Bits and Pieces

China
Once upon a time (many, many moons ago) Daniel and I met, dated, became engaged, registered for china, got married, received china, went to put china away, and that is where the story breaks down. There is no good place to store china when you don't have a china cabinet, so I chose several non-good places. Whenever more china would come in, I would find another nook or cranny and so the china went. Hence, we did not eat off china that often. In fact, Daniel and I were counting the instances last night and we got to 2 before we were stumped. My wonderful in-laws gave us a beautiful China Cabinet for our 10th Anniversary last year and it has just been begging to be filled and yesterday was finally the day. We unearthed the china. Poor Daniel had to run all over the entire house. He would pull one stack out from underneath the bed and I would say "Check in the cabinet above the dishwasher" and then "Don't forget the rolling cart next to the microwave" etc. etc. We found it all, it is in the cabinet, it looks beautiful, and I feel like a grown up! Maybe someday I will actually use it again and can have you all over for a meal!

ATP
I am going to start a new column called According to Parker and will share occasional installments with you. I am not even going to bother to share background information with you as there never is any. His comments are as "out of the blue" as a bird pooping on your head (which has happened to me incidentally, and it is rather disgusting)
"Teachers tell lots of lies"
I never knew this and now I am starting to re-think my whole educational career.

Questions:
On to a much more serious note. While trying to go to sleep the other night, these questions started rattling around in my head:
It is God's will that everyone become a Christian, right?
God can do anything, except for forcing someone to choose Him as He gave us free will, right?
We can pray for those we care about that haven't accepted Him, but God can't force them to accept Him, right?
Why does my neighbor always wear a full long-sleeved sweat suit when mowing the lawn no matter what the temperature, including during this high humidity heat wave?
So, how do we pray for people to become saved?
Do we pray that God will provide lots of nudging and circumstances and people that will be of influence and softening of hearts?