Prayer Journal

Kate Bowman of Lonestar Southern talked about prayer journaling on her insta-reels back in 2020. She talked about how she has looked back on different seasons of life and seen what prayers she was praying and how eventually her prayers were answered. 

She spoke so passionately about it and at the time I was floundering during the pandemic. This really hit home for me and I said to myself, 'why not try this? Maybe it will help me get out of my head'  That was in April 2020. Having somewhere to put my thoughts and fears and worries could be helpful. I didn't have anything to lose. 

The idea of having a specific place to write your prayers down or to write down what's heavy on your heart is comforting. 

Looking back over these older entries,it's brilliant to see how things improved, changed and eventually got better. You can see my prayers being answered and what gratitude I hold for those answered prayers. 

When I write in my prayer journal, it's a informal note. It's a written conversation between me and God asking for guidance, clarity, peace or something specific. Sometimes my entries are short, sometimes they are long. Whatever it takes to get thr worries out of my heart and on to the page. 

I don't use my prayer journal daily, I use it when I feel a pull to write it in. Sometimes weeks or months go by but I always come back to it. 

I wanted my prayer journal to be a special notebook that I looked forward to writing in. I had bought this journal years ago at TJ Maxx. I wanted to use it for something special and this, a prayer journal, is the perfect occasion. 

Do you pray? Do you use a prayer journal? 

[[There is power in persistent prayer. Michael 7:7]]

Wednesday's Wisdom

Sometimes you just see something and it makes total sense to you. You get it, at that very moment the stars align and things fall into place and what you have been wishing and praying for finally happens. You don't know why but you are truly happy for this small miracle.  You want that feeling, from that moment,  to stay with you forever. You want to feel this amazing all the time. You want to share this feeling with everyone and anyone you come into contact with. You have been looking for this moment your whole life and now you got your moment and you want to to run with that feeling forever.

I looked at the quote above tonight and I understood what it meant.  I hope you all have an Ah Ha! Moment sometime this week.

Flashback

So I was sitting at my computer, reading my quote book, and I had this flashback.
Spring 2008 West Virginia Spring Break nighttime. I was doing a habitat for humanity type of spring break project and we were staying at this church- it wasn't small but it wasn't very large. I felt very comfortable here from the moment we stepped in. Now I was never a big fan of church and I always felt weird being inside of one. This one I didn't feel weird I felt at ease. At night after we talked or have an activity we would have some free time. I really didn't have a friend there with me. I was a little bit of a loner and I knew everyone on the trip very well but I kept to myself and at night I found myself coloring (daddy bought me a curious George coloring book and new crayons before the trip), having a snack or (this even surprised me) sitting in the mini chapel that was inside of the church by myself with george ( Leah I think was my secret buddy and she found me my own curious George) just thinking sometimes writing nonsense in my journal. For me it was so peaceful- I sat there some nights wishing I would become close to some people there; other nights I would think about my grandmother, pray that my father was okay at work and pray my mommy was feeling okay. One night I think it was one of the last nights- I was sitting in one of the last pews and Andrew, a boy who was on the trip, a senior, who happened to be very religious. I guess he was making sure everything was locked up and he noticed the mini chapel lights were on. He was surprised to see me, of all the people on the trip, sitting by myself in the chapel at night. He sat in the pew behind me, a little stunned that i was there. He asked if I was okay and we made some small talk. After a bit, he left, leaving me sitting there just as peaceful as I was. We never spoke about him seeing me in there or why I was in there. After a bit, george and I left, shut the lights and went to bed. I never talked about this with anyone but for some reason it popped into my head. The trip itself was wonderful but that was one of the pivotal moments in that trip.

Also one of the nights sitting in the chapel one night, I found a pencil, one of those silly golf pencils. It was red, and it had a saying on it- Prayer Changes Things. I kept that pencil and I still have it.

Prayer changes things, Yo!
-Elle