You know when you’ve got a song stuck in your head and you can’t get it out?

Yeah. Me too.

And are you ever struck by how much God must really love irony?

Yup. Same here.

Me and a few ladies this summer have been going through Kelly Minter’s study, Nehemiah: a Heart That Can Break. It has been an amazing study that has just been fascinatingly and uniquely relevant to each of our lives.

Last week we were supposed to cover week 5, which is specifically about the prayer of the Jewish people, after the rebuilding of the wall in Jeruselum, which is apparently the longest recorded prayer in the Old Testament. (Nehemiah 9:1-35) Well, of course last week got busy, and few of us got much done. (I didn’t open my book!) So we just chatted, ate, kept the kids from destroying the house, and promised to do better next time. Needless to say, yesterday was Sunday and I still hadn’t started!

And then Sunday morning I woke up with this song stuck in my head. It’s on my iPod, sure, but it’s not one I listen to regularly. I don’t even know the last time I heard this song!

(And I forgot to mention – our Sunday School class retreat last weekend? Yeah, that was on prayer, too.)

And where does all the irony come in?

Well, Friday one of these gals asked me to lead a Bible study this fall, because she wasn’t quite enthused about any of the upcoming options.

And I actually said, “Okay. But I don’t know what we should study. What do you think?”

Well, okay, I at least think it’s funny! God knows I love irony and His sense of humor!

So, to add to my list of crazy busy this fall, I’m now about to create a study on prayer. And I’m strangely calm about it. Frankly, it just seems like all the stars are in alignment and this is just all falling into place nice and neatly.

What I do feel is a little bit of trepidation, not about the class itself, but about what will happen when we start this class. Prayer is going on the offense against Satan, and I know he is going to come at me and my “assistants” (because yeah, they said they’d help and I’m holding them to it!) with all the force he can muster. I can already tell that we are on the right track because this morning my back has completely seized up in knots and as soon as I got the word that this class was a go, I came down with a massive sinus headache. You know the kind – the one where all you can think of is just going to bed???? Yeah. So obviously, he’s already gotten the memo.

We (meaning me) still can’t decide on a specific book study to use, so I’m going to take a couple different options to Wednesday’s first meeting so we can all look at them together and see what happens. Right now I have a pile of about 20 books at the side of my bed, all on prayer. At least for the first session, I plan to pull from several different books and turn the hodge-podge into a lesson.

Egads. This is either going to be amazing or completely embarrassing. Thank you God, that all you ask for is “willing.”
As for the rest of this week? I’m swamped under with the plumber coming in a half-hour for a tub that won’t stop running, a house that is trashed, homeschool work, homeschool co-op every Tuesday, Bible study on Wednesdays, trying to get in as much work in as I can so we can continue to pay the bills, and occasionally seeing my hubby which I hope will look like more than two ships passing in the night. I covet your prayers for health, direction, and walls of protection around my family.