, and one of the points the author, Doug Fields, made was to be sure to physically touch each youth every time you see them. This could be through a hug, a handshake, a high five, a pat on the shoulder, anything. It could be the only positive touch they have all week, he suggested.

A simple touch, even the briefest of contacts as in a high five, changes something inside of us. It connects us with those around us in a way that doesn't even make sense. Such a small gesture provides much too powerful a result to be logical.

How much greater is the result, then, when we allow God to touch us? What could change inside of us if we allowed ourselves to feel God's hands around our hearts?

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Marie's Prayer: Jars of Clay's "Needful Hands"

Staring up in awesome wonder

I find myself today looking at my life and all of the good things this past year has brought. Maybe I've been focusing on all the negative lately, but that's going to change. I realize how much God has given me, especially the day before He gave me His only son. How awesome is that? It's amazing that someone could think that much of me that He would try to save me from sin. Especially since I bring sin upon myself. God has faith in me, enough to save me. AWESOME.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Jars of Clay's "Needful Hands"

I'm reaching up a needful hand

Who amongst us truly isn't reaching up a needful hand? We all need something, none of us (by human nature) are ever satisfied. God can fill the empty spot in our hearts. Thinking about all of the other people that need as much, and far more, than i makes me grateful that we are smack dab in the middle of the season of giving. maybe with this newfound awareness, i (or we?) can help a little more so that there can be less needful hands and more helpful ones.

Megan's prayer: Jars of Clay's "Needful Hands"

Tomorrow we celebrate the birth of Jesus. God’s son. Sent to the Earth to share God’s love, to proclaim the Good News, to sing God’s song. Today’s song includes a beautiful prayer:

Sing through me.

God is present in all of us. He is inside, ready to use us as a vessel to share his love, ready to use us to sing his song and share his Good News. All we have to do is to break down the walls inside of us to let God show through. Only problem is, this is easier said than done.

I pray that God continues to write these songs of hope, songs of love, songs of joy on my heart so that I can be reminded of how important it is to share those with the world and truly let God sing through me.

Marie's Prayer: Superchick's "I Belong to You"

And when life becomes something just to get through
That's when I'm glad that I belong to you

This part is really amazing because sometimes everyone feels like they're just getting through life. That's how I feel lately and I really want to live. So I'm glad to just belong to Jesus.

Chris' prayer: Superchick's "I Belong to You"

Hope.

Already, just seven days in, I have heard this word over and over in the different songs. It is a word that has been resting on my heart, and one that I am meant to hear, to investigate, to understand.

In this song, Tricia Brock speaks of a lack of hope and the weakness that accompanies it. Without hope, we are broken, feeble beings, and it is through this hopelessness that we are reminded of the need we all have to belong.

And who better to belong to than the one who will never let us down? That is my wishlist this holiday season– to find hope in the One who strengthens me, the One who will never let me down.


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Megan's prayer: Superchick's "I Belong to You"

So many times I find myself wishing away my days. Either something happened during the day to make it “bad” so I just want it to be over and have a fresh start the next day, or maybe I am looking forward to something so much that I wish away the days in between now and then. Either way, today’s song includes a line that seems to fit my feelings exactly during those types of days.

Life becomes something just to get through.

In reality, this is a horrible way to look at life. Regardless of how much stress a certain day is filled with, it is still a gift. Regardless of how much I am looking forward to something a certain number of days away, each day in between is still a gift. By seeing everyday as a gift from God, a chance to make a difference in the world, an opportunity to live in the moment and not be living for the future, I think life would be much more enjoyable.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Superchick's "I Belong to You"

i love belonging to Someone! especially Someone with all of the love and kindness in the universe. can't get much better than that, i do believe.

Sometimes life brings more pain than we can bare alone

I am a very compassionate person. because of this, people usually come to me with their problems because i love helping. my friends and people i care about have a really wide variety of things they struggle with on a day to day basis and sometimes it gets extremely overwhelming for me. mostly because all of their struggles are things that i cannot fix. my only purpose is to listen and pray for them. but all of their pain plus the own struggles in my life are things i can definitely not bare alone. It is totally comforting to know that i belong to someone that lets me know that i never have to bare anything alone. God is good!

