Cough, cough

Well, I've been sick. Still am. But I'm getting over it. That's not the reason why I haven't blogged in a while. That's because I haven't had anything to write about. I won a Jeremy Camp t-shirt recently, and have been Christmas shopping for my family.

Sweet Seconds of Prayer

Recently, I prayed for the stupidest thing.

After buying a cheap Nextar MP3 player from XS Cargo (great store with low prices), I took it out of the plastic baggie and tried out the earbuds. Somewhere along the way, I lost said earbuds. The whole time I was retracing my steps saying, "C'mon God, why? This is so stupid! I don't get it! It's not weird, just STUPID!" After realizing I was stupid, I figured I'd buy another set of earbuds from the dollar store. Then I do stupid thing #2: I try them in the player AFTER I leave the store and find out, much to my dismay, that the jack is too small. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid me for praying about something so trivial. And yet....

Hi. I'm Laura Chambers, and I have PrayDD. That's right. Prayer Deficit Disorder. I pray every day, but unless something affects me greatly (like the earbuds[?!]), I can't really stay in a prayer for more than seconds. Maybe it's because I'm talking to God and not a person right in front of me who can say "Not so fast, Laura!" and grab my attention and force me to stay in one place and listen. And then sometimes, seconds are all I have, because I have to set the table, or answer a question somebody asks me. Plus there's the awkward, "What are you doing?" or barge-into-my-room-unannounced moments. I'd love to say, "Praying; can you leave until I'm finished/give me a minute?" But no.

That's why I like to go home from the library alone, with God, my MP3 player, and the weather, beautiful or lousy. But even then, I'd rather sing. I say to myself, "I connect better through music than speaking prayer. It feels more natural." Or am I selfish?

I also have a bad habit of praying for someone once and forgetting it later. Or feeling guilty over praying for Christian celebrity tweeps and forgetting my other friends. Or not being able to pray for EVERYONE without feeling like it's too easy, a blanket solution where I say I care for everyone but is it really no one?

But then I'm reminded God prefers quality over quantity, every time:

""And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." (Matthew 6:5-8)

So it can be an hour or seconds, but if I mean it, God loves it. (By the way, the headphones I already had work with the player!!! Though it's a battery eater.)

Winnings from Twitter

Okay, so instead of "Everything is Different" I got the Newsboys sneak peek EP and 2 "GO" stickers. Which was 4th prize, not 3rd. Dunno why.

But that's not where it ends. I won an autographed copy of Group 1 Crew's "Ordinary Dreamers" from @therevolvetour for being the 5th or maybe only person to tell them the names of the band members. And yesterday I won a copy of "Shades Of Blue" from @KarenKingsbury. I never used to win things and now every other week I win. (NOT complaining!!!!)

Seriously Twitter is awesome for winning stuff.

MMM....dip. MMM....music. MMM....snake??!

And now, my famous chip dip recipe!

1 heaping tablespoon of Kraft Light Miracle whip per person
Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
Green onion, chopped*
1 teaspoon of Cheez Whiz*
1 teaspoon of buttermilk*

*Optional

Directions: Mix the above. Dip. Yum. :)

It's INSANELY good!!! However, if you're taking part in Casting Pounds, you'll probably want to pass. :)

As for the prize win, I won 3rd prize in the past week's InPop Records' "Fun Friday Freebie" on Twitter. So that means I'm getting a copy of Shane and Shane's newest, Everything Is Different. I was actually kinda hoping I'd win the Superchi[k] CD instead, but oh well. :D I never won anything until I got a Twitter account so thanks InPop and thanks Twitter! :D

I should've left for home half an hour ago.

Oh, I got one more thing for you; I was at the grocery store last week and saw a sign that cracked me up;

"Whole Dried Cranberries: Great Healthy Snake For The Whole Family" Now, I don't know about you, but I don't care if the snake was on his last legs! (which they don't have, BTW)

I write lyrics!

Hey all you FOTGHITC fans!!!! (Well, shout out to the 2 of you, anyway. :) ) Read the title of this blog post. My blog here gets imported onto my fan page notes. That's right. I have a Facebook fan page. I'm so special. :wink: But that's not all that makes its way into said notes.

