Of Prayers, Pergolas and Potting Sheds

Whisper a Prayer in the morning,

Whisper a prayer at noon, Whisper a prayer in the evening, Twill keep your heart in tune.

I know there is another line to that old Sunday school song.."you'll have your answer soon", but I've been thinking more about keeping my heart in tune lately.  I read once that prayer always, always changes things--if it doesn't change your situation, it changes you! 
There are a lot of things to pray for in this life--protection, guidance, forgiveness,and wisdom for ourselves and others.    

 In our Bible Study, "Stuck", by Jennie Allen, we just finished a chapter called Mad.  Most of us Christian ladies thought that we didn't really get mad until we started discussing how we feel when our "rights" are trampled upon.  Hmmm...maybe we do get a little testy and resentful, even mad. (We think we have the "right" to be  happy, healthy, prosperous, comfortable, to be understood, to have an ideal family, etc.)  We may get bent out of shape when our schedule is interrupted or we're asked to do something beyond what we had planned.
So our study reminded us that we can pray to change our attitudes about our "rights" and put other people first as scripture commands us.  We can pray to have God's perspective on a situation, instead or our own.  We can pray that God will give us the strength to do what He is asking us to do with a heart of love instead of resentment!!!  After all, Jesus gave up all of His rights when He came to earth to rescue us from our sin. How can we whine and cling to having our own way in view of all He gave up and how He was we treated?
So....it was a great lesson.  We had a great discussion.  We went home.  And in 2 days, I had a pop quiz from God to see if I'd really learned anything!

I was cleaning out our garage, which had seen a long summer's accumulation of items. Our garage is large and doubles as my husband's woodworking workshop. He and my sons had built a pergola for our backyard in June, and there were a lot of wood scraps left that needed to be put away.  As I was cleaning, I realized that with the wood shop equipment, 3 bikes that had come home with college kids and 2 lawn mowers, there just wasn't room for everything.
The only option I could think of was to relocate a lot of the things to the potting shed, which I had just reclaimed for myself last fall.  (This picture is much cuter than our shed, but both are gray!)  It had been Don's workshop, and after he moved some of his equipment out, it became a dumping ground for all kinds of things. Armed with paint, cleaning equipment and sheer determination, I set out to turn it into a potting shed.  I got my husband to help take some loads of junk to the dump, and then began painting the never- before painted walls and ceiling shades of a nice green that reminded me of my Grandma Carnes' porch.  I loved that porch!  After 2 weeks of cleaning and painting ( in over 90 degree heat), I hung some thrift store curtains, moved my pots and garden magazines in, draped some  thrift store green sheets over the racks of wood that were still there and added an extra wicker chair.  I could open both doors and sit in my chair and survey the garden from a whole new angle. It was my new favorite place.
Now that the shop was cleaned out, my husband decided it would be the ideal spot in which to store our big riding lawn mower .  I began to sense a problem, but that was fine for the winter. Then my son had a huge trunk he needed to store somewhere, so guess where it went?  Yep, my potting shed.  It has once again become a storage area with little floor area to even walk now.  As I moved another lawn mower and leftover wood to the shed so we could regain ground in the garage, I got a little mad.  After all, no one would go near the shed until I cleaned it out and fixed it up, and now I was losing my potting shed to store other people's stuff.  Did I mention my daughter is moving back next spring to finish Physical Therapy school and will be storing the furniture from her apartment in.the potting shed? Sigh.  A smart woman knows when to surrender, for a time at least.  An even smarter woman prays to do it with grace.
Last Saturday, after making the sacrifice to give up my space to store garage stuff, I sat in my wicker chair (I could get to it because my husband was mowing the lawn on the big mower) and I pouted.  My husband drove by on the mower and stopped and asked what I was doing.  I replied that I was saying good bye to my cute shed.  He gave me one of those looks and mowed on.
I pouted because I had to give up my cute, hard won space and nobody seemed to care what it was costing me. I pondered what to do.  Then, I remembered our lesson on mad---oh, shoot, I guess God was testing me to see if I could really hold what He gives me loosely and give it back when I need to.  So, my options were to keep pouting and feel sorry for myself (as I have many, many times over the years) or pray to have a better attitude and accept this gracefully.  As I pouted and pondered, I looked out at the new pergola my sweet husband had built.  I thought about how nice it was and what fun the boys had helping him build it.    (This time, our pergola is actually better looking than the one pictured!)  I was also glad  to have the shop/shed that I could store the kids' stuff in while they're in transition so that we didn't have to move it into the house and have double rows of furniture everywhere.
After pouting, pondering and praying, I could pull myself together and let it go!         
It's hard to give up our "rights" and bad attitudes, but when we pray to see things God's way, and we are thankful, it does "keep our heart in tune" like the song says. When we give up our "rights", we gain something instead...like peace and the knowledge that we're trying to please God.   And in my case, a pleasant evening and weekend with my husband instead of continuing to pout.

On the Home Front:  I have been getting rid of things; still, yet and again.  I'm reclaiming some cabinet space and getting clothes closets in shape for fall.  I've taken several loads to our thrift store.  The big news is that I've actually gotten rid of about 40 books which is very hard for me.  I'm donating them to our library and church library, so that helps.  The fewer things we have, the freer we are!  I feel very tied down by all my stuff. Here's the kicker--as I'm cleaning out cabinets and closets, I realized that I am the one that hauls most of this stuff home!! Books, magazines, extra dishes, clothes, decor items--I am the one mostly to blame!!!  Clearly, I need to stop bringing stuff in because then I have to spend time taking care of it and moving it around until I finally go through it again and get rid of it!!This is crazy!   I need to hunger and thrist after God and His righteousness and not stuff!  This looks like another matter for prayer to me!
Enjoy the beautiful days of fall...plant some bulbs for next spring, clear out some clutter, go through some closets and share what you don't need, sip some apple cider, carve a pumpkin, and pray for God's grace to give up your "rights" when He asks you to.  Pray to be a blessing, and whisper a prayer morning, noon and night--in fact, pray without ceasing.