Blogging, Prayers and A Bruised Knee

Friends...a quick update on my blog below...
The results came back from my sister's MRI, and it does appear to be a neurological problem. They saw some things on the MRI that gave them concern, and today at 8:30am she will be seeing a neurologist and having a more in-depth MRI done. They have mentioned a few things it could be, but I don't want to speculate until they know for sure. Please continue to pray for Jen, who is scared but is handling this very well. Thank you so much for all your prayers and concern. It truly means so much! As soon as the results from the new MRI come in, I will post with an update.


Good Sunday evening/Monday morning, bloggy friends!

I am up late tonight after getting my skate on today with a rink full of kids half my age and a few other strays like me they let in. I am happy to report that no one in my family, including me, left with any broken hips, appendages or tailbones. I even backwards skated and managed to impress my ten year old in the process. (No small feat, on either count.) I only had one major spill in the form of a several person pile-up (picture me, a child falling right in front of me, and then a man falling on me). It was not cute, I tell you…and my already bruised knee tells the story. My knee wasn’t the only thing that got bruised, though. My ego took a bit of a hit, too, when the same man who fell on me skated up to me a bit later and said…“If it makes you feel any better, my wife said she hopes she has half your spunk when she is your age.” Anxious to see the age of his obviously child bride, I turned to see a longhaired 20-something looking at me, smiling a sweet smile and waving. You know, the kind of smile you throw out to the elderly sometimes. Ouch. The truth sure does hurt, ya’ll. I’ve seriously gotta re-think my new Victoria Beckham haircut. :)

But I am not depressed, no not at all.

I have earned every wrinkle, dent, crease and gray hair I have, and that’s not counting all the spots and dots I have accumulated on various places on my person. But I’ll blog about that next week. This week’s blog holds a different purpose.

I’m blogging today about blogging. And praying. In that order. Don’t worry…I’ll explain.

I started into this blogging thing last summer with much apprehension. My first blog entry was titled, Kicking and Screaming, and that was the way I felt at the time about it. I didn’t want to do it, and I had some very specific reasons why. For one thing, I had a hard time with making something – anything -about me. Believe it or not, I am a bit of a private person. (I know some of you are laughing out loud at this revelation after my Exposed post back in December!) But it’s true. My feelings are typically kept close to my vest, and that is where I like them to be. And…the truth is…I am just not that important or exciting in the first place. But most of all, I didn’t want to have a blog because I didn’t ever want be the reason why someone didn’t have a quiet time that day. I never wanted my blog to be read in lieu of someone reading the truly good stuff found in the Word. I still don’t. So, if you ever find yourself reading my blog and you haven’t yet read the Scripture or spent time with the Father on any given day, you have my permission to quit reading my blog and go there, first. Of course, then I think it will be the Lord’s will for you to come back and read my blog. (I kid, of course. :)) But truly, blogging should never get in the way of your personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Or your family time, either, by the way.

As if this wasn’t reason enough, I also had a few side reasons I didn’t want to blog. For one, I am the eternal “opposite-woman.” Translation: I don’t like to get on bandwagons, succumb to trends, or do something just cause someone tells me I should. And blogging felt that way to me. You can imagine how popular I am with the marketing strategists at my current publishing company. Something about needing for people to have a clue who I am so they will actually go out and buy my books. Pshhh. Details. :)

And the last reason I didn’t want to have a blog…(drumroll, please)…I didn’t at all understand what the blogging community could be about.

I didn’t realize I could meet some amazing women from places I have never even visited across the United States and beyond. I didn’t realize I could develop a love for friends I only knew through my computer screen, and that those friends would share my heartbeat for Jesus Christ. I truly didn’t know. So I didn’t want to blog.

But now I know.

I know about the friends…I know about the love…I know about the shared heartbeat…and I know about the awesome prayer connection that exists between believers connected by the simple click of a mouse.

Now I get it.

Since I started blogging, I have had the privilege to pray for many of you whose names would have otherwise not crossed my lips in intercession. I wouldn’t have known you, and I wouldn’t have known of your needs. It is such an honor when one of you asks me to pray for you, and rest assured that when you do, I do.

So now, I am asking for prayer from you, my new community of friends.

First, and most importantly, my 25-year-old sister, Jen, has been having some vision problems and dizziness for about a week. On Friday, she went to the eye doctor, thinking that it had to do with her eyes. At her appointment, the doctor determined that it was not, in fact, vision related. They sent her immediately over to the hospital for a CAT scan and MRI. She will get the results back tomorrow, and she is understandably nervous about it. She is also a new mom of a one-year-old adorable little boy, and she is currently unable to even read him his books at night, which gives her great angst. Please lift up Jen, as she awaits the results and hears the diagnosis. Please pray for healing of all of her symptoms and whatever is causing them. God is a specific God, and so should we be when we pray.

On a much less important prayer scale (is there such a thing?), I would love for you to remember me in your prayers in the coming weeks. I am going to be speaking at two conferences, the first and second weeks in April. The first is on Saturday, April 5, in the mountains of North Carolina. At this particular conference, I am speaking three times in one day. I have never spoken that much in a day, at least not with notes and a headset. :) Please pray for this conference that my voice will hold out and I will have clarity for each individual message. I am looking forward to this conference, and I love the spirit I sense in the women who have planned it. Although I am still baffled as to why they want to hear from me three times in one day. I don’t even want to hear from me that much!

The conference the next weekend is in Sandusky, Ohio, where I will be speaking at the Life is a Roadtrip Conference for Women. (www.godgirlsinmotion.com) I will be opening and closing the conference on Saturday, April 12, and I am going to be keynoting with Lisa Whelchel, formerly Blair on the 80’s TV show, The Facts of Life. As you can imagine, this 80’s girl with Texas hair is super excited to meet a TV icon she grew up watching! I am thrilled to get to share the stage with her. And if I’m honest, a bit petrified, as well. They are expecting 2500 women, and quite frankly, that number gives me a pain I can’t quite locate. I plan on spending lots of time on the toilet before I get up to speak that day. I know, I know…TMI. And quite a visual for a Monday morning.

Please pray for both conferences that the spirit will be ever present and do a work in all of us. I am eager and ready to hear from God, and I can’t pull any of it off without Him. I also struggle with having to be away from my family for several weekends in a row, and I appreciate your prayers for strength and peace while I am gone. Oh, and have I mentioned I don’t like to fly? Such irony in a “journey” that has me traveling! That God of mine is so clever. :)

Anyway…so sorry for the loooong blog. (Why do ya think I write books?) As you can see, I had lots of random thoughts to write about tonight. Nothing random about prayer, of course. I need it…covet it…and thank you in advance for yours on my behalf.

This blogging thing is so cool.

Love you!
Lisa :)

P.S. I will update you later on in the week about my sister and the results of her tests.