Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Prayer Impact

When I was a little girl, almost every Saturday night my family would go to visit “The Tias.”  (Tias is the Spanish word for Aunts.)  We had four that we visited regularly.  Three of them lived together and the fourth lived near by, and was usually with the other three.  My aunt Lulu, was the oldest of “The Tias” and my memory of her is simple.  Every year at Christmas, we had a tradition.  We would go to her house and she would measure me for my Christmas present, a nightgown.  She would make the nightgown in a traditional pioneer style, length to my ankles, neck covered, and long sleeves.   Then there was my sweet Aunt Ester.  She was ALWAYS in the kitchen and always ready with a snack and a smile.  My Aunt Millie was and still is very much the matriarch of her family.  She never married, and made it her personal responsibility to take care of everyone in her own special way.  Lastly, there is Aunt Angie, my personal favorite.  She is the baby sister to “The Tias” and to my grandmother.  I always saw her as being somewhat cool, after all, she drove a Monte Carlo and I was 10.  Nearly every Saturday when we would go to visit, my brother, sister and I would hide. (In the same spot every time!We would pretend that my parents had come to visit “The Tias” without us kids.  Every time we would jump out and every time they would act surprised. 

The point of my story is that besides all the fun memories of visiting my Tias, they played an important role in my life, and the life of my siblings.  My Tias always prayed for us.  I often think there have been few others who prayed for us as faithfully as they did.  They use to pray for all the kids of each family by name.  They were wonderful role models of prayer in action.  To this day, I cannot talk to my Aunt Angie without her breaking into prayer in the middle of the conversation.  She will be asking me how I am doing, and then she will trail off and sound something like this…..

“Aye Mijita, Lord be with you and bless you and give you his Armor of protection!  In His precious son Jesus’ name, Amen.” 

It was just last fall, when I realized what she was praying for me.

Ephesians 6: 11, 13-17

11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. 14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, 15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

I read these verses as a part of a Bible Study at church.  The study was Kay Arthur’s Covenant study.  This is by far the best study I have taken to date.  It gave more insight into the Lord’s love and commitment to His people than I had ever learned.  For years, my tias, specifically, my aunt Angie, had been praying this for me.  I am not sure that she even realized the impact of her simple prayer for me.  I could spend a whole blog just discussing these verses, and I may do that some day, but today, I am going to let them stand on their own with no explanation of the power found in them.

My thoughts are here today, because I have been considering different types of service to the Lord.  Today, I made a decision to follow a possible opportunity of service.  I am both excited and scared.  I am not sure if this is where the Lord wants me. However, I have a good feeling that it is; because, the moment that I made the call to discuss the service position, is also the moment that I felt inadequate.  I find that when the enemy attacks me, he is often disguised as me.  I began to question my capabilities, but the Lord brought me back here.   He reminded me that I am indeed cloaked with His Armor!

If this service opportunity works out, I will be sure to let you know what the Lord is doing in my heart.  This is just another step in my journey to be average in the world, but great in God.

3 comments:

  1. Mirm, I love this!!! The Tias are treasures for sure, I'm so glad MY kids have an amazing Tia to pray for them also! Love your line about the enemy being disguised as ourselves - so true!
    Love you! And so curious what your next challenge is... :)

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  2. That was my favorite part too. I feel like I am given opportunities for God all the time, but I get in the way. I am going to attempt to see this through should the door be opened. It will be about two weeks before I know anything. Love you too!

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  3. that's definitely my favorite part too! ain't that the truth! i think i have an old facebook post that reads: "i have but one enemy: myself." Thank you for sharing :)

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