Building Your Prayer Journal: Part Three

Nothing moves this momma's heart like talking about my kids.  When I start talking about praying for my kids, you're probably doing to see tears.  What amazes me is that as much as I love them - God loves them infinitely more.

This week we're going to add prayers for our kids to our prayer journals.  It doesn't matter how old your kids are - pray for them.  Again this week, if you don't have kids, you can skips this one, but if you want kids one day - pray for them now.  You can never pray for them enough!

Again for this element, I used a Stormie Omartian book, The Power of a Praying Parent.  And again this week, Kat at Inspired to Action has a great FREE resource for you: A Mother's Prayer Calendar complete with scriptures to pray over your kids.

This week you'll add a prayer topic and a scripture for your kids to each day of your journal or Word document.  What's great about this week is that there are so many fantastic resources out there for praying moms.  Your journal is just a starting point!

I highly recommend The Power of a Praying Parent.  Brooke McGlothlin also has an amazing book for boy moms, Warrior Prayers, and the MOD Squad (Mothers of Daughters) has a book, 31 Days of Prayer for our Daughters.  All of these are available on Amazon Kindle.  Finally, I recommend Angie Smith's great post on praying 7 times a day for our kids.

THIS WEEK: Add prayers for your kids to your journal.
NEXT WEEK: Praying for our own nees

Boys Moms - Unite!

My oldest son told me not too long ago, “Mom, sometimes you can be manly, and sometimes you can be like a sparkly fairy princess.”  That’s probably not too far from the truth…  I’m Amanda, and there is nothing on earth I love more than being a momma to my boys!  I’m 32 years old and I’ve been married for 12 years to the love of my life, Robby, who is a full-time pastor.  We’re the proud parents of two boys, ages 10 and 7.  In addition to being a pastor’s wife and mom, I work part-time at an insurance agency, I’m a full time student in the dental hygiene program (In May of 2013, I will graduate and officially become an RDH!), I run a home-based business as an independent Miche purse rep, and I lead our church children’s ministry program.  My plate is pretty full, but I love blogging, cooking, running, reading (I love a good mystery/spy story), digital scrapbooking, horseback riding, and going to the gun range.  Strange combination, I know, but I told you my son’s description wasn’t too far off.

 

I chose the name “Grace In Our Moments” for my blog because I know that I need God’s grace in every single moment of my day - as a wife, mom, kids minister, student, employee and more.  I blog about life as a working mom, my faith and what I’m learning (right now I’m doing a series on creating a prayer journal), fitness (I’m a new runner and since leaving my job as the manager of a women’s fitness center a few months ago, I’m creating a whole new workout routine, including running, Pilates, and CrossFit), books and more.  I’m also a contributing blogger for Must Love God (a site created by fellow boy momma Kristi) and an accountability captain for Hello Mornings.

When I was pregnant, I begged God for boys.  I grew up as an only child and the only girl in my neighborhood, so I raced bikes, rode horses and four wheelers, and played with Hot Wheels a lot as a kid.  I love the fun and energy level at our house.  You never know what’s going to happen!  I never thought I would tell my kids “Stop slapping each other with string cheese or I’m not buying it for you anymore,” or yell through the house, “Stop running, put your pants back on, and stop hitting your brother with your underwear!”

One thing I loved as a child (and still love!) is reading.  I’m so glad that my boys have inherited my love of books!  My youngest still loves anything Dr. Seuss and dinosaurs.  He’s also discovering Nate the Great.  My oldest loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, the Hank the Cowdog series, and the How to Train Your Dragon series.  (He got the entire boxed set for Christmas and is almost done with the series now.)  To be honest with you, I love the Wimpy Kid and Dragon books myself…they are really fun!

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today!  I look forward to reading lots of other blogs and "meeting" lots of other boy moms!

Simple Trust

I can't even begin to describe how much this simple line blessed me Tuesday.  On a day when I received news of two tragedies - a close friend who lost her mother-in-law to cancer, and a teenage cousin who lost a friend in a car accident - it was the reminder I needed that my Savior holds it all in His hands.  I am secure in Him.

