Day 4- PRAYing 7 New WAYS in 7 DAYS

Doodle Prayers

I read a blog not too long ago about a book called Praying in Color.  It sounded pretty interesting so I decided to try this prayer method today.  (You can read that blog here:  Praying In Color )

If you struggle with staying focused during your prayer time- you'll definitely want to try this.  

To get started you will need: 

• paper
• markers/colored pencils/crayons etc.
• and possibly your Bible 

I'm all set!

You can start and finish any way you want to.  But, if it's your first time and you need a little direction like me- start by writing your name for God in the center of the page.  I wrote "Heavenly Father".  Then doodle around it as you ask Him to focus your mind and guide your prayer time.  

To pray for a person, write their name and draw or doodle around it as you pray for them and focus on them.  

Today I chose to focus my prayer time mostly on my family so I placed each of their names on my prayer page and focused on that individual for a few moments as I doodled.  

This was my final result:

Beautiful isn't it?  ;)  Ok, so I'm no artist.  Obviously.  But, I really enjoyed this prayer time.  So often, my prayers are limited to specific requests or my knowledge of a particular need.  This allowed me to really turn my attention to each person and think about how I could lift them up to God.  

For example, my nephew Justin (bottom center red).  I hate to admit it but I don't pray for him very often.  He's a healthy successful young man and I haven't heard about anything going wrong in his life lately so... he doesn't make the list very often.  I know that sounds terrible but I'm sure you can relate.  But, through this prayer exercise I was able to focus on Justin for a moment and ask "How can I pray for Justin today?"  So, I prayed for him to stay healthy, to make good decisions in his career and his daily life, and that God would place a good Christian woman in his path. :) 

After using this prayer method, I started thinking about what an honor it is to know that someone is lifting my name up to the Lord.  And I hope that I have people praying for me all the time (I know my Momma is!) not just when things are going wrong.  

I will definitely use this prayer method again.  Next time, I plan to pick a different group of people, like maybe my youth group.  I think that focusing on them and praying for them each individually will also make me more attentive to them and improve our relationships as well.  

If you decide to try this- leave me a comment.   I'd love to hear about your experience!