Family Prayer Journal - Monday's Main Focus is YOU!

Today it's about YOU!

I started this prayer journey about 10 years ago. At the same time, I challenged myself to read books that would bring life to my family and help me to succeed as a wife and a mother.

The first book I read was called, "The Spirit of Loveliness", by Emilie Barnes. I felt like this book explained my heart on paper. This book is about making your home a haven; a place of refuge for your family and guests. I loved this book so much that I bought it used so that I could reference it when my spirit became weary on the home front.

The next book I read was, "The Power of a Positive Mom", by Karol Ladd. This book was life altering for me as a mom. This book helped me to understand that I wasn't just parenting for the now. I needed to parent for the forever. It is also the premise in which many of my prayers for my family prayer journal are based. Hands down, my most favorite book on parenting to date.

Finally I read, "When Mothers Pray" and "The Mom You're Meant to Be", by Cheri Fuller. I pulled a tremendous amount of inspiration for my family prayer manual from both of these books as well. I have mentioned before that Cheri Fuller is one of my Mommy hero's. She has written many books that have been the basis for how I mother/parent/teach my children.

I kept a journal on each book so that I would remember the wisdom and understanding that I gleaned from reading them. There was a common theme among the books. It was imperative that I made sure that I was filled up. From these books I learned a lesson that has resonated with me ever since. I had to fill up my tanks.

Imagine a pitcher of water, completely filled. Now imagine cups sitting in front of it. These cups are labeled. Rod, Mia, Scott, Nathan, Jonah, Carson, Liam, Thor, bills, work, church, vehicles, and so on. (If your cups have the same names as mine that is quite a coincidence.) Now, still imagining, start to pour from the pitcher into each cup. Quickly, you see that you are starting to run out of water. You are the pitcher. If you run out, you have nothing left to give.

How can we possibly focus all of the attention we need on our families, jobs, church, bills, pets, husbands, soccer practice, vehicle maintenance, teacher appreciation, dinner, laundry and so on, and so on...

How can we do this? We have to fill up our tanks. Emotional, physical, spiritual; these tanks are the fuel that keeps our engines going.

Yesterday I mentioned making a budget and seeing God provide, when on paper, there was no possible way it was going to work out. He does that EXACT same thing with our tanks. If we lift our burdens and concerns to Him, he keeps us filled.

For anyone who has ever prayed with me, they have heard me pray...Lord, when she lays her head on her pillow at night, please fill up her tanks... It is symbolic. A prophetic act. Believing that God will supernaturally fill you up when you are running on low. And you know what, He will do it! He does do it! He is doing it!

Monday is the day we set aside to ensure that all of our tanks are full. It's like Houston doing the 'Go Flight' check off before a flight.

On Monday, my list looks like this...

• MY Day - The desires of my heart for myself and for my family.
• 2 Timothy 1:7 - For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (lacking in self-assurance, courage, or bravery; easily alarmed; timorous; shy), but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
• Galatians 5:22-23 - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
• That I will see the kids through God's eyes and respond to them with His heart.
• That I will see into the windows of their hearts and discover their needs.
• That I will have God's heart to know how to train the kids as God intends.
• That I will be filled with God's word, wisdom, and Spirit daily.
• That His joy will be my strength so I can find pleasure in every day of these brief years with my children.
• I want to believe that You love me, and I want to believe Your word. Would You show me and teach me Your love?
• This is the day You have made; give me the grace to rejoice and be glad in it...whatever I face Lord!
• Lord, please fill the gaps between the love my kids needed today and didn't get from me, even though I love them the best I can.
• Jesus, please redeem my mistakes.
• Lord, help me in the area of homemaking and providing nourishing, healthy food for my family.
• Father, I want to learn to garden and grow food to feed my family. Please help me.
• Father, please let Your love and peace fill my heart and home each day.
• Father, please help me to be content in all things and not let OCD rule my life.
• Finally, Father, please help these not just be words on a page, but please help this to be my portion. That my husband and my children may rise up and call me blessed. Please help me to be the help-meet that Rod needs. Please help me to put You before me.
• In all of this I give You thanks!

It is not selfish to pray for yourself. Check your heart. I have made lists of things that I feel I needed to work on, then I asked God to guide my prayers. I don't want to do that which is outside His calling for me. With that being said, the desires of our hearts are real. Without praying about them and talking to God about them, how do we know if we are following His path? You have to take the time to talk to God about YOU so that you are prepared for everything He needs you to do for HIM. Not every day, not every minute, not all the time. One day a week to sit down and talk to God about what is on your mind, what is troubling your heart, about yourself.

(Please see the clarification on this thought at the bottom.)

Jesus loves you. Don't you think He wants to know if the thoughts you have about yourself are tearing down the beauty that He has placed within you?

I love to pray the scriptures. How many of you have ever taken a story book and put your child's name in the story? Scott & Nathan used to love a book called "Big Brother, Little Brother". The story would go something like this:

When Little Brother gets scared, like this...who knows why? Big Brother does.

I would instead say, When Nathan gets scared, like this...who knows why? Scotty does.

When I did that, the story became real to them. It's exactly the same when you pray yourself, your children, and your marriage in the scriptures. I will use one of the scriptures above as an example.

For God did not give Christie a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Does that make you want to mess with me? Do you feel it?

I've Got the Power

Praying the scriptures does not have to be complicated. If you noticed, one of my last prayers was that my husband and my children would rise up and call me blessed. I didn't reference the scripture. Why should I? God already knows where it is. If I do reference a scripture, it is probably because I want to memorize it.

During one season of my marriage I prayed Rod and I into the Song of Solomon. That was a bit steamy. Was I embarrassed? No. It's God. I had mastitis when I had Scotty. I will never forget praying in the shower. My breasts hurt so bad. I prayed, Lord, I just place my breasts in your hands.

What can I say? God made me. I am sure he just shakes his head when I get going.

Remember, this is YOUR journal. Make it your own. The prayers I listed above are from a couple of years ago. I am actually updating my prayer manual as I go. You can use some of my material or make all of your own. Whatever brings life to you!

Father, today is the day that you made. Let us all rejoice and be glad in it. Help us Father to hear you. Help us to release ours insecurities and our fears to you so that we may find the power that you have told us we have. Your love and compassion for us is beyond our understanding, but we are thankful anyway. Because you are an amazing God and what a privilege and an honor it is to serve you!! Amen!!

Go on ladies! Go own your day!!

(Clarification: Rod was reading this last night and he said that there was an implication that we do not need to pray all the time. We should always be prayerfully minded. It's in His word. ...pray without ceasing 1 Thes 5:17 ESV. My remark above is that we shouldn't constantly be focused on ourselves. You are taking the time to set aside one day a week to focus on YOU. And that is important.)