A new plan...

Every morning I ask the two oldest to read from their Bibles, write down something from what they read and pray for three people. Lately I have been less than patient with the statement, "but I don't know anyone to pray for..."

So, each day I will remind them of all the different groups of people they could choose from, our church family, our physical family, our neighbors, missionaries we know, our President, our country, and so on and so on and so on. But the next day, it is the same thing.

And while this idea of not knowing who to pray for was plaguing me, I heard a friend who is serving in the mission field share how thankful they are to know people are praying for them. At the same time, I was feeling convicted in my own prayer life of inconsistency and forgetfulness.

Then I had an idea.

I made a Prayer Calendar.

Yep, a chart.

Shocking, I know.

I even came up with "themes" to keep our prayers sort of focused, and to help us not "forget" anyone. It is just a guide, a tool to help us remember. If needs arise and they don't fall into the "theme" of the day, we will spontaneously pray, just like we do today. The whole idea of this Prayer Calendar is to ensure a more consistent approach to remembering our prayer concerns and for teaching our children to think more broadly when they are tempted to say "but, I don't know who to pray for..."

I am planning on keeping a copy in my Bible to help guide my personal prayer times to be more consistent. I will post it at the older kids desks for them to use in their personal prayer time, and in the kitchen so we can pray as a family with more depth at meal times.

I am excited.

Now, if I could only figure out a color scheme.

Just joking... kind of...