Prayer

Where would any of us be without prayer? Prayer is simply talking to, and listening to, the God who made us and loves us more than we know! I love the picture above, which is a great way to help us understand prayer–we are putting our hands in the hand of our loving heavenly Father, and together accomplishing great things!

It’s hardly a “school subject” since prayer is like breathing, but we make a point of mentioning it since it is so essential to everything we are and do!

We begin each day with prayer, and pray together often throughout the day, as different situations crop up, and at the traditional mealtimes and bedtime.

There are many different kinds of prayer–I love the old ACTS mnemonic–Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. We have found that our favorite way to adore the Father is through praise and worship and dance. We could all do better at confession, but in cases of obvious mess-ups, we are learning to be humble and repent to not only God, but one another. We try and give thanks in all circumstances, knowing that God is working everything out for our best. We have plenty to be thankful for, and it seems like someone is always in a thankful mode each day, which lifts the rest of us up as well. Supplication is an old-fashioned word simply meaning to ask for what needs to be supplied, whether our own needs or somebody else’s.

We try to be a little bit methodical in how we pray for others, simply because there are so many great things to pray for and so little time! Without being rigid, we have at times used the following guidelines:

Mondays–pray for each of us to bear the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control)

Tuesdays–pray for our friends and family

Wednesdays–pray for our church (leaders, ministries)

Thursdays–pray for our country (local, state, national levels)

Fridays–pray for the world (we use “Window on the World” [the updated version of”You Can Change the World”], which highlight a different people group or nation on each double-page spread)

We also have our “refrigerator prayer wall” which contains pictures of many of our friends and family, and each of us chooses someone from there to pray for as well.