Prayer Board Coming Alive

Greetings friends and family,

Summer is fading fast, which means soaking up the last hours of pool fun and tuning up the mountain bike for time on the trails.  I'm still stuck riding Kendra's bike because I sold mine last May to close out my commitment to the church building fund.  I sold my bike once last year to kick-start our giving towards the new building.  A few months later when we recovered financially I bought a used bike off Craigslist.  It was an excellent bike, but then I decided to sell my new bike so we could close out our commitment early.  I must be the only goofball in history who sold his bike twice for the same building fund campaign.

Anyway, I've been bike-less since May and relegated to ride Kendra's smaller bike.  Even though I adjusted it as much as possible I still hit my knees on the handlebars.  No matter how uncomfortable it is to ride her bike it's still better than sitting at home watching TV.  I rode a solid hour straight with a big smile the whole time.

I don't want just any bike, I want THE bike that will fit my riding style and last me for the next 5-6 years.  Do I need it?  not at all.  Do I want it?  Yes, i'm salivating daily over the idea of tackling trails this winter.  patience is a difficult skill to master.  

Easton and Layla are finally growing tired of swimming.  I wondered when the day would come where they are not jumping for joy when we offer to let them swim.  Today they said, "do we have to?" and that's the turning point.  All it takes is offering to swim with them and their level of excitement shines brightly.  I'm not sure what Easton is doing here, but his smile is consistent since he was a baby. 

Kendra taught Layla the trick where she puts her legs together and straightens them out.  She does a barrel roll kind of motion and spins around quickly, repeatedly like a ballerina until she gets dizzy.

The temperatures are still close to 100 for the day time highs, but we get cold once we go inside.  Layla's desire for cuddling and conversation is as strong as ever.  I'll keep making space in my busy life for her as long as she is willing to spend time with me.  

The four Webbs haven't done much together lately.  Our need to accomplish so much leads to one parent with the twins while the other parents works on something.  We decided to go to Lowe's as a family for backyard plants.  Kendra had the idea of getting them a plant for their room.  It's a good way to start them on the journey of caring for life.  No dogs, thank God.  but they have to start somewhere.  the most immediate problem is over watering because they both ask several times a day if they can water the plant.

During meals we take turns praying.  The twins pray something like this, "... and help us have a good day."  there is nothing wrong with that, but the pattern shows they believe God is here to make our day "good".  That mentality is focused on their environment or "having a better human experience", which is not what God is interested in giving us.  The bottom line is they really don't know what to pray for or how to pray because we don't role model that enough in front of them.

I had a vision several weeks ago.  I was thinking about what Easton and Layla are getting from Kendra and I about prayer.  My vision was of something that apparently doesn't exist.  I want a prayer board.  This is a visible area where each person in our family can write what and who they are praying for.  I asked Kendra to design and build one for us.  She agreed and we've been taking baby steps every few days towards the final product.  First, we sectioned off our wall with tape to determine how large it should be.  This empty wall is in our great room on the way to the garage.  It's highly visible and completely empty since the day we moved in.

Kendra researched the internet and enlisted the help of our friend who does this kind of stuff as a hobby.  The frame and main board are glued together.

this is what the edge looks like where the frame and the board meet. It's sitting flat in our laundry room waiting for the next step of adding a border all the way around to make the edge fancy.

The idea is for the board to be painted with chalkboard paint and split into four quadrants.   That way each of the 4 Webbs will have our own section to write details of what and who we are praying for.  it's just one way I thought of to give the twins a meaningful target and express our values as a family.

See you soon!