Anyhoo, if you like to read lyrics that (as of yet) have no music composed to them, check out this page! I write all different genres (surprising most of all me) and have been on a writing streak since Aug 24 2008. (yay discipline!!!!)


http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/Laura-Cynthia-Chambers/139339605505?ref=ts

Zechariah and Mary Seem To Have Switched Reactions

Zechariah had been a priest for decades. He'd been studying for it since he was a young man. Basically, he'd made a paying career out of following God. (Sweet.) You'd think a guy like that would be pretty close to God, right? You know, the PUSH (pray until something happens) type who wouldn't let anybody mess around with his faith. Rock-solid. Like this (picture my two index fingers hooked around eachother.) The kind of guy who sees a miracle, is in awe and yet still manages to say, "Doesn't surprise me." Amazing, yes. Ridiculous, no. Get the picture?

Yet when the angel tells him that he and his wife will have a son, Zechariah doesn't fall down on his knees and say, "I believe it! Praise God!!!" He doesn't rush out of the temple to the marketplace for a rattle and booties. He doesn't even remember the story of Abraham and Sarah. He says, "How can this be? My wife is old and infertile. I am old. Impossible." This man who'd made it his life's work to know God doesn't believe the angel's message. And for that he goes temporarily mute.

Mary was a betrothed teenage virgin. She'd been raised to be a good Jewish girl, her destiny to be a wife and mother. Being young and inexperienced in life, with a faith taught from birth, you'd expect she was just beginning to seek a personal relationship with God that wasn't built solely upon other's shoulders. She heard the stories of God's miracles in the past as Zachariah had, but I doubt she was the equivalent of a Jewish nun.

Still, she also receives a visit from an angel who says that she's going to conceive and bear a child. She asks also how it would be since she is a virgin. Now the angel cuts Mary some slack because after all, she is a young girl, not an old priest. However, once the angel assures Mary that she will conceive divinely, that's enough for her. She just accepts it like that. Could you? Seriously, one day you're just going through life getting ready to be married, and all of a sudden, "It's gonna be a boy!" She believed it the minute she understood how it would happen. Now how's that for faith? Pretty awesome that it can come from the unlikeliest person.

Interview with Paige Armstrong!!

Hey, if you've been reading my reviews lately you know I just did one of Paige Armstrong's album Wake Up. Recently, I did an interview via e-mail with Paige, and you can read it on my webpage!!! Paige's story is an AMAZING testimony of how she made lemonade from a very sour lemon.

http://lacynlyrics.weebly.com/hownow.html

A little devo, a little fun-o

I was flipping through my Bible this morning, and came upon a verse in Isaiah (7:9). Well, actually it was the second part of the verse that I noticed. "If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all."

Hands up, how many of you have trouble making decisions? Keeping promises? I'm no exception. I say I'll be home from the library at 1:00 pm, but it's 5:00 pm and I'm still chatting on Twitter. If there's nobody online I want to talk to, I just stall until something happens. Not fair to my family. I know it, too.

It never occurred to me until today that maybe the problem is my faith. If I can't even keep a promise to be home early, how can I keep promises to God about my life? Why am I more eager to impress and fit in with people I'll never meet this side of heaven than my own family? I can say it's because I never had much of a social life in school, and now my only friends are online.

But so what?

What bites is I'll probably do it again today.

Don't make my mistake. The closer you are to God, the easier it'll be to stand firm in everything you do. Whether it's an issue of morality or deciding what you'll do with the rest of your life, be faithful and firm.


Now, onto the fun! It's no secret that I want a guitar. I must've entered 5+ contests where I could win one, electric or acoustic (though for now I'd prefer acoustic!) Anyhoo, I got to thinking, "what are some funny ways you could get a guitar for free?"

Actually, it didn't start that way. I had this image of a guy going fly fishing with a pick for bait (works best if you're looking for a BASS! LOL). Then, I thought of compiling a whole list.

>Leaving sheet music under your pillow for the Guitar Fairy

>Standing outside a music store, begging and whining like a dog.

>Go to the city limits and hold up a sign, "Guitar or Bust"

So, what are some goofy ways you'd try to snag a free guitar? I'm probably not gonna try any of them (gee, that'd make a great video for Youtube though!!!) but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Didn't see this coming, but wow....

Hey fanatics, I'm coming to you semi-live from where I always am online. First of all I'm totally stunned cuz I didn't even see this blog idea coming. But I'm psyched! :D Cuz now I get to bore you with my randomness and opinions....(well not really!!) Sometimes I think I'm still a little kid, but I also write lyrics that have me thnking "this is not me-it's all God!"

So first of all thanks Jay and Aaron for putting this together. :) And always God. :D