{"id":509,"date":"2012-09-28T13:39:49","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T13:39:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kandynolesstevens.com\/?p=509"},"modified":"2012-09-28T13:39:49","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T13:39:49","slug":"1-day-to-go-pray-paring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/?p=509","title":{"rendered":"1 day to go: “Pray”-paring"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We love birds in our family; so much so that we raise homing pigeons.\u00a0 They are amazing birds with incredible speed and gentleness.\u00a0 The birds serve as FFA and 4-H projects, a business for our kids, and just plain enjoyment.\u00a0 Business with pigeons? You might ask with a skeptical look.\u00a0 Well, the white birds are used for releases for weddings, funerals, and other special events.\u00a0 (A little known \u201ctrade secret\u201d \u2013 doves are not used in dove releases.\u00a0 White pigeons are used for ethical reasons, mainly because they know how to make it home.)<\/p>\n

When the kids have a job, we perform practice releases the week before to give the birds (okay really ourselves) the reassurance that they know the way.\u00a0 Pigeons are really smart birds, and they don\u2019t really need this step.\u00a0 But we love doing the releases.\u00a0 I can drive highway speeds back to our house, and those birds beat me back.\u00a0 So they are also incredibly fast flyers.<\/p>\n

Recently, we did a very special release at a benefit for a dear friend.\u00a0 We did a final practice run the day before the event.\u00a0 My gut told me that something was wrong.\u00a0 Incredibly wrong.\u00a0 When I arrived home, the birds were not there.\u00a0 One hour later, no birds.\u00a0 Three hours later, no birds. Oh no, this release is so important!\u00a0 What in the world should we do?\u00a0 I did what any momma would do in this predicament.\u00a0 I hit my knees.\u00a0 I knew that God knew where those birds were, and I knew that His word says that if He cares for the birds, why would he not care for my kids (and their birds).<\/p>\n

In reality, I knew that God was the only One who could grant my children success. \u00a0They had done all the proper things with husbandry of pigeons.\u00a0 They had cared, fed, nurtured, watered, bathed, vaccinated, and trained those birds.\u00a0 There was nothing left that they could humanly do.\u00a0 Seven hours later after much prayer and hand-wringing, most of the birds made it home.\u00a0 We just had to place them in God\u2019s hands and know that they would be safe there.<\/p>\n

The same can be said of Reed\u2019s Run.\u00a0 I think we have checked and triple-checked the list. Honestly, our living room has been Command Central for months now.\u00a0 We have prayed, planned, prayed some more, checked lists, wrote letters, mailed postcards, ordered supplies, updated websites, and prayed again.\u00a0 But in the end, we rely on God\u2019s faithfulness to make this last Reed\u2019s Run a success.<\/p>\n

Stealing one from my cousin-in-law and sister in Christ, all my \u201cpray\u201d-paring hinges on my belief that God will grant us our heart\u2019s desire.\u00a0 Just like Nehemiah, I humbly ask \u201cGive your servant success today.\u201d\u00a0 (1:11 NIV)<\/p>\n

Please join us in a day of prayer that God grants us our heart\u2019s desire for a successful run and for the opportunity to share His love with others. If God is for us, then nothing else really matters!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We love birds in our family; so much so that we raise homing pigeons.\u00a0 They are amazing birds with incredible speed and gentleness.\u00a0 The birds serve as FFA and 4-H projects, a business for our kids, and just plain enjoyment.\u00a0 Business with pigeons? You might ask with a skeptical look.\u00a0 Well, the white birds are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[92,163,480,482,490,491,494,526,597],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.realsweetgrace.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}