Day 19 -- Thirty Days of Prayer in the Home...

We need both concentrated times of prayer and also short, extemporaneous prayers throughout the day. While our relationship with God is different than our other relationships, we can draw some parallels from human interaction. With our loved ones, we set aside times to be together, but we also communicate throughout the day.

Little events throughout the day can serve as prompts to praise God and to intercede for others. Here are some examples:

1) When we write an email, a blog article, a tweet message, or a text, we do well to pray before we hit the send button. This is especially true if we are conveying emotion and not just facts.
2) When we hear an ambulance or pass an accident scene, we can pray for those in stress.
3) We can praise God and thank Him for our families and also intercede for our families in those moments right before a loved one will be arriving home from work, school, or other activity. We can also pray when we, ourselves, enter our home after having been out.
4) When the phone rings, we can thank God for friends and family and to pray that our speech will be wise, kind, and free of gossip. If we have caller I.D., we can pray specifically for the person who is calling.
5) We can carry a prayer card with us and use it as a prompt to pray when waiting for appointments, for a stop light to turn green, or while standing in a line. We can jot down on the card things we are thankful for, as well as needs we know about.
6) We can pray for families, teachers, and children when we drive or walk by a school.
7) Seeing a headline or hearing the news can give us ideas for prayer.
8) Instead of getting angry when someone cuts us off in traffic, we can ask God to bless that person.
9) If we deal with a store clerk or other customer service person, we can ask God to bless that person. This goes doubly if the person seems to be having a bad day or if the interchange does not go as we would like it to.
10) When planning menus, paying bills, or doing other desk work, we can pray.

Enjoy!
Elizabeth