Blog - Lauren Sparks

Princess Consuela Banana Hammock…and Grace and Truth Link Up

April 9, 2021 by Lauren 4 Comments

Today is National Name Yourself Day! Can you tell I’m paying a little too much attention to the weird and random holidays lately? This one reminded me of an episode of the TV show Friends. In it the principle character Phoebe decided to legally change her name to Princess Consuela Banana Hammock. The problem? She had no idea what a banana hammock actually was. Hilarity ensued.

A few years ago, I learned that I sang the wrong words to the 2005 song “Move Along” by The All-American Rejects. Apparently oblivious to the NAME of the song, I believed the lyrics to the chorus were, “And even when your hope is gone, mow the lawn, mow the lawn just to make it through.” Changes the meaning a bit. Just like Phoebe’s name of choice changed from whimsical to weird when she understood that Banana Hammock was more than just a funny word.

Following my realization, I threw up a post on Facebook asking others to share their best misheard lyrics. I’ll share a couple that made me spit coffee out of my nose. My Allie used to sing the praise song, “You are the everlasting God” as “You are forever asking God”. Might be some truth there. If pop music is more your thing, a friend’s grandson sang Maroon 5’s megahit “Moves Like Jagger” as “I’ve got to move like dragons, I’ve got to move like dragons.” And Princess Consuela herself thought Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer” went “Hold Me Closer, Tony Danza”. I’m sure many Who’s the Boss fans relate. But one of my favorites, Billy Joel’s “Keeping the Faith”, has a whole new meaning when interpreted as “Yeah, yeah, yeah, just a kick in the face!”

A couple of weeks ago, the 23rd Psalm, Verse 6 reminded me of a misheard lyric of my own. I grew up singing the hymn based on this passage, “Surely Goodness and Mercy”. Even as a child, I had the words right – I held the hymnal with them in my hand. “Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” A cheery song that left me wondering what in the world surely goodness was.

I believe the word of God is without error, but a comma would have helped 2nd grade Lauren understand just what we sang about. Read this with a pause where I placed the comma. “Surely, goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.” Surely. A sure thing. Without a doubt, goodness and mercy follow me wherever I go. Because I belong to Jesus, goodness and mercy surround me. Always. In every way. Wow.

May a pause between two words encourage you today.

And now for this week’s featured post from the link up!

Jennifer Ross touched me with her sweet tribute to her daughter and a miracle working God in The Gift of a Rose… I have a baby girl (16 now) with the middle name Rose as well. Praise God for His precious gifts.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).

We encourage you to follow our hosts on their blogs or social media.

MAREE DEE – Embracing the Unexpected
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HEATHER HART & VALERIE RIESE – Candidly Christian
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LAUREN SPARKS
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LISA BURGESS – Lisa notes
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Now Let’s Link Up!

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Praying God’s Word Wednesday #1

April 7, 2021 by Lauren 14 Comments

Welcome to the very first Praying God’s Word Wednesday! I introduced this new segment in my blog post last week. You can reference it for background if you missed it.

I’m so excited to share this time at the throne of God with you. I will walk you through the process I use to pray scripture for myself and others, using pretty detailed explanation at first and eventually just giving you the scripture and prayer. That will make it a quick and easy reference to use should you choose to do so.

I want to state very clearly that I’m not a Bible scholar. I am under no pretension that I know more about the Word of God than you or anyone else. I just love the Lord and want to share how my prayer life has been enriched using the Words in the text. At times I use a Bible commentary to understand the passage more fully, but I don’t do word studies or evaluate more deeply for most prayers. I present to you an ordinary woman praying to an extraordinary God.

Each day as I sit down to study the Bible, I ask God to show me the verse or verses He would like me to pray over a person or group of people. Today I landed on Deuteronomy 33:12:

About Benjamin he said: “Let the beloved of the Lord rest secure in him, for he shields him all day long, and the one the Lord loves rests between his shoulder.”

The Believer’s Bible Commentary says of Benjamin: The temple, God’s dwelling place on earth, would be located in Benjamin’s territory, surrounded by shouldering hills. Therefore, Benjamin is pictured as a beloved tribe, enjoying intimate communion with the Lord.

From those two sources I formulate this prayer:

Replace the pronouns with the appropriate ones for the person (or yourself) that you are praying for.

