Sunday's Sermon

Ross gave one of the best sermons ever yesterday. Definately in my top two ever. You can download the mp3 or the video at Galloway's website (from the main page, scroll to the bottom left and you'll see the link). The sermon title is "Praying the Devil Out of Hell" and even if it's been replaced by a new one by the time you read this, it's availalbe for free on iTunes. This was the last of a six part series on prayer. Ross does like to preach a series.

The real meat of this sermon had to do with the presence of Evil, how it works in the Bible and how it works in our lives today. He talked about how if everything is perfect in your life, you're probably praying to the wrong god. If you're focused on God, you're probably attracting negative attention from Satan, who likes to create hardships for God's people. He told a story about how if you're already spiritually dead, Satan has no reason to attack you, and you can go on with your life thinking all is good because you have everything you want, not realizing you don't have everything you NEED.

I won't go into all the personal stories I've seen and heard on this topic, because most of them aren't my stories to tell. But I will say that I realize that too often I pray for the wrong things. Some things I can't seem to help. If someone you love is sick, you pray for them to get better, not for God to use the illness for his glory. Thankfully with my mom we got both. When life is just plain crappy we pray for things to get easier, not for God to show us the lesson we get from going through it. When I was taking my Disciple Bible Study class we debated whether or not God tests us, or if it's Satan attacking, or if we just reap the benefit of bad decisions. The more I think about it, what difference does it make? Our reaction should be the same. Ross said something at the end of the sermon that I tend to neglect. He said he didn't believe in the power of prayer, he believed in the Power of the God that answered them.

Where did it go?

My weekend, that is. I lost it somewhere between laundry, baseball, and cleaning out the fridge. I will admit that I spent my afternoon today curled up on the couch, but that was between church and a later trip to Walmart and then taking back the fridge. I KNEW we were completely out of food, you just couldn't tell it because there wasn't a square inch of free space in the fridge! The reality is that I've felt pretty crappy most of the day and figure I'll be making a call to my doc tomorrow. I wanted to do a post about church this morning, but I've felt too bad to be completely coherent, so maybe I'll do that tomorrow. In the meantime, I'm curling up in bed early and reading myself to sleep. Maybe next weekend I can actually find a weekend!

Argument for a Pool

My husband wants a swimming pool. He's pretty determined that our next house should have one. I'm not at all adverse to having a pool, I'm adverse to the energy and money required to maintain a pool. He doesn't want your small dollar store pool, he wants a big in-ground pool. None of this really matters since we're years away from buying another house, but every once in a while he'll drop the hint in subtle opportunities.

Last night, while watching the 3rd disk of Shark Week (I do love Netflix!), I was staring with my mouth open watching the huge manta rays as the divers swam with these huge, friendly, playful sea creatures that are basically harmless, social stingrays with a 20 ft wing span. Greg look over with a completely serious face and says, "You want one."

Me: "Well yeah. But they're HUGE."
Greg: "It wouldn't fit in the bathtub."
(sidenote - I have been known to want to own assorted water mammals and justify that they could live in the bathtub.)
Me: "They're bigger than tree of me."
Greg: "It wouldn't fit in three bathtubs."
Me: "No..."
Greg (completely serious): "We need a pool."

The bad part was that if we'd actually been seriously looking to buy a house, he might have convinced me on that one. And he knew it. So I'm sure he filed that away in his brain, and when we ARE looking at houses at some point down the road he'll drag it out.

"You know honey, if we get the one with the pool you might can get penguins..." or,
"Well, if we had the bigger pool there'd be room for a pygmy hippo like the one you like at the zoo..."

I'm doomed. We're so going to end up with a pool.

5 Things - Shark Week

5 Things I Learned from Disc 1 of the 20th Anniversary of Shark Week Box Set:

1. If you get bit by a shark, witness somebody else getting bit by a shark, or hear about a shark bite, don't send your kids surfing in the exact same shark infested waters the next day.

2. Shark scientists can be stupid. Don't test the theory that sharks are peaceful by standing in a swarm of bull sharks with a camera crew for an hour, pointing out how big and scary the ones that keep bumping into you are.

3. When a 400lb bull shark takes off your entire calf muscle after you spend an hour standing in a swarm of them pointing out how big they are, don't go out of your way to seek out more sharks trying to figure out why it bit you. It was hungry.

4. Don't go spear fishing in shark infested waters for the exact same fish that is the known favorite snack of the previously mentioned sharks.

5. Great Whites are really really large, scary, beautiful animals. But not as dangerous as tiger sharks, who have sharper teeth.

An honorable mention goes out to the girl who got attacked on her surfboard and jumped off her board onto the back of an 18 ft great white. Seriously. Talk about riding a wave. And yes, she still surfs. I wouldn't even want to get in the bath tub ever again.

Optimash Prime

For those who haven't seen a Mr. Potato Head since their own childhood, the whole concept has become a hysterical phenomenon. They now come in themes. Just search Ebay (the auction, not the gnome) and you'll be amazed at the selection. The Spiderman Potato Head is called a Spidey Spud. The Transformers one is Optimash Prime (for the uninitiated, the main character in Transformers is Optimus Prime). The Star Wars set is Darth Tater, Spud Trooper, and Artoo-Potatoo. There are also parts packs you can buy, with just the interchangeable wardrobes in themes from firefighter spuds to birthday spuds to assorted holiday spuds. I have a rock 'n roll set and a safari set. I even have an Easter Bunny Spud and a Space Spud with both an astronaut suit and alien parts. I'm very excited about going to Disney World in the spring so I can get a box of tater parts at the toy store there, you can fill a box with the Disney-specific parts of your choice for a flat price and they'll fit on the regular heads. It's brilliant, really. You can mix your Disney-Transformer-Alien-Rocker Spud. Is there a more versatile toy?

Here's my newest Potato Head.













My favorite quotes on the box:

"Potatoes in Disguise!"
"More than meets the fry."
"A Tater-Bot with dual identities!"
"Optimash Prime is the fearless leader of the Auto-tots, a faction of taters battling the evil Decepticons. Starchy situations call for a quick change - from truck to robot! No ordinary fries, these are potatoes in disguise!"