A Mom Who Prays Continuously

{Continued from previous post}


My first challenge is that we be moms who pray continually…or without ceasing…as some versions of I Thessalonians 5:17 read. I’m sure this sounds like an overwhelming…maybe even impossible task…especially with infants, toddlers, and preschoolers running rampant around your house at all hours of the day and night. But I want to encourage you that it is not. For a while I believed the lie that Satan fed me…that I didn’t have time to pray. I was too tired to wake up before my munchkins, too busy dealing with the results of the day after I put them to bed, and too distracted in the hours in between. It was true that I didn’t have time to spend an hour on my knees praying every morning, but I learned that I did have time and opportunity to pray continually throughout the day. I had two minutes here and four minutes there…I just needed to train myself to use them for prayer. Here are some of the ways I’ve kept myself praying throughout the day: I have done things like set my watch to beep on the hour every hour. At least 10 out of the 18 times a day I heard that watch beep, I’d be doing something where I could mentally say a 1 minute prayer for one of the kids, my husband, or even myself. I have taken bath crayons and written the Scripture that I want to pray for one or more of our kids on the wall of the shower so I could wake up praying that for them. I pray for the next day as I lay clothes out on bedroom floors the night before. I pray at school desks at the beginning of a new school year. I pray as I fold laundry. I pray as I pack lunches. I paint Scripture on the walls of our house and pray those verses for our family.

Here are two other big things that have made a difference as to how often I’m praying during the day…and I fear I may step on some toes with them, but just know that the Lord has laid this on my heart: One thing we do is keep Christian radio on in the van and many of the hours we are at home {sometimes it's even on when we're not even there} and I pray the songs over our home and the lives of my children and husband. Take a minute to think about what the background noise is in your vehicle or at home. What’s on your TV…Dr. Phil, Days of our Lives, Keeping up with the Kardashians, The Office, Bones {I don’t know…maybe some of these shows aren’t even on air anymore? Tells you how much TV I watch}. What’s on your radio or in your CD player? Y105, Taylor Swift, U2 …I don’t even know who’s popular in this realm either, but I am certain these things….these things that we believe our children are too little to understand, that they’re not even really paying attention to or that really aren’t that big of a deal…play into the attitude and behavior of our kids {and us} so much more than we are aware. I’m not saying get rid of your TV or CD’s, but imagine the impact you could have if you exchange even just half of those minutes or hours of background noise with life-giving prayer and praise through music.

The other thing is one that I’m still working on...it required me to take inventory of ways I’m investing or wasting time. It’s the computer or phone… or whichever gadget you access the internet on… Facebook, blogs, and I’m sure there are some of us onto this new thing I’m hearing about called Pinterest. I fall victim to these time wasters so easily since I teach online classes….I’m waiting for a student to Skype or need a quick distraction from grading papers and before I know it I’ve lost 30 minutes of my life reading about who’s making homemade spaghetti sauce from their homegrown tomatoes or the life story of some mom across the country who’s struggling with whether to stay home or go back to work, or even updating my own status and vigilantly waiting for comments to affirm whatever I’ve posted. You know how it goes. I’m determined to redeem those minutes and give them to the Lord on behalf of my family. When I need a distraction during my work time, I have a list of things to pray for the kids that I leave next to the computer, and instead of heading to Facebook, I pray for one of those things. I’m laying my Bible out on the table opened to the Psalms or Proverbs and praying a few of the verses for myself when I have just a minute or two between phone calls. I’m quite sure we’ve all got opportunities to exchange some of our activity for time in prayer….redeeming some of our time to better carry out this mission God has laid before us.

If we really want to be praying continually it’s also so important to incorporate our family and pray with them. Let your children hear you pray frequently over day to day things. No detail is too small. God is always bringing things to our attention through circumstances and interactions. These are perfect opportunities for us to teach our kids how to pray. As you’re driving down the road and your three year old notices a beautiful sunset, take the chance to let him hear you say a prayer of thanks to the Lord for this amazing world He created for us. How about if before you make that dreaded trip to the grocery store with kids in tow, you let them hear you pray for their behavior, for your patience, for wisdom as you make choices about what things to spend money on, and give thanks that the Lord has provided the means for you to even make this trip to the store. Pray out loud during colicky crying fits and temper tantrums. Pray as part of your discipline process. Pray at mealtime and bedtime. Something that we tried out recently, and will definitely do again, is praying through the rooms of our house as a family. I know that Jesus was walking with us as we moved from room to room praying for all different sorts of things….like discretion in our choice of television viewing, gratefulness for a full pantry, kindness as we play together, protection for our home as we burn fires in the fireplace this winter…our 4 year old {who I truly believe the Lord has revealed that He has given the gift of prayer to} even prayed that mommy and daddy would have fun in their bedroom….which, of course, gave us a good laugh. If she only knew, right?!