Prays God!

One of my favorite peeps in the village and I have this thing for inspirational quotes.  We have a grand plan for writing all our collected pearls of wisdom in a notebook.  Someday when we are old and gray and can no longer remember our names we can pull out the book and continue to dish out wise thoughts like we haven’t lost our marbles.  I think we’ve been talking about the notebook for over a year now.

I was in The Container Store a month or so ago and spied this cute little white board. Remembering all the quotes I’ve collected, I thought it would be a great way to display them.  Kind of a quote-of-the-day type thing.  Only it’s turned into more of a quote-of-the-week type thing.

The week I bought the white board, the Littles were having back-to-school transition blahs and feeling the stretches of a new academic year.  Thanks to my stash of collected wisdom, I had just the quote!  The first came from our beloved Harry Potter. Actually it’s a quote from Professor Dumbledore to Harry:

It’s our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.

The Littles loved the quote and it provided for great dinner conversation as we applied Dumbledore’s words to each of our personal situations. Soon it was time to change the quote. And I have quotes ‘o plenty. But here’s where my infatuation with the white board and this inspiration started to dim.

Aren’t white boards supposed to easily wipe clean?!? Well this one was flawed. For sure.  I wiped and wiped.  I checked to make sure I bought the right markers. Then I whipped out the Windex and scrubbed that white board clean.  A few more quotes made it to the board, but  scrubbing that darned board clean each week made me question the whole ROI.

Then Husband came in one evening and said he had a quote to share.  I was thrilled with his interest in the whole quote of the day week thing, but I was more eager for him to take a stab at wiping that darned board clean.  Which he did. With ease.  And this is what I found.

For weeks I struggled silently with the white board.  And in comes my knight in shining armor who calmly removed the protective plastic covering. Please be respectful with your belly laughs. I’m sensitive.

Here’s what Husband put on the easy-to-clean white board:

I’m not sure if this was his originally intended quote, or if he changed directions purely for my benefit given my technical difficulties. We’ll never know.

With the struggles of the white board behind me, my enthusiasm for inspirational quotes is flourishing again. And it’s contagious.  Earlier this week the older girls were working on art projects at the kitchen table while I was cooking (naturally).  I had my iTunes praise play list piped throughout the house. Rather loud I might add.  Offering by Third Day was playing and the girls wanted to know what the song was about. We talked about what it means to give something to God as an offering.

“But we don’t have anything, Mommy.”

I explained that was exactly what the song was about.  We have nothing that God needs.  All He wants is our hearts, our love, our very lives.

“How can we do that?”

I encouraged them to think about talents they have and to use them in a way that would be pleasing to God.  I suggested they draw a picture.  While Offering was still playing (it might have been on repeat) the girls got quiet and I went back to cooking.  Later that evening I noticed the white board:

Now that’s an offering. Prays God.  And Praise Him too!