This is the third in a series of posts on “Spiritual Spots” the series starts here.  The last post was on Reading God’s Word.  Today’s post will cover prayer and prayer journaling.

Prayer is our way of communicating with God.  If you’re a Christian and have a “relationship” with God it is essential in order to grow that relationship to pray.  Prayer is our life line to God.  As my children learned in Vacation Bible School this summer you can pray anytime, anywhere and about anything.  Prayer is a privilege and something that we should WANT to do.

In our busy lives it is important that we set aside time daily to pray or talk to God.  Prayer doesn’t have to be complicated.  I know as a teenager that I spent the first few moments before school while still sitting in my vehicle to pray.  Usually, I would turn up my favorite praise and worship CD and spend that time in prayer and praise to God.  Prayer after all should involve not just listing our requests to God but also spending time praising him.

Using a prayer journal can also be a great way to spend time in prayer and will help you to “focus” that time that you have no matter how small.  You can list your prayer concerns, the ways that you can praise God and even intercede for others.  Writing in a prayer journal can help you to also look back in the future and see how God has answered your prayers.

If you need more help with prayer and prayer journaling why not download our guide My Heart to His. It is F. REE.

Sorry for the delay everyone. I’ve been taking a much needed break from keeping up with so many blogs and websites.  This one has not gotten a lot of attention lately.  I will be blogging here monthly instead of “weekly”.  This is our first official spiritual spot post in a series of posts that will be here on the blog over the next few months.  This month’s Spiritual Spot focuses on Reading God’s Word.

Reading God’s Word is a truly important spiritual practice.  As Christians, the focus should be on our “relationship” with God.  I believe that Christianity is not about religion but about a “relationship” with Jesus Christ.  That being the case we must do something to grow in that relationship.  I believe that one of those things is “Reading God’s Word.”  It helps us to grow in HIM, to come to know HIM better and to become more like HIM.

God’s Word is full of inspiration and even every day life stories, when you truly take the time to read it you realize how much it is just a story, or rather a series of stories, those great men and women of the past sharing their lives with us.  Sharing what God did in and through their lives.

Daily Bible reading is important and should be something that we all make a high priority in our lives.  Setting a set time for it is what will truly help to keep you on track.  It must be as much of a habit in your life as “brushing your teeth” to truly be effective.  Prepare yourself ahead of time, have you Bible a pencil or pen and a journal possibly in a specific spot each day so that you can focus on reading God’s Word.

Once you begin doing this on a regular basis you will begin to realize the power that it has in your life and the true need that you have for the “Bread of life”, His word.  Try it today!

Perfect Time Number 4 is Godly Gossip

Did you know there is a type of gossip that can actually be good? Well, there is, Godly gossip. This is when you share with your daughter what God is doing in your life and you have her do the same. At this time it is ok to admit your weaknesses. My momma often admitted to me that she did not know what else to do as a parent in a particular situation, but she would always tell me that she had prayed or was praying about that situation and that she was giving it to God. I learned how this worked from my mom.

Over the years, she and my daddy encouraged me to go to God for every decision, from boyfriends to temptation, to choosing where to go to college and what to do with the rest of my life. “Pray about it” was a noted phrase in our house and a good answer to almost everything.

Perfect Time Number 3 is on Grocery Store Runs

Can I just tell you how much I loved going to the grocery store with my momma.  This is the time when my momma empowered me.  She made me feel like the smartest girl alive.  I was her go to gal.  I helped her with the difficult task of creating a meal for our family.  I helped her with pinching the pennies that my daddy doiled out not so freely, and we together as a team would create a meal.

So, not only did we go to the grocery store together, but we problem solved together, we were creative together and ultimately we would work together to prepare a meal.  As a young girl I learned valuable life skills from my momma through these times together.  She jokingly said after I was married, that I must have learned from watching, because I did more talking than cooking.  But, you can ask my husband, I know my way around the kitchen now.  So, even if your daughter only learns from watching, she’s learning.

Perfect Time Number 1 is Potty Talk

Over the years I have spent a great deal of time with my mom in the bathroom. Over the years we had a bunch of “potty talks”. I sat on the potty as she bathed, or put her makeup on, or fixed her hair, or shaved her legs and I talked. I tend to be a talker, so I talked a lot, but all the while these conversations were shaping our relationship, strengthening it, giving us a bond, a connection.

So, for me, potty talk was a great part of my life. How about you, do you and your daughter have “potty talks”? It is a perfect place to talk, to connect and to even teach. Think of the private areas of a woman’s life that you could teach in the “potty”, about abstinence, about purity, about a woman’s body and hormones, about the menstrual cycle, about all the areas that a girl will face in her life that are specific to the female sex. It is the perfect time to prepare her, and equip her.

My momma mourned when I moved out of the house at 19.  I know it may sound a bit drastic, but I was literally her shadow for nineteen years.  I spent a ton of time with my momma.  In the bathroom, in the bedroom, in every room of the house and out side of the house.  We went grocery shopping together, to the bathroom together and traveled together.  There were not many places my momma did not accompany me.  Ok, maybe on dates, but hey we could not push it too far  now could we?

