Is it bad to laugh at your own post title? Because, seriously, I will explain a way to do prayer journaling below that IS easy enough for a kid to do. I actually designed it for my 10 year old. But we all know that a spiritual discipline like prayer REALLY isn't that easy, is it? And I don't want you to be offended or think that I think you're a doof if it doesn't end up being easy for you all the time.
Because I can already tell you that it won't always be a piece of cake and that I most certainly won't think you're a doof. Prayer, like any spiritual discipline, takes the help of the Spirit in order to be at all succesful. And by successful, I don't mean you're winning the Nobel Prize or Pulitzer Prize because of your journaling expertise. I mean that you're growing closer to God and better at knowing His will for you through the conversation and connectedness of prayer.
But, getting to the subject at hand. If you have never tried prayer journaling before, I have an easy way for you to get started with it. Or, if you have been journaling for awhile and need new ideas, scan below and use what you can. I love reading others' ideas about a topic and taking what I can, what works for me, and adapting it to fit my personality and my strengths. I encourage you to do that with these suggestions as well. Fit them into YOU and who you are.
So what has kept you from prayer journaling? Weren't sure where to start? Weren't sure what you should pray for? Didn't know how it should be different from a regular journal, or even a diary? The idea in this post is for a basic prayer journal. Something that could be used for starting a junior high or high school student on journaling. Or for someone who has been intimidated by prayer journaling. Or even to refresh journaling for someone who has been walking with Christ for many years but has maybe grown a bit stale in their discipline.
Supplies needed:
3-ring binder (yeah, you binder-lovers just let out a shout of joy, didn't you??)
loose-leaf paper
page protectors (1, maybe 3)
binder pockets, tabbed (7-8)
Bible
pen
other prayer resources
1. Prepare your prayer keeper. Choose/purchase a 3-ring binder (at least 1" or 1-1/2" as it will eventually get pretty full) and label it as your prayer journal. For those who are more creative, you can get one of those fancy binders that have the option of inserting a paper on the front of the binder...giving you the opportunity to add some flare to your journal by showcasing your artistic skills to inspire yourself each time you look at the binder.
2. Prepare a prayer schedule. Make a list of everyone you are going to pray for...you will organize them all in a bit. Just get them written down. Your immediate family, parents, siblings (& their families), cousins, work colleagues, church ministries, friends, political people, etc. Once you have everyone listed, then start organizing them into days of the week. Your immediate family should be listed every day. Try to spread out people over all the days of the week so you don't have one night that has a bunch of people and other nights that don't hardly have anyone. Or, if that is what would work for your schedule, then do that. Whatever works best for you right now is what we're shooting for. Not for perfection. A perfect prayer list doesn't do anyone any good if it's not used because too much time was spent trying to get it perfect.
Here is the list for my 10 year old once we organized it into days (I removed names and generalized for anonymity on here, but on his list everyone is listed by name so he can pray for them by NAME):
Monday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
Grandparents (listed individually)
Uncle & Aunt 1, cousin 1, cousin 2, cousin 3
Uncle & Aunt 2, cousin 4, cousin 5, cousin 6, cousin 7
Uncle & Aunt 3, cousin 8, cousin 9
Tuesday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
teacher at school, principal at school
teacher for Sunday School, AWANA leader
pastors at church
Wednesday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
(Wednesday is a short night as we have AWANA and later bedtimes on that night)
Thursday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
President Obama
Senators John Thune & Tim Johnson
Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Mayor Mike Heuther
city council, police department, fire department, etc.
Friday
Mom, Dad, sister, brother, myself
friends
missionaries
world problems
An adult version of this could look like:
Monday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Parents (listed individually)
Grandparents (listed individually)
Sibling 1 & Wife, neices and nephew
Sibling 2 & Wife, nephews and neice
Sibling 3 & Wife, nephews
Tuesday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
teachers at kids' school, principal at school
teachers for Sunday School, AWANA leaders
pastors at church (we pray for pastors on Tuesday, especially as Head Pastor starts preparations for Sunday's sermon)
Wednesday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Business, employees, tenants
Church ministries involved in or that need prayer
Thursday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
President Obama
Senators John Thune & Tim Johnson
Representative Stephanie Herseth Sandlin
Mayor Mike Heuther
city council, police department, fire department, etc.
Friday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
friends
missionaries
world problems
Saturday
Husband, kid 1, kid 2, kid 3, myself
Worship service on Sunday
Anything else left from week
Now this is just a plan of who to pray for and when so you don't habitually miss someone every week. This is not to say that you couldn't pray for things on different days if a situation arose that warranted prayer! If we'd had this in place back in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit on Monday, August 29th we would NOT have waited until Friday to pray for those in New Orleans and the Gulf who were affected by the hurricane just because 'world problems' were scheduled for Fridays. Flexibility is the key to this plan as it is to any plan. The plan is supposed to help you be as consistent as you can be and to help you remember to pray for everyone who is important to you. The plan is not there to make you feel guilty when you get behind or to be something you get held up on. You are the one controlling who you're praying for! So if you find yourself getting overwhelmed quite a bit, break your schedule down into a 2 week rotation. Then you can eventually build up to the every week layout once you get the hang of it.
Once you have your prayer schedule determined, type it up on the computer, write it out in calligraphy. Whatever you need to do to satisfy your Type A or creative personality - but make a copy of it, put it in a page protector and put it in the front of your binder.
3. Prepare your resources. Grab your binder pockets and label them for each day of your prayer schedule. Also label one as 'Every Day'. Then, gather various prayer resources to use as you pray for all these people on your list. The Navigators (or Navpress) has many prayer cards for different topics that are useful. Voice of the Martyrs is a good resource for praying for those being martyred for their beliefs around the world. Does your church support missionaries? They usually have letters from the missionaries - or, you can get email updates directly from the missionaries to be up-to-date on their prayer needs. Above all, there are MANY prayer resources out there. Use them. And, when you grow tired of them, find new ones.
Or, you can create your own prayer resources by writing Scripture in a notebook, organized by subject to refer to. For example, a friend of yours is struggling on being a godly wife to her husband who is not a believer. If you had all the Scriptures on 'struggle' and 'wife' organized, you could refer to those and pray those for your friend. Some people also call this a 'Concordance' and if you would like the immediate organization of all Scripture by topic, I would suggest getting one that corresponds with whatever version of the bible you have. I have copies of my own Navigators cards in my son's binder for him to use as he prays.
Once you have your prayer resources gathered, put them in the corresponding pocket so you can find them easily on the day you need them.
4. Prepare your writing tools. Add the loose-leaf paper sheets between your schedule and your pockets. Put your journaling pen in the front pocket (or wherever else you want to). I really don't care where you put the pen, as long as you know you have a pen to use when you journal. You'd hate to spoil all this hard work with the excuse "I don't have a pen handy" now, would you??
Your prayer journal is almost ready...
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