How Long Do You Pray Every Week?

Lately, I have tired of the statistics of how long the average person spends in prayer.  I am also somewhat uneasy by the term “quiet time”.  Yes!  Both of these reap valuable information that should cause us to self examine. 

But, perhaps this line of reasoning may help explain part of my discomfort.   When in college, I was asked to help do research for a study to determine the average length of a familial conversation.  Ot, from beginning to end, how many conversations family members had, and the length of those conversations, during their days.   Ready, set, start documenting your daily conversations, with whom, and for how long.

Geuss what?  The results of the study failed miserably.

Several reasons.   Perhaps a description of a “family conversation: describes it better:

Husband, walking in door:  “Hey, hon!”  with a quick kiss.

Child #1 runs up, “Hi Daddy!” with a hug.

While child #2 runs in: “Guess what happened today!”

Wife says, “How was your day?”

Wife says to child #3, “I told you to get the table cleaned off.”

Child #2 says, “I hurt my foot today!”

Hubby says:  “I’ve got to go to the bathroom and I’ll return”.

Was there conversation happening?

No one seemed to respond to anyone else.  No question got answered, there was no direct reply to anything said. 

BUT, there was interaction and response.  There was LIFE.

I don’t want to under-estimate the value of quiet time spend with God.  I don’t want to undervalue the need for prayer.  But, what scares me is that I hear people say, “Yes, there are weeks I go by and only pray twice.”  or “I can’t remember my last quiet time.”

What would you say of a family who lived together and said, “I can’t remember the last time we spoke.  In fact, I can’t remember the last time we were together.”

Our time with God, with our Father, with the power behind our life, is central to life.  It is our LIFE.  It is the air we breathe.  It is freedom, constant direction, encouragement, flow, interaction, communion, substanance. 

I will be the first to say, there are times I need to get away and just still my heart…yes!  In that case, I need a “quiet time”.  But, that does not define my life with my Lord.  It is a crazed love affair grabbing every conversation, interaction, idea, and direction.  It is life.

That is what he intended it to be.  Would we ask two young lovers, “What goal do you have for time to spend together each week?” 

Probably not.   They LONG for that time together…constantly talking, exchanges ideas, feelings, thoughts, breaths.  They just want to be together.  Never would they say, “Oh, I keep forgetting about that ‘time thing’!” 

I mean…yeah, if you are struggling with the discipline or certain habits or need refreshing goals can be helpful, we have goals for marriage at times to brush up…but, on the other hand….let’s not reduce God to a statistic!  Let’s let him be what he longs to be, our very life! 

Unabashed Begging for Props

You guys have been especially kind lately, and if we hit a normal average tomorrow, I’ll have 10,000 visits in one month!   Get out!  That’s nothing short of  coolness.  I’m not cool that often.  

Link and love tomorrow, peoples… 

Link. And. Love!

  

Excluding Me…Thank YOU

8,520 people visited this blog last month (excluding me). 

There were 2,300 visitors last week.

There were 403 or so visitors today.

And…I just want to say, “Thank you.  Come any time”. 

Stat Stress

Wow.  Ever look at your blog stats and not ever want to write again?  Ever just feel sick?  Ever wonder if the rambling daily makes a real difference?  Ever wish you were better at it like __________, or _________?  Ever wonder if you’d feel pretty small, still, if you saw “their” stats?  Ever want to give up and wonder what in the world you are doing with this whole “blog” thing anyway?  If it’s a waste of time and life? 

Oh, we know we have community, and shared faith, and sharing faith, and life and help and hope to offer…but the thoughts are still there! 

There are blogs I enjoy reading, some of them not AT ALL like mine!  Isn’t that a hoot!  I enjoy some totally different than my style!  Some I read every few weeks to catch up, some I check daily, some weekly.  Behind it all is not content, but good relationship and great people growing toward God in a real way…those I enjoy.  People challenging themselves, uncovering mysteries and nuggets in new and fresh ways, excited and passionate about their own journeys with God…those refresh me.

Keep writing!  Keep sharing!  Keep staying focused…not on numbers, but on people and on the Lord.  You are such an encouragement to my daily life and walk!  Thank you.

People Get Ready

“People get ready Jesus is comin’, soon we’ll be going’ home, People get ready Jesus is Comin’ to take from the world his own”.  I love that song by Crystal Lewis.  Have sang it a few times. 

Well, ya’ll get ready for some traffic, update your blogs, clean bloggy house, all that.  This bloggity place we call “Magnanimity” hosted the 87th most popular English blog entry in all of WordPress today.  Yeah!  Go God!  (‘Cause I have no idea how that is happening.  Usually a minor freakout occurs once I realize that it did.)  On that line, a friend sent me my most popular stats this week, and I didn’t even realize we’d been on the charts: 

Top Posts:
July 31, 2006 
August 1, 2006 
August 5, 2006
August 8, 2006
 August 11, 2006 
August 12, 2006
August 18, 2006 
August 23, 2006

Growing Blogs:

August 18, 2006 

Top Blogs: (Like a “top dog”?)

August 9, 2006 
August 10, 2006 
August 15, 2006
August 17, 2006

 August was “a good year”.  10,500 visits that month.  Freak of nature.  The moon was in proper alignment with…[just kidding, I think.]

• Who cares?
• Why tell me?   

