Travel, Victoria and Mama, prayer

Lots of travel for me this week. I will be driving to Guymon, Ok today, to Elk City, OK tomorrow and returning to Decatur on Thursday evening to do reviews in all three locations. I get to visit with staff and give them an idea how they were ranked among their peers and by my peers. Everyone takes it pretty well through the disappointments, but it is not fun for me.


Victoria and I were talking about comfort zones and this job has expanded my comfort zone by leaps and bounds in lots of areas. Giving feedback – especially negative – has not been included in that new territory. Victoria was specifically talking about the herb shop and what part she could play in it. I told her that was barely in my comfort zone, I am almost certain it is out of hers until she decides to expand emotionally. She asked, “Why am I like that?” To a very large extent, we all chose who we are. God strengthens the parts that glorify Him; the other parts are a constant struggle.

She and Mama spent the day together yesterday. Mama’s regular routine is to leave the house at about 10:30 a.m. and begin her prescribed route whether it is grocery shopping or some other errand. Yesterday it was the Laundromat and makeup shopping and as usual the $25 I approved for the purchase turned into $49 by the time she made it out of the store. During that time Victoria got her phone service restored and made a test call to me. Her greeting; “Daddy, that wife of yours…” By this time they had been out for two hours, had eaten at Chick-fil-A, (It was all free of course – except the extra fries and a large tea.) had been in several stores and were nowhere near making it to the Laundromat. Welcome to my world.

When I told Mama I would not need lunch for the rest of the week, she was very obviously jealous; this from a person that goes out to eat three to four times per week. I will be having lunch with a group in each location where I will be doing the reviews. The exception is for Thursday. There is a benefit luncheon being held here in Borger which most of us will attend after the Safety meeting. ConocoPhillips will be buying the tickets to support the activity.

Chase called yesterday to talk with Mama a while. The only part of the conversation that was relayed to me was the part where I need to send him $150 as soon as I can to help him with something or other. This is after sending a check to the school of $668 to cover tuition and books for January. It is a good thing I have a money tree growing in the house, otherwise this could get difficult.

Cori and Mama had a long talk yesterday about the revival Cori’s church is having right now. The sermon that impressed her most thus far was on prayer; praying until… She is correct in her understanding that we do not pray with the earnest expectation that God will really do what we are needing Him to do in our lives and in the lives of those for whom we are begging His help.

Most of our prayer time is spent on scattered, selfish and hurried thoughts offered to God with the pretext of true interest. To pray with commitment is a treasure few of us ever invest in. The wonder of it all is that God understands our needs and our most intimate desires and meets so many of those requests – spoken and unspoken – that we take for granted the intimacy we could have with our Creator, Redeemer and Friend.

Cori and Mama have committed to fervent prayer for Joshua. The fervent prayer of a righteous man (or woman) still availeth much. It is a promise worth investing in. Now if the Lord will lay it on Mykenzie’s heart to pray for her uncle, it is hard to say what God might do.