God's Footnotes on the day, a late night prayer for YOU and musings on "sibling rivalry"?

Here I sit, ready to head to bed after a long productive day and my 4 offspring are in the middle of a heated battle. The Offspring (I hesitate to call them children as the "baby" is now 14 yrs old and almost as tall as I am) are all in the middle of their latest game of "Illuminati". This is an odd strategy game and I don't know if anyone else, short of their long time friends, has heard of it.

The Sibling rivalry comes in when you understand the nature of Illuminati. This is a strategy game in which you bluff, out think and even (gasp) CON your fellow game players into doing whatever it is that is your objective.

Ordinarily I would not encourage this sort of deception, but in the spirit of the board game, I am sitting here basking in the evidence of a "Job Well Done".

How so?

I see before me the fruit of literally decades of work trying to knit my children's heart to each other. They are now fast friends, although they are still working on the dynamics of "what to do when your sibling doesn't do things the way you think they should" and "Learning to let go of preconceived notions of how much better it wold be if Sibling X would just listen to Sibling Z's advice."

I write all this in order to explain that, although I am basking in the glow of God's goodness in letting me be mom to these 4, I know they are not perfect. (Thank GOODNESS because they certainly don't have a perfect mother!)

What God is showing me right now is that HE HAS BLESSED ME (yet again) and this beautiful scene is a "common, every-day" blessing. What would my life be like if I'd not recognized the need to pray for God to help me to knit their hearts together? They love each other, they tease and play with each other. They pray for each other and actually ENJOY EACH OTHER'S COMPANY!

Tonight's blessing is given just because of God's grace and mercy to me, a grateful mom who had no clue as to how to raise kids, except that she had to LOVE THEM and show that love, praying to God to bless my efforts. He's blessed me way above anything that I could have dreamed and what I see before me is nothing but the Grace of God. My children are so much better than any children I would have "earned" by my own feeble efforts. It's just one more way that God has shown His love to me, I know.

Speaking of God's love for us, the only one of my "chilluns" missing right now is our "newest" son, who is working hard at his EMT job in Louisiana. I don't know how long it will be before we see him again but we call and text him many times a week, he's constantly in our prayers and there's yet another "care package" ready for the post office tomorrow afternoon.

It's touching how, even though he's not here, his "adopted" sibs have mentioned him many times tonight, even giving a cheer for his favorite football team, Notre Dame.

Football has been the big topic of discussion this evening, with the general consensus being that this is the most off kilter year we've seen in a long time of NCAA football viewing. #1 rated LSU has lost this weekend (ouch! and to Arkansas?!) Kansas lost to Missouri (unexpected around here but very appreciated as we're Sooner fans) and now it appears that our Sooners will have a game against Missouri for the Big 12 Championship game. (This will be the 2nd time OU has played Missouri this year and it will likely be a fantastic game. Too bad those season tickets don't extend to the Big 12 Championship game!)

The only bright spots for the fans on this football viewing day are that Oklahoma managed to win the big "Bedlam" game vs. in-state rival Oklahoma State and (sweet thing for our Cajun son) Notre Dame is now reveling in the glory of their 2 game "winning streak". It's been a tough year for the Fighting Irish and those 2 wins are a sweet end to the season. So there is yet another footnote, the folks who formerly didn't like Notre Dame at all are all happy because they won another game and it's all because of our love for the "newest" addition to the family.

As I head off to dreamland, I pray your eyes are open this week to the GLORIES that God will show you. I encourage you to look around you and seek out the small victories and loving signposts that God has undoubtedly put in YOUR life right now, too. Every Glory that He has prepared for you might not be a BIG SIGN, but maybe a little footnote to your day, just like the footnote God showed me this evening while watching a fast paced game of Illuminati.

I hope and pray your eyes are now open to seeing HIS grace and gifts in your own footnotes to the day.


P.S. News Flash- the winner of the 1st Illuminati game this evening is the "baby" the 14 year old daughter. Just one more sweet end to the day as I hold on to the memory of her sweet smile as I walk down the hall to my warm bed.

Thanks, Lord! I needed these little footnotes today.