Why yes God, that IS a cool idea!

Don't you just love it when God plops really neat ideas into your brain? For me, they tend to be at seemingly inconvenient times. Hahah Apparently right before I'm drifting off to sleep is a time when God can get my attention the easiest, because that's when He tends to throw things out at me. I phrase it like that for a very specific reason, mind you, because it's not like the ideas just gradually or gently "come to me." Oh no, one second there's nothin' and then BAM! an idea smacks me right in the face, waking me from my near-slumber.
Well, that's what happened when He gave me the idea for a new event that my business training and networking company, ThriveWith5, is bringing to the table next week. Yes, next week.
I was laying in bed when all of a sudden He hit me with the concept... networking, business, prayer, prayer, networking, business... these three concepts should all meld together, never separate from one another. Why don't we have a networking event that is focused on praying for our businesses in addition to networking?! I know, totally brilliant right? It made me wonder why I hadn't heard of anything like that before. We have the annual prayer breakfast here in Amarillo but God said we are going to have a networking event each month that incorporates prayer.
So He gave me the name too...
Pray'N.
Like, prayer meets networking... Pray'N. Cool huh?
So I am completely excited about this event. So often we somehow manage to separate God and our businesses, when in reality, God owns our businesses! Once a month now we will meet for lunch, networking, and to gather together believing for blessings and favor for one another for our businesses in prayer.
Oh yes, I am stoked.
I hope the entire town can join us! (Hey, go big or go home, people!) 
Has God ever given you a completely awesome idea at some really random moment? One of those, you knew it had to be from God because there's no way you would've pulled that one out from anywhere-type things? They are my favorite kind!

Holy huge croc! ... and raging wildfires

Photo credit: AP Photo found on Toshiba News link

This 21-foot beast was captured Sunday in Agusan del Sur Province (where in the world is that?) in a creek. That's right, a CREEK. Not 100% sure what their defintion of creek is, but the AP used the terminology, so it must be legit. The male crocodile weighed in at 2,370 pounds. Oh. My. Gosh. That's just beyond enormous.
As for the Captain Obvious comment of the day the story reads, "Residents of the farming town of about 37,000 people have been told to avoid venturing into marshy areas alone at night, Elorde said." HA! You think?
To top it off, they think there might be an even bigger one lurking around...
Check out the huge croc story here.
In other news, wildfires are still raging in Texas. It sort of feels like our entire state is burning up. Not sure what we did to piss off the fire gods... (KIDDING. I do not believe in fire gods). Regardless, keep everyone in your prayers. Especially the brave men and women out battling those blazes. As the wife of a firefighter, they tend to stay at the forefront of my mind.

Here are some fire stats (updated yesterday) that I found on the Texas Forest Service website:
· It appears that in the past 48 hours, more than 700 homes have been destroyed. As better assessments come in, we will continue to update the situation report.
· Yesterday (Sept. 5) Texas Forest Service responded to 22 new fires for 7,544 acres, including 10 new large fires.
· In the past seven days Texas Forest Service has responded to 181 fires for 118,413 acres.

Just in those 48 hours more than 700 homes destroyed. 700 folks. That's really hard to wrap your mind around.
On that note, if you have friends, family, or just someone you know who has been somehow affected by the wildfires in Texas or know some brave soul out fighting said fires, please leave a comment below. Let's turn the comment board into a prayer wall how's-a-'bout?

Happy the-week-is-half-over day...