Teenage Friends

This is the what I see frequently at my front door.  It's usually how I know how many friends are over. Is that bad?  I count the shoes, that aren't my own kids' shoes, and I can figure out how many "extras" I have at the house.  I do monitor my teens very closely and they have been blessed to have some awesome friends that really are like nieces and nephews to me.  Once a week my daughter has a prayer group of girls at the house.  They come in the front door quietly and again I count the shoes at the front door to figure out how many girls are up in her room.  Sometimes I stand at her door and here them all praying.  What an incredible thing to hear........teenage girls praying ferverently and crying out to the Lord.  I am amazed at what God is doing in their lives.  God spoke to me about 6 months ago that He is going to use our house as a spiritual hospital.  I know that God is working in the lives that come across our threshold. I would much rather my teens and their friends hanging out at our house then anywhere else.  So we try to make our house pretty teen friendly.  Their are so many teens that need godly parenting, especially young men that need fathering.  We are pretty open with our doors even though at times it's a little stretching for me.  I like my time alone and I love just having family time.  God always seems to give us this time too.  As we give out, He multiplies back to us.  Here some pics from my 16 year old daughter's recent surprise party.  It's a pretty typical scene at our house.  Thank the Lord for a big kitchen!