Erinnicole's Prayer: Falling Up's "Places"

This is where my heart it longs to be

Hurting You, Needing You

This is exactly where my heart is. It hurts because I need God. i hate that i let so many things in my life come in the way of my relationship with God. I was actually thinking about this a lot yesterday because i was trying to come up with some things for REAP talks and i was just generally thinking about picking my friends over Jesus. the argument i put to it was, "i dont know why i do that, because i can always hang out with my friends the next weekend or day so why cant i spend time with Jesus?" but then the other side of me replied, "well hey erin, doesn't jesus always want to spend time with you? won't he always be waiting his turn? it isnt like he would desert you after a few ditches like your 'friends' would, right?" it was kind of a weird thought and my solution was this: why can't i just bring Jesus with me? i understand that it is difficult but that will be my newest personal prayer intention because i know for certain that if i bring God back into my life 100% like He always has been, then all of the other things will fall into place.....o that was weird...this song was "falling up's places"...falling up into place....i adore wordplay.

Marie's Prayer: Falling Up's "Places"

This is where I'm always gonna be
Suffering

I feel like I need to get out of this place that I'm in. Just waiting and suffering. I need to feel other things besides hurt. I'm going to look on the brighter side of things and wait out the bad. They say there's a calm before the storm, but I think there's also a calm after. I just need to ride this out.

Chris' prayer: Falling Up's "Places"

Over the last couple of years, one of the main things I have been learning how to do is to accept things graciously. I've been learning to accept the compliments that others give me whilst still being humble. I've been learning to accept gifts graciously, and allow others to share their love for me. And I've been learning to accept help more graciously.

That one has been the hardest for me. I am such a control freak, and even worse, a very prideful person. Whatever needs to be done, I can do it on my own. Whether it be a group project in college, where I always took on the biggest role to assure the project got done "right;" planning a Life Night to assure it was done "my way;" or asserting that I can make it through a major knee operation without any assistance whatsoever. My pride tells me that I can do it on my own. But I'm working on it. I'm working on asking God,

Can you take everything that I hold?

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Megan's prayer: Falling Up's "Places"

Hurting you

It’s always been a struggle for me to be kind and loving towards those who are mean to me or hurt me. I try to be understanding and see where they are coming from, but sometimes those fail me, and I end up just blowing those people off. I justify it with “If they aren’t going to be nice to me, why should I be nice to them?”

Needing you

When it comes to someone needing me for something, I’m normally right there, offering as much assistance as I can. I really love helping others, because I know that so many times before I have asked others for their assistance, and I wouldn’t be where I am today if I hadn’t had such generous friends and family.

Hurting you, needing you.

What if there is a connection between the hurting and the needing? What if those people who are hurting me, are really just trying to get my attention, trying to get my help, but I just blow them off because they bother me? What if the only thing they know is hurt, and instead of me greeting them with outstretched arms, I turn away? How can I not see that maybe the hurting is because of the needing?

Luckily God has figured this one out. He’s not going to turn his back on someone just because they said something mean to him. He’s not going to give up on someone because they are angry at him. In fact, he is going to remain there, knowing that they need him more than ever.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Jars of Clay's "Crazy Love"

And then pretend that you can't hear
These teardrops comin' down

being vulnerable is really hard for me because when people care a lot for me i feel that i dont deserve it. so more often than not, ill put on a happy face no matter what. i know that it is a bad thing and im trying to stop and im actually doing better. but i want to be able to have the strength and ability to not even try to hide my tears from God because i accept that He can fix them. My apologies for the short post, but it's my sister's birthday so i must clean the house! :)

im praying for you all!!! :)

Marie's Prayer: Jars of Clay's "Crazy Love"

Refusing to unwind

Sometimes I don't realize how tightly wound I am. I pull the string of stress and hurt all around me until I can't move. I refuse to untangle myself and let loose. Today I want God to help me let go of that string and unwind. Let myself be open to actually living life, not just going through the motions.

Chris' prayer: Jars of Clay's "Crazy Love"

Tonight I'm gonna break away, just you wait and see

Ah, how I love those words: "just you wait and see." Always preceded or followed by some kind of wild promise against all expectations, one which no one around even begins to believe, it is made anyway. It is no different in this song. Dan Haseltine sings about getting over a love lost, but it could be about anything and everything.