10 Big Summer Projects That I Can Mark "Done"

It's hard to believe that my summer is drawing to a close.  Yes, it's really early, but I have a summer class to take as part of my final year of college, and it starts Thursday.  I started this summer with a huge list of projects to do, and honestly, I'm surprised that I accomplished so much in the two months I had off.  Here's what I did:

1. Cleaned and purged our youngest son's bedroom, getting rid of three garbage bags of outgrown toys and clothes
2. Cleaned and purged the master bedroom closet
3. Had a yard sale (which was a huge success!)
4. Put together a Child Training Bible to use in children's ministry
5. Updated my prayer journal
6. Cleaned out and organized my coupon binder
7. Created a one-month meal plan for July (which I plan to repeat in August)
8. Put together a home management notebook
9. Worked on my blog, including a new blog button and "follow me" buttons
10. Caught up on my M'Cheyne Bible reading plan

I'm happy with what I got finished - now it's on to some more projects!  There's much more I want to do before Christmas. :)

Building Your Prayer Journal: Part Two

Last week you got your notebook and you personalizedit.  Now it’s time to start filling it up and building your prayer journal!  Ready to start?

The first topic we’re going to cover is praying for your husband.  If you’re single, why not go ahead and list some areas to pray for your future husband?  Or you can skip this week and join in next week.

The resource I used for this part of my journal is Stormie Omartian’s book The Power of a Praying Wife. Don’t have the book?  No problem.  Kat at Inspired to Actionhas an amazing prayer calendar and it’s totally FREE. 

Now, there are a couple of different ways you can do this next step:

1.     Label each page – Day 1, Day 2, etc. and write in a specific prayer request for your husband each day

OR

2.     If you’re OCD and perfectionistic like me, you can start a Word document on your computer to be printed out when you’re finished.

My slight OCD issues aside, I like to type mine for the plain and simple fact that it’s easier to update.  When my prayer journal is full and it’s time to make a new one, or if I just need to update information, its much easier to print it out than to rewrite all the info.

Here’s an example from my prayer journal:

I've also included a scripture to pray along with each day's topic.  Praying scripture is powerful!  Kat has made it easy with her prayer calendar - it includes a verse to pray for each topic.  If you get a chance to buy The Power of a Praying Wife at some point later on, please do - Stormie's teachings on prayer are amazing. She totally revolutionized my prayer life.  She talks often about the benefits of praying scripture - praying God's promises over your family and situations you're facing.

THIS WEEK:
* List a prayer topic and scripture to prayer for your husband each day for 31 days.

NEXT WEEK:
* Praying for our kids - PLUS lots of great resources

Building Your Prayer Journal: Part One

It seems like we all have good intentions when it comes to prayer. We all want to pray for our family, our friends, our church, missionaries, and more. But when its time to actually sit down and pray, if you're anything like me, its easy to draw a blank on exactly what to pray for.

I'm so excited about starting this series! It's been on my heart for a while now, and I'm really looking forward to sharing my prayer journal with you. I've been using it for several years now, but I went through several variations before I found what works best for me. Now I use it almost every day. It has made such a difference for me! It keeps me focused and lets me pray over so many important areas of my life on a regular basis.

I want to spend the the next few weeks helping you build your own prayer journal. Each Monday, I'll post about a different step in making your journal. At the end, I'll host a link-up so everyone can share their finished journal. Ready to start?

The first step is finding the right notebook. It sounds simple, but take a little time on this step, because having the right notebook makes a difference. I've used different sizes and types, but I've found that a Moleskine-style 8 in by 6 inch notebook works best. I like this size and style because I can easily slip it into my Bible and take it with me. Its also large enough to give me plenty of room to write. I found a set of three notebooks made by C.R. Gibson at Walmart for about $8.00. I'm using one for my prayer journal, and another for a journal to record thoughts, quotes, Scriptures that stand out during my quiet time, etc.


Whatever size and style you choose, make sure you have enough pages. You'll need 15-30 sheets (15 for larger journals, 30 for small) for the main part of the journal, then at least 15-30 more pages (I prefer to have a lot more pages left over). You may want to leave your journal as-is, or you might want to get creative. I recently made a fitness journal and had lots of fun with it! I created a collage of inspirational quotes and some Bible verses and covered it with contact paper. You can cover yours with photos, fabric, or whatever you'd like.


THIS WEEK: * Find your journal. * Get creative if you'd like to - decorate and personalize it.

NEXT WEEK: * We'll start building the "bones" of your journal. * I'll share pictures and examples from my journal, plus lots of great resources!