So, Lent's here already. Didn't that just sneak up real fast. It did for me, anyway.
Our family has been in transition for what feels like forever. Within the last couple months we moved back to indiana and in with Ben's parents and started house searching, job searching, and car searching all at once. Not to mention we did it all with a BRAND NEW BABY.
So, anyway, I missed the memo. Lent came so fast for me that it was Fat Tuesday before I had given any thought to 'giving something up.' And even at that, my thought was only "oh I haven't thought about giving anything up." Ha.
But here we are a week into it and I've started thinking...
I just finished Beth Moore's new study Children of the Day. If you're looking for a solid study to go through, do yourself a favor and get this one. Beth covers 1 and 2 Thessalonians (yeah, we're on a first name basis, me and Beth) and does such a great job of captivating real life lessons out of the Word while also getting deep into the history and background of the scriptures.
One of the last study topics in the book was on prayer and the importance of it. Beth pointed out that the only person who can stop us from praying is ourselves. Our families can't stop us, our peers can't stop us, even satan can't stop us. Only we can stop us.
Even though that seems like a simple idea, it's feeling pretty weighty to me right now. If my prayers are going to impact and make a difference, then I've got to start doing the praying! And if I'm not doing the praying, it's on no one else's shoulders but my own. I can't tell you how many times I've told someone Id pray for them, thought in my head "God help them," and didn't take it any further than that. That's so lame of me.
I don't want my prayers (or lack thereof) to look like that!
I DO want my prayers to be heartfelt and specific and frequent. And focused on others more than on myself (it's much more natural to pray for myself).
I could say that being in a few months of transition has distracted me and made it harder to pray, but the truth is that the only place for blame is on myself. I'm not trying to make me (or anyone else) feel bad, but I am reflecting on where I've been and seeing that I have a lot of room for improvement.
So that's my goal. I want to be in a place where prayers just naturally flow in and out of my head as I think about my friends and family and go about my day.
So I'm still not giving anything up for lent, but I am taking something on.
I want to commit to spend real time in prayer every day for the people in my life. 'Real time' doesn't have to have a time frame for me... I just want to pray. I have a prayer app that I can set reminders on to help me stick to it. And hopefully writing all this out will sear the desire in my brain too. I'm wondering also if spending more time in prayer will grow my joy in the Lord as well, like I wrote about in my last post. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it did!
What about you? Do you find it hard to pray on the daily and with intentionality? How have you practiced forming good prayer habits for yourself? Or do you need/want to work on forming better prayer habits? Do you find that more time in prayer equals more joy in the Lord??
I'd love to hear any and all thoughts!
I could say that being in a few months of transition has distracted me and made it harder to pray, but the truth is that the only place for blame is on myself. I'm not trying to make me (or anyone else) feel bad, but I am reflecting on where I've been and seeing that I have a lot of room for improvement.
So that's my goal. I want to be in a place where prayers just naturally flow in and out of my head as I think about my friends and family and go about my day.
So I'm still not giving anything up for lent, but I am taking something on.
I want to commit to spend real time in prayer every day for the people in my life. 'Real time' doesn't have to have a time frame for me... I just want to pray. I have a prayer app that I can set reminders on to help me stick to it. And hopefully writing all this out will sear the desire in my brain too. I'm wondering also if spending more time in prayer will grow my joy in the Lord as well, like I wrote about in my last post. I wouldn't be surprised at all if it did!
What about you? Do you find it hard to pray on the daily and with intentionality? How have you practiced forming good prayer habits for yourself? Or do you need/want to work on forming better prayer habits? Do you find that more time in prayer equals more joy in the Lord??
I'd love to hear any and all thoughts!
[1 Thessalonians 5:17]
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