Monday, June 09, 2014

The Benson’s are Moving


Before you start asking LOTS of questions let me give you four quick facts:
* We are staying at CPC
* We are not leaving the Peninsula
* We are staying in San Mateo
* We are moving to the house across the street!

For about six months we’ve been praying fervently for God to open the door for us to move in a bigger home. We actually prayed very specially for this home we’re moving in to. 

Now, our prayer started out generally. We asked God to give us a place with another bathroom. Its become increasingly difficult having all four of us sharing one bathroom.

With the prayer for one more bathroom, we began praying for another bedroom. We figured while we were praying for another bedroom, we might as well pray for a backyard for our girls to play in. Before you think this move is solely about the house size, keep reading.

With our daughters growing up we wanted to get a larger home. Where the prayer gets even more specific for the move is staying in our neighborhood. We LOVE our neighborhood. Sophie loves her school, we love our neighbors, we love our location and its close to our church. With all the transition our girls have experienced in the last two years we figured: the less change, the better.

When our neighbor told us she was moving out and they were going to rent the house it was like God answering our prayers we’d been praying for months all in a matter of seconds! We are so excited to move into our new home that is directly across the street from our house on June 22, 2014!

Wednesday, June 04, 2014

A Prayer for Driving Home

As a dad I feel a responsibility to be engaged with my wife and kids when I arrive home from work. There are days I am ready to run in the house, kiss my family and play whatever game my kids are already playing. Then there are days where I would prefer to sit in the car and listen to another song trying to prepare my heart.

The bottom line is: we all experience good days and bad days in our jobs. We bring the emotional weight of these responsibilities into our home after work. We have two options when we encounter a difficult day in the office:
We can enter our house and express our emotions negatively to our family
We can choose to take advantage of the time in our car, on the way home, to pray

I wish I could say I always take the second option, but I don’t. Normally I do choose the second option and sometimes I find myself praying as I’m parking or when I walk up to the door. Generally I pray a similar prayer; it goes something like this:

God, you know how my day has been today. I’ve played all four quarters hard and I’m spent. This is where the rubber meets the road. Please give me your strength as I enter overtime. Right now is the most important part of my day, I only get two hours with my family. I don’t want to give my family my leftovers. Please energize me for what I need to focus on when I walk through the door. I can’t do this on my own Lord, I need you. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen. 

Do you have a prayer you pray before you get home?