Prayersolutions part 2

So, a few years ago I told you about my prayer cards that I make each year that, in a lot of ways, take the place of "resolutions". Mostly because the things that I pray for regarding myself and our family are usually kind of "resolution-y" and yet really I have a FAR better chance of having success in those areas if I'm going to the Lord in prayer about them.
THEN I realized that, when I thought hard about it, there were a LOT of things in our lives that we really have NO control over at all, and yet we'd really like the Lord to do some pretty exciting and wonderful things.

And so my prayer card. It is reserved for the BIG things, the MIRACLE sized things. The I'm-gonna-need-365-days-to-pray-about-this things.

So here's how I start: I get myself some pretty pens ( not necessary, but if you're going to look at something for a whole year....) and then I get a note card...something with a little weight behind it, because, like I said I want it to last a whole year! ( I've thought about laminating it, but throughout the year I will often add really big prayers that I may not have known about on January 1st...)

After I get my card, I write the year at the top ( because you're gonna want to keep this card!)

( Minnie Mouse book as table not necessary to process) 

And then we get started...

First I write "Up"
There is a really cool illustration that we like to share with people that explains our life "philosophy" so to speak: check it out here ) and my little titles stem from that illustration.

Up, basically is me pointing up to the Father in heaven and talking to Him about the things that have to do with me and my family, our lives, and our relationship with him.
I then have written all the things that are on my heart for the year regarding where I want to see our family grow and be more in line for what it looks like to be His Followers.

Then I wrote "In"
This, if you've watched the video you know is talking about those that are In the kingdom of God already, those who know Jesus and who are following Him already. This is where I put my prayer requests for those who we know and love who have some really huge prayer requests.  Of course there are too many to count of these types of prayer requests, but some just "stick" and you know that those are things you are suppose to pray for...To be honest, this is my favorite part of my card. I've got some prayer requests that have been on there for years and I do not plan on taking them off till we see an answer-and I BELIEVE that we will have answer one day!! And how excited I will be to get to write the date next to that prayer request, saying that finally it was answered with a "yes"!

Then I have my "out"

This is for those who do not yet know Jesus as their Savior-A lot of these prayers have to do with Brett and my personal ministry, things that we know that WE can't do...but that we know the Holy Spirit most definitely can ( see this answered prayer here. where I got to baptize someone). Once again, I try to make these BIG prayers! Bigger than anything WE could ever do!

So there you have it! My BIG prayer card!


Another thing that is always fun when it comes to "fresh starts" is getting to start a new Bible. It just so happens that I finished up a Bible just at the end of last year so the new year coincided with a new Bible for me! Hooray! I am not one who holds to the "no writing in your Bible" rule, so all the more fun to get a "fresh and clean" Bible! Basically, about 10 years ago I realized that while I had read the Bible through a handful of times at that point, I had NEVER read the Bible in anything other than New American Standard ( the Bible version of Choice in my household growing up). It is still one of my favorite, most comfortable to read versions but I decided I needed to branch out. And so, ever since, I have pushed myself to buy a new Bible every time I finish reading my Bible through* and always buying one in a version I have not read before ( or haven't read in a long time...). This year, however, I did something even MORE different- which I already told you about in my last post). This Bible only has the New Testament-which works out for me right now because I can always pick up some Old Testament reading on my iPhone App while I'm feeding Justice. BUT this particular New Testament is set up pretty cool and I'm already getting a lot out of it. I'll show you the worst picture ever of what the pages look like:

Kinda crazy at first, but you learn to just read the part in bold ( its the part that is possibly repeated between the gospels) and then it starts to read rather smoothly.



Annnnyway, over the years I've read English Standard Version ( my favorite and would probably be my standby if I had a pick), The Message ( ew), New Internation Version, NrSV ( which I honestly can't remember what that stood for! ha!) and The Living Bible that I can remember. I'm probably running out of versions that I'd consider reading...so I'll probably cycle back through. The perk to this method has been that often just a few word changes have made a verse stick out in a new way and make me stop and take a deeper look ( often looking it up in other versions to see just why it stuck out to me this time.). It really has been so helpful in digging deeper into the Word of God!

So there you have it!! My new year is starting off Fresh and I'm already excited about what the Lord is going to do!


I'd looove to hear your own quiet time techniques or methods that help you get Closer to the Lord!

* I've read the Bible straight through, random book order, a mixture of old and New Testament, chronologically... There are tons of ways!