The Habit of Prayer

   

    On November 5, 2013, my beloved grandfather passed away. He was such a sweet man. The whole way through the memorial service the pastor talked about his faith in God. His faith was something I got to experience first hand during the past couple of years.

   Both of my grandparents had been taking turns being in the hospital and/or rehab and while one was getting well, the other would stay with us at my mom's house. The one incident I remember most was when my grandma was in the rehabilitation center and my grandpa was staying with us. His favorite dessert was cherry pie so the one day my sister made him one. Every time he saw me he would say "Young lady, theres a cherry pie out there. You should try some". I would then have to tell him that I did not like cherry pie, but despite that fact every five minutes he would say "Young lady, theres a cherry pie out there. You should try some". So when they served cherry pie after the funeral, even though I don't like it, I made sure to finish off a piece, just for grandpa.
   
      The thing that impacted me most was how every evening he would sit in the rocking chair with a piece of paper. I discovered that it was the prayer request list from his church bulletin. He would sit there every evening in silence and pray over that list for hours. At some points I was certain he'd fallen asleep but then he'd get up when he heard the heater turn on. His dedication to prayer is something I not only want, but need to inherit. So I thought of a way to challenge myself in making prayer for others a habit in my life.

    I've seen the whole thankfullness posts on facebook for the whole month of November. So my idea is, starting in December, to write out one person or situation for every day of the month and just pray for that one thing. It's not hours of intercession but one prayer is better then no prayer. I've learned that when I try to instill a habit in my life I always seem to shoot too high. I end up giving up by like day 5 because I tried to do too much at one time. So I'm starting small. One prayer a day for a month. Then maybe in January I can pray for two things a day! My goal is to create the habit of prayer for others in my life.

   So what do you think? How is your prayer life? If it's better then mine then I applaud you and say keep it up! Prayer is vital to our lives and I know I've been taking it too lightly. If you're where I'm at then I'll invite you to do this challenge with me. Let's create the habit of changing the world with our prayers.

ps. I have one rule if you decide to do this challenge. Please, please, please! Do NOT post your prayers on facebook. Declaring thankfullness is one thing but prayer is between you and God. This is not about looking super spiritual in others eyes, nor is it a platform to express your opinion through prayer (seriously you already can do that in a status). Make this about you and God, period. :)