You get the picture though, my momma and I were pretty inseparable.  I believe that this has had a profound impact upon my life.  You see, I have a strong, positive relationship with my parents, both my mother and my father.  This strong relationship has helped me to see what a “healthy relationship” is in life.  It has been a good model for me to go by when determining if the other relationships in my life are what they should be.  My parents also modeled a strong relationship with Jesus Christ for me.  As a result, I have this relationship as well in my life.

Now, before you start thinking, “her life is perfect”.  Stop!  Do not go there.  Do not get me wrong I have a positive outlook on my life, both my past, my present, and my future, but perfect, I would not agree.  I rebelled against my parents as a teenager, I questioned God as a young adult, I have lived through death of loved ones, struggling financial times, and sick children.  I realize that life is not “a box of chocolates” like Forest Gump wants us to believe.  But, life, it is a gift and one that each of us have.  Also, in life our biggest gift is our relationships.

You probably have many relationships in your life, but I dare to say that your relationship with your children is probably your most valued.  The one that you hope you will never lose.  The one that you hope that you can maintain and grow over time, that those children, no matter how small they are now, will grow to be adults with strong connections and ties to their past, including a strong relationship with you, their momma.

I know I want this for myself, and my children, but since I have such a strong relationship with my mom, and I know that as a woman this is important in life I want to have that same type relationship with my only daughter, Lily.  The following are some things that I hope to do with her as she grows up.  Some perfect times that I hope to connect with her, many of which I did with my own momma over the years.  Maybe you can share these times with your daughter as well.  Happy Connecting!

Check back tomorrow for the first way to “connect”.

There are times in our lives when we need someone to go to, but many times we wish we had someone that is removed from the situation that we are going through.  Many times the issues that we deal with have much to do with our family or friends, and therefore going to a friend or family member is difficult and too close for comfort, or maybe we just do not want to hear, “I told you so.”  No matter what the case is, it can be a rewarding to have a relationship with a  “mentor” in your life, someone outside your family or circle of friends to help you deal with the ups and downs of life.

A mentor, is someone who is more experienced than you in life that you can go to in time of need or that you can use as a sounding board to bounce issues off of or to brainstorm ideas with for any given situation.  They may or may not be “older” than you chronologically, but they should be someone whom you feel that you can benefit from in the area of  knowledge and life experience.

A mentor will help you by sharing their life experience with you, may often give advice or at least be there to listen, which is what most of us need in life, a shoulder to cry on a place to go when we just need to vent.

When choosing a mentor you will want to be sure to choose someone that you can trust.  When asking the person to be your mentor you will need to be ready to tell them what you will expect from the relationship and what they can expect from you.  You will want to decide how you will work your relationship and if you will meet together often, or how often you will communicate, generally what your relationship will mean to each of you.  You will want to set your expectations from the beginning so that neither of you are disappointed.

The process of mentoring and being a mentor can be a great experience if you know from the beginning what you hope to gain from it.

Photo credit: Lars Andreas

It is unlike anything else you will do with your life. Having faith is something that takes a long time to understand and even longer to truly feel that you have. As the Bible says,

“Faith is being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NIV)

Faith begins with a relationship with Jesus Christ, the man who gave everything, even His own life for our sins. So, why do we feel that we can hold back, keeping things from Him, especially our lives and what we COULD be doing for Him. Yet, we aren’t we’re keeping them for our own use and selfishly trying to please our own selves more than we are trying to please Him.

Maybe it is due to a “lack of faith”, after all Hebrews 11:6 says that “without faith it is impossible to please God.” (NIV) That is what often keeps us from truly doing for Him, truly living for Him, our own lack of faith.

For some people don’t understand why they need faith in the first place. Faith is needed for several reasons.

1.It takes faith to begin your relationship with God. Because God is someone we can’t see, touch, or hear audibly it takes faith even to come to know and trust Him. Once you do the other parts of faith become a little more manageable.

After all faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. We may not hear God audibly but we do hear his word. Faith is also an act of “belief” we all have the ability to believe. Just like you believe that a chair in your home will hold you up, you believe that God is real. You must believe that God is real and that He had His one and only son Jesus die to save us from our sins.

2.You also need faith to truly enjoy the benefits of being a part of the family of God. As Christians, we walk in our own assurance and faith that God is who He says that He is and will do what he says He will do. Everyday life takes faith. And with that faith we enjoy the blessings that God has promised to us.

3.We need faith to point others to Christ. Without the evidence of our faith, many times it is hard to show others the way. God commands us to “go into all the world” without our own faith assured we will not be able to do that effectively.

4.Faith also allows us to grow. We can experience growth as a person and as a Christian through faith. Reading God’s word, spending time in prayer and with other believers in fellowship helps us to do this.

We may think that it takes a great deal of faith to truly accomplish something, however, be reminded that the Bible says if you have faith as small as a mustard seed that you can tell the mountain to move from here to there and it will.

It may not take a large amount of faith to act, but sometimes we feel that it does. Sometimes we feel nudged to take action but we hesitate. Taking our own leap of faith is often scary. Do you need help taking a leap of faith? Check out “Faith Leaps” and see if we can help you with your “leap of faith”.

Photo Credit: C@rljones