This Little Light of Mine

Let your light shine before men,

that they may see your good deeds

and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16

God shouts at me...a lot...and He is so incredibly loud.  Perhaps it is necessary to vociferate so loudly in order to be heard over the noise and chaos that is the soundtrack of our life.  I share this mainly as a preliminary explanation for this week's post.

Last week when I finished my blog post I typed in "This Little Light of Mine"  at the top of my next post with no firm idea where I was going to go with it, but I felt strongly that this was going to be my topic for the coming week.  I have never done that before. A week later I sat staring blankly at the computer and contemplating exactly where I was going to go with this preordained title when this popped up in my inbox:

" Today I google image searched the word angel. 

I saw the cute picture of your son sitting on the sidewalk

 with 2 dogs in his lap.
I thought to myself this is a photo of a human form angel. 

 He was so pure, bright, happy, and angel-like...

This is love! Your family and faith encourage 

me to love more then I've ever loved before.

 God is so wonderful... 
An angel led me to your blog today. Why?
So you could touch my heart and bear witness to me.
God really is amazing!!!"

 I think this is the picture she must have seen.

She is so right...the light that shines off of this boy of ours

is so "bright, happy and angel-like."

And the very next day this little gem showed up on my Facebook page:

 

On this day, God wants you to know that...

...the world is warmer with your inner light shining.

When you shine your light, you encourage others 

to do the same and your life becomes surrounded 

by the warmth and love of those you share a path with.

So there you have it. God didn't help me write my blog this week...He just went ahead and wrote it for me♥
I do know one thing for sure, and that is I need to keep sharing stories about this little light of mine.  His life has meaning, it has purpose and it has value.  He has touched the place of light in the hearts of so many.

Scotty boy you have led us all sharply off the path we had planned...the one we had so carefully mapped out long before you were born, and we will continue to faithfully walk hand in hand with you...basking in your warmth and love on this path along side of you no matter where it takes us.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, 

and do not lean on your own understanding. 

In all your ways acknowledge him, 

 and he will make straight your paths. 

Proverbs 3:5-6

P.S. To my new friend Elle...Welcome to the Sandbox!

The Things I Pray For

Very, very true. 

I am sure the things that are on my prayer 

list are things that most people take for granted.
I have no illusions that all my prayers will be answered.
I am just happy to have a day where
I can put a check mark next to just one or two.

1. Always at the top of my list of prayers is a few consecutive hours of deep, dreamless, uninterrupted sleep.

*** Although it is hard deny that getting woken up in the middle of the night by a knock on the door for the explicit purpose to show me something funny on TV, or just one more hug and one more tuck in can be seen as a blessing.  The other night at O'dark-thirty he greeted me sporting his derby and a huge smile♥

2.  I pray for a few quiet moments at the beginning of each day to have a cup of coffee with God...both are desperately needed to strengthen and fortify me for whatever shenanigans are going to happen in the day ahead.

3. I pray for 5 minutes...just five minutes of peace.  When the children were small we read this book almost every day.  They never got the hint!

In it the Mama elephant spends her day seeking just five minutes of peace from her three little ones.  Who knew that decades later I would still be searching for those very same elusive five minutes.  My elephant population has reduced itself from three to one, although Scotty really counts as seven, so technically I suppose the elephant population at the Bastons has increased by four, but either way five minutes can make all the difference in the world.

4. I pray for an outing...ANYWHERE...where we don't end up making a spectacle of ourselves (and by we I mean Scotty)
And by spectacle I mean...screaming and/or yelling, or throwing ourselves on the ground and refusing to budge when we try to leave the store while continuing to scream and/or yell, and which may or may not involve property damage, but certainly always requires an apology.  Good grief...

5. I pray for a few moments of solitary confinement...in the bathroom.  A shower that lasts longer than 90 seconds usually ends with a 30 minute clean up.  Honestly, I spend so much time during the day shooing Scotty off the couch, but the minute I try to sneak upstairs to brush my teeth he goes into hyper drive and can take this place apart in the blink of an eye.  Just a few minutes of privacy with the door closed seems completely out of my grasp.

6. I pray for a a few consecutive minutes of quiet to eat a meal.  Our meals begin with a prayer and end with indigestion.  Whether at home or in a restaurant Scotty's dinner time "conversation" goes something like this:

Minute 1:  Can I have more water?  Can we go to church?  Where's Stevi?  Stevi has a cat. Can we go to the airport and pick her up? I want her to eat with us. Can you cut this up? Can we go to church?  Can we eat dinner after church?  I dropped my fork.  Sorry, I spilled my water.  I want a hamburger.  I need a napkin. Will you sit with me on the couch?  I want pizza.  Are there fireworks tonight?  Where's Grandma?  I want her to bring Ruby.  I want her to eat with us. Can we have a party? Can I have more please? I want a banana. Can I have more water?  Sorry, I spilled again. I need another napkin.  I want a surprise. Can we go to church? Can we eat dinner after church?  Where's Sarah? Where's Blane?  I want them to come swim. I want them to bring Johnny Cash?  I dropped my fork. Can we go to a parade? Can I have some more? Can we go to church?  I'm feeding the dog under the table...watch me.

Minute 2:  I'm done.  Can I have a cookie?

7. I pray for a day free of catastrophes. Period.

8. I pray that when someone comes to our house that Scotty keeps his clothes on...seriously! I guarantee that there are not too many people who have ever had the need to say that prayer.

True story:  Last week we had our garage door opener replaced, and very nice repairman showed up early and Scotty was all ready to sit and watch.  He was still in his pajamas so Steve told him he had to get dressed first.  Scotty ran upstairs and Steve continued to chat with very nice repairman, ( I am sure you can tell where this is going) and two minutes later Scotty ran into the garage wearing only his socks and tried to hug very nice repairman. Later, after Scotty was dressed Steve made him apologize to very nice repairman.  His response, "Oh it's okay I have been here before."  WHAT???  I didn't even want to remember what happened the last time.

Yeaaaaaaaaa so that happened....

9. I used to pray for patience and courage and strength, but not anymore.  "If someone prays for patience, you think God gives them patience? Or does he give them the opportunity to be patient? If he prayed for courage, does God give him courage, or does he give him opportunities to be courageous?"  (From Evan Almighty)  Trust me, I have plenty of "opportunity" for lots and lots of practice.

I pray these words instead.
 I pray for God's Love.

I pray for God's Mercy.

I pray for God's Grace.

10.  But the most important prayers I pray are ones of thankfulness, because I have been given so much more than I deserve.  Jan Karon has a wonderful book series about a little town called Mitford.  The main character, Father Tim, reminds us to be thankful for all the small seemingly unimportant details of our life and give thanks for them lest they be taken away!

Today I am remembering to be thankful that it is 

finally summer and that this boy of ours loves to swim!