Praying for you in this. And don’t forget to share this on social media or with a friend who could benefit. It would mean so much to me. And if you don’t want to miss a Praying God’s Word Wednesday, subscribe over on the right hand side of this page.

How to Pray Scripture Over Others

April 2, 2021 by Lauren 20 Comments

Intercessory prayer has not always been my strong suit. Anytime a friend or family member tells me about a challenge or difficulty, my good Christian response has always been, “I’ll pray for you about that.” I never intended to be flippant or disingenuous. I fully intended to pray. Every time. But often by the time I got around to it, the thing had slipped right out of my mind. Please tell me I’m not the only one!

A former pastor of mine used a “pray with” instead of “pray for” solution to this potential problem. He would ask to pray with the person right then and there to make sure he followed through. I like this, but there is not always time or place. And I desired to be an “in-the-trenches” constantly praying support to my loved one. So I started using my iphone (something I always have on me) to help me remember.

It took some trial and error to find an app that fit into my lifestyle, but I finally landed on the Echo prayer app. It’s quick and easy to enter in someone’s name and condensed version of the request. I either do it in the moment – explaining to my loved one that I wanted to make sure to get this down and follow through or enter it as soon as a moment alone presents itself.

I immediately got better at praying for the needs of others in my life. But I quickly found my prayer life getting stale as I prayed for ongoing problems. How many times can I ask God to heal my friend with cancer? My family member’s marriage problems are dragging on and on as I pray for reconciliation. I began to feel like I was only checking things off the list instead of talking to my Heavenly Daddy. Until a couple of years ago when I started praying scripture over my daughter.

One day while spending time in God’s Word, I read a verse about temptation (peer pressure in teen speak) that I immediately turned into a prayer for my girl. I texted it to her as an encouragement. Then decided I should do that on a regular basis – giving her a running list of prayers and verses she could turn to in time of need. Every day I began to seek the Lord’s leading during my time with Him on what I should pray for her.

Praying God’s Word over Allie broadened the variety and depth of my prayer time and covered things I might never have thought to lift up to the Lord. So when my son went through an unthinkable tragedy that lead to an intense season of grief and change that continues today, I used this method of prayer and texting with him. And when a girlfriend had a tough surgery and recovery, I added her to the list. And when a neighbor lost her husband unexpectedly, God called me to do the same. And the list now goes on.

Somedays the scripture I pray over a loved one has nothing to do with his or her particular hardship. But praying God’s Word means I’m praying God’s will. It keeps my prayers for them from becoming rote. Sometimes I pray the exact same scripture over everyone on my list, or other times I pray something very specific and personal. But every prayer is alive and active (Hebrews 4:12).

If you would like some help with praying scripture over yourself or others, I highly recommend the Power of a Praying… books by Stormie Omartian. Or start using my method. With this post, I am kicking off a brand new series here on the blog called “Praying God’s Word Wednesdays”. Beginning Wednesday April 7th, I will list a Bible verse or passage and break down how I would create a prayer from it. You can use it as a springboard, or pray the prayer right off the screen.

I would love to have you come back here every Wednesday to pray with me. Or subscribe in the box on the right hand side of this page to make sure you don’t miss one. These posts will be short and, I hope, sweet. If you have any questions, please use the comment box below or send me a private email to lauren@laurensparks.net. Love all of you and praying for you on this Good Friday. And Happy, Happy Easter! He is Risen!

And now for this week’s featured post from the link-up!

Barbara Lee Harper from Stray Thoughts: A Home for the Stray Thoughts of an Ordinary Christian Woman hit on one of the most important issues in our culture right now with Disagreeing Like a Christian. I grieve the lack of grace I see exhibited between people in our cancel culture. Barbara said, “disagreeing on one point doesn’t mean we’re totally against everything the person says or stands for.” Amen and Amen. Click on the link to read the rest.

1. Share 1 or 2 of your most recent CHRISTIAN LIVING posts. (No DIY, crafts, recipes, or inappropriate articles.) All links are randomly sorted.

2. Comment on 1 or 2 other links. Grace & Truth linkup encourages community.

3. Every host features one entry from the previous week. To be featured, include this button or link back here on your post (mandatory to be featured, but not to participate).