1. Hopefully, God is being glorified here.  (captial g “god”…text editing has stolen my upper case and I can’t get it fixed…SO sorry.)Praise HIM (capital H)!  I do nothing no differently than great writers out there who I read every day who choose to (or have) less traffic.  You all MAKE this place come to life.  It’s as much about you as anything on the front page. COMMENT! 
2. Build community with these people…some are very much longing for Christian community from here and around the world.  If they see it’s safe to speak, they will…and we will welcome them.
3. I am updating my sidebar this weekend…if you read, comment, or link to me and want to be listed and I haven’t listed you…let me know here.  (See header for notes as to the type content I link to.)
4. Pray that any who fly by here will look around a bit and find something they need in me, or in you.  Sometimes it is your “most recent comments” that captivate them…not anything I say.  You make this blog live.
5. Those in my “blog-ring”?  Thank YOU for your great and updated, mixed content.  You may capture people I won’t.  

365 people came by today for a visit (generous WordPress stats there, probably mid 200s by sitemeter, I’ve not looked)  Update: sitemeter-300 exactly.  That is the second highest day this month (402 on 11/14…when, let’s see, ah yes,  I wrote this incredibly inspired content:

I’m Just So Tired November 14, 2006

Lord,

I’m just so tired. 

Much to do,

and I don’t do near enough,

and I am just so tired.

Until the morning…

Goodnight.  

There you go.  Increase your blog traffic:  Go get worn plum out!

Thanks for letting me brag on what God is doing with blogs to touch people and the world in some small way.  He is using you and your blogging to make him known, however He wills, and I’m proud of you and Him!  Thanks for sharing with me!

November:  5000 visits.  Thanks for being part of my life & daily community!  I know many of you have many more visits than that…some many less.  The point is not the numbers, the point is people.   We’re all being used.  Glory!

Reveal Him, glorify Him, and make Him known. 

People get ready…

Boring Self Note

In the last week, I have been linked from an Adkins diet forum blog, and today, now a Japanese website called sounlighthouse.com.  I was on some other weird forum last week.  You just never know.

I hate it when people talk about their blog stats.  Like, who really cares, and isn’t that so self promoting?  But, it’s encouraging, too?  Or should it be?  It’s like getting people to “come to church”.  Do the numbers matter as much as what happens and why they are there?  Hmmm.  Anyway…I like a record of it, because it’s fun.  So, it will go in the “stats” category for a day when I’m very, very bored and want to remember “where it all  began”…at zero.  No expectations.  No desire to be published or to even write anything noteworthy or “Google” worthy.  Just doing it because I felt compelled to do so for whatever reason that day. 

Right now? I feel compelled to “go work out”.  Now…why doesn’t that come as easy to me as it once did?   Passion.  I need some passion in the “work out” zone!

Well, I already wrote one long post today–get that done and you’ll really be doing good.  (Or, do like I do sometimes and go to the short ones you can skim quickly.)  

…You were supposed to say, “No, but we REALLY WANT to read MORE!” at that juncture.   

Have a Lemonade

Not a big deal to some out there, but for a stay-at-home mom with little to do for entertainment but ramble about life, 400 page views a day for several days something cool to note!     

Go have a nice cool lemonade on me… and slurp!

Search String Entertainment

At night lately, I’ve been telling my husband some of the crazy search strings that hit this site.  WordPress does a good job with that, but they don’t show me which search engine was used–bummer…www.statcounter.com did that well (not sure I can run it here at WordPress from what I’ve read). 

So, today this search string hit my blog:  “help improve my christian marriage sex”.

Hubby says, “Well, for for heaven’s sake, aren’t you going to help the poor girl out?!” 

Sounds good.  Wait a minute….I guess he’s just assuming a girl wrote it?  Why’s that? 

Part of my “Marriage and Family Development” degree was a heavy dose of human sexuality.  I guess you could say I’ve heard and seen it all…or at least rather enough in my opinion!  Whether that makes me comfortable or qualified to write about it, I’m not so sure.  Now, I have been married 14 years…that qualifies me considerably more than the “degree” in the subject area. 

Yeah, I’ll get right on that.  Just as soon as I….

 …..

….

Dance Like…. Moses?

I read a quote last week that I can’t put my finger on now.  It said something to the effect that every reporter began and continues because they are inordinately angry about something.  Hmmm.  I think that’s how some of this weeks blogs really began.  The Lord is trying to convince me it can be used by him while I’m doing the “I can’t do it” Moses dance.  (There’s a song in the making in there). 

Anyway, due to the unexpected web popularity of a few posts this week (popular for me),  I’ve felt led to spend a bit of time today editing them to try to make them more of a resource for the person searching, which means editing out a lot of ranting and frustration that started there–you were blessed with all that the first time around.  I guess sometimes that gets us started.  There is little “personal” writing on these subjects out there for people searching on the net.  The traffic has been a good, but unexpected thing.  Slight feeling of panic and impulse to go throw up!  Aaaaagh! 

I continue to appreciate any feedback or comments.    Thanks for the encouragement to broach hard subjects, even in a blogging, intentionally “unfinished”, frustrated way that gets us thinking.  Let me know if I could do better in some area.  Just be very nice about it, as I’m not a writer, nor do I claim to be.  Just a blogger.   

If you’ve not read them, linkage:

The Crush and the Christian Marriage 

Christian Lifestyle:  I Need to Feel Sexy

Christian Dress (Part 2):  Follow Up Notes

Thanks again for being so great!

~”Maggie”