The Beginning of the Wall

Sir and I have been talking for almost a year about putting together a "prayer wall."  I got the idea from the Caringbridge blog several years ago of a precious brother who was, in fact, the attorney who did my first will.  Several years later, he developed ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and his usual gregarious self became trapped in a body that refused to work.  When he finally could only sit and move his eyes, he asked his family to cover a brick wall in his house with photos of those he knew, loved, and never even met; and he sat for hours and hours, praying for those people.  It touched me deeply, and even after a number of years, I've not lost the desire to create something like that.

Over at Beth Moore's blog, she asked all of us to post a prayer asking God to do a specific work in our lives this year.  I have SO many areas of shortcoming which need to be dealt with, but felt I should ask God which one He wants to fix first (Beth accurately suggested that too much at once is overwhelming.)  A day went by, and I realized I hadn't asked God at all - I'd been merely rolling things around in my own head.  It became apparent, even to absent-minded me, that what I needed most was a disciplined prayer life.  That's what I've asked our Father to give me in 2011, and so today I'm constructing the prayer wall as a concrete beginning.  Here's what I have so far:

Two $6.99 beautifully framed cork boards from Ross Dress For Less in Lakewood, Washington - bought last spring and hauled across the continent and the ocean.

The very small handful of photos I brought with me to Germany.  These are part of the many I keep hoping to scan onto a flash drive (I can see my Girl rolling her eyes right now as she knows my procrastination habits) before they fade off into oblivion.  I am treasuring these photos, as they are some of my favorites, and I think I'm going to try photographing them and uploading them here in the next couple of days, because OH THE ADORABLE.  And oh, how have I lived 51 years and never yet found a flattering haircut?  And, oh, how I miss all the people in these pictures!!

And here are the office supplies to make little cards for the names of people we want to pray for but don't have photos of.  (What a complete grammatical butcherization that was.)

So before we go next door for a fun evening of appetizers and board games with neighbors, I'm going to get busy cutting and pasting.

On a somewhat unrelated but totally characteristic of me note:  This is the ideal geographical location for Sir to celebrate New Year's Eve.  He can go to bed, wake up at his usual time, and be early for the ball to drop in New York. 

By the same token, it's an awful location for me.  I am always last-minute, so I have six hours less to be "ready" for the New Year.  It reduces my odds even further, as I must admit that there may have been only four or five of the last 50 New Years that I have been fully organized, ready and prepared for; and most of them occurred in the 1990s.

That being said, I can't let this day go by without thanking each of you, Sweetest Readers, for the friendship, servant-heartedness and full-out love you have showered on this undeserving, tired, extra-fluffy, mess of a girl this year.  May God's blessings absolutely cover you in 2011.