And, for me, it has been.

From saying that I am going to read the entire Bible, cover to cover, to running a certain number of miles in a year, to overcoming the sins I struggle with, I cannot count the number of times I've said, either to myself or to others, "Just you wait and see..."

And yet, I fail. Over and over and over again, I fail.

The good news, however, comes a little bit later in the song:

It happens all the time.

Here, Haseltine is singing about letting his heart get wrapped up in his "crazy love." Again and again, his heart is open to love. Despite the pain that comes. Despite the suffering. Despite the failing.

I guess it could be seen as a bad thing, to keep trusting that love will work out when it has shown no sign in the past. I guess letting "it happen all the time" could be a bad thing and not at all healthy. But, in one way, it gives me hope. Despite the failure that I've endured with my just-you-wait-and-sees, I have hope that, by the grace of God, by the love of God, all things can be conquered.

It can happen. It will happen. Just you wait and see.


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Megan's prayer: Jars of Clay's "Crazy Love"

Today’s song holds the words I wish I could say:

"Tonight I’m going to break away."

As wonderful as my life is, there are certain things that I want to just break away from. I want to break away from the stress that I constantly experience. I want to break away from the demands and the expectations that I have been feeling. But most of all, I want to break away from the monotony of life and just be consumed in God’s love and have no other cares in the world.

I want to live the words “Tonight I’m going to break away” but instead I’ll end up saying “Tonight I wish I could break away.”

There is some fear inside of me that doesn’t allow me to take this leap of faith. I’m so worried that if I do jump, no one will be there to catch me. I want to be able to break away, but I’m too scared that I will just screw up or make a mistake. I want to give myself fully to God, but something inside of me holds me back.

Hopefully someday I can find the courage to break away.

Marie's Prayer: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Miracle of Mercy"

If the truth was known and a light was shown
On every hidden part of my soul
Most would turn away, shake their head and say
he still has such a long way to go

I am pretty sure I have a very long way to go. Recently a light was shone and truth was told to me by my dad. This was a very awkward conversation for me, and sometimes I wish I hadn't asked. But I know it's better for me to know and I try to seek knowledge about anything I can. I know I shouldn't turn away from the truth God has given me. So I'm going to try super hard to not let uncomfortability get in the way of knowledge.

Erinnicole's Prayer: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Miracle of Mercy"

If the truth was known, you'd see...the only good in me is Jesus.

i always give myself more credit than is probably due. i try to do the right thing but the majority of the time, i mess up. i mean who doesn't? i still have such a long way to go. my goal is that when people look at me, they won't even see me. that they will be able to look past my face and see Jesus shining through. i am always so ashamed of my sins. if there is one thing i can't stand, it is disappointing people. i honestly cannot handle it - i cant even describe what it does to me. i disappointed my mom once 2 summers ago and she was so upset and i cried for 3 days without stopping. because nothing hurts me more than when people help me and expect something and then i let them down. that is probably why i have problems with words of encouragement. and look at all of the things God has given me and all of the help He has guided me with. and yet i never fail to put myself first and disregard rules while taking His forgiveness for granted. but i guess...what mercy is - is that He will not only help me through that, but He will even forgive me for it! He is so good!!

Chris' prayer: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Miracle of Mercy"

Sometimes it is hard to see how much I am worth. Whether that be because things happen to be going wrong in my life, or because people don't see how hard I try, or how much I care, sometimes it is just tough to feel just how valuable I am.

This song serves as a reminder of our worth in the eyes of our Savior. Despite our sinfulness, despite our weakness and fear, Jesus knows just how much we are worth. Our Lord knows exactly who we are. He died to show us that his Love overcomes everything- all of our sinfullness, all of our weakness and fear, even death. Love conquers all. That is the Miracle of Mercy.

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Megan's prayer: Steven Curtis Chapman's "Miracle of Mercy"

Seven words. Eighteen letters. So easy, a first grader could read it. And yet, it is something I constantly struggle with.

He loves me… just as I am.

Just as I am? Really? Even including all of my faults, all of my imperfections, all of my worries, all of my fears, all of my sins?

Sometimes I don’t understand why. Sometimes I feel like I let others down, I let myself down, and I even let God down, yet still he loves me?

That’s awesome!