My Prayer Box

Well I have wanted to write this post for a while but I haven't been caught up on the blog BUT since I already posted about the kids today I am going for it!!

If you know me, then you know that I have to tell you the story behind the story in order to tell you...the story. So, hang with me! When I made New Year's Resolutions this year one of them was to "pray better". I think when I made it I didn't even know what I meant by it but I knew I wasn't praying well enough, often enough, for all the people that needed it, etc. Well...I guess I knew because the Lord was telling me--I just didn't know it was His idea yet.

Imagine my surprise when in January I go to MOPS and we are making prayer boxes. Just what I needed to organize my prayer requests so that I could get it in order and "pray better". Coincidence? I think not. You may already know what a prayer box is...or you may be like me and had never even heard of such a contraption. So, overall it is a box that you keep that has different tabs and index cards so that you can pray for all the stuff you want/need to. I will include directions in case any of you want to make one for yourself...and if you don't have one...you want to. I will share the tabs and an example of what I pray (I have been trying to incorporate scripture into my prayer as well so I will give a couple of examples of that too) underneath. Ready??

• Preparation--I pray something similar to the following daily, "Lord please reveal anything that is dividing my heart so that I may whole-heartedly live out Joshua 22:5, Lord, to love you with all my heart, walk in all your ways, obey all your commands, cling firmly to you, and to serve you with my whole heart and my whole soul." You do not have to pray that--it is just an example because I really didn't know what to put behind that tab when I first made it.


• Forgiveness--Ya'll don't need to know my many flaws. (c:


• Praise--I try to switch this one up. I love to praise Him for being the one thing is my life that never changes and to praise his different "names" (i.e. Thank you Lord for being my healer/savior/provider/etc.)


• Daily prayers--I pray for me to be able to see and fulfil my purpose for that day and I pray Philippians 4:8 for myself and Colossians 1:9-10 for Matt, Lilly, and Reid. I also pray for things that need more than weekly/monthly prayer at that time (i.e. a sick friend, a troubled marriage, a family suffering a loss, etc.)


• Sunday-Saturday--(one tab for all 7 days a week) This is where you put people/things you want to pray for weekly. For example, Sundays I pray for our church staff and preachers all over, Monday I pray for military, Tuesday I pray for my bible study friends, Wednesday my small group, etc.


• 1-31--(one tab for each day of the month) I will get into this under the next picture.


• Lost People--I made this tab up but I pray for a list of people that I would like to come to know Christ.


• Answered Prayers--when a prayer is answered I move it behind this tab so I can visually see God's faithfulness to answer my prayers. Even since January there are already some awesome PRAISES in here.


• Dismissed--Prayers that are no longer needed.


• God's Truth--I added this tab, too. This is where I put Truths from God's word that I use when I am feeling insecure, am being tempted by Satan, or just that I like to look at and remember from time to time. Okay under the 1-31 tabs...I put several things in these.


• I put a family or families behind each tab. This is my tab from today. Instead of just writing friends' names on Index cards--I cut up all the Christmas Cards/birthday invitations/etc because I would rather look at their picture or sweet words when praying for them.


• I also put some virtue I want to pray for my children to have behind each day (i.e. salvation, love, self-control, love for God's word, self-esteem, etc).


• I put (I am actually adding this right now.) one of God's names (again, defender, strong tower, Lord Almighty) so that I can have a specific way to praise him that day and so that I can memorize them!

Okay...so that is what is in the box. I love it! I am so thankful that Jennifer made that our craft that day!! And, last but not least, if only just to prove that God wanted me to work on prayer--I am involved in a neighborhood bible study and we had planned to do For Women Only but at our first meeting realized that it just wasn't going to work for the whole group so we decided to change books. Which one did we end up doing??? The Power of a Praying Woman. We are only a few chapters in but I am loving it and the revelations are coming!! One of the points I love so far is when she talks about how much Jesus prayed...and that if Jesus--of all people--needed to pray that much...then we probably need to make prayer part of our lifestyle too!

OH!! If you all have any suggestions on things I should add, let me know! Also, if you have a prayer request--I am a prayer warrior so let me know and I will pray and keep it confident! You can email me at sarascott8704@yahoo.com, tweet me @mrssarascott, or leave a comment!