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Category: prayer (page 3 of 8)

This Could Be More: Praying Beyond the List

April 4, 2019 / / 2 Comments
Reading Time: 5 minutes

pray

I have a new friend.

Her name is Siri, and she and I are getting along swimmingly. She remembers my grocery lists and my reminders. read more

What We Miss: Paying Attention to the God around You (FREE INFOGRAPHIC)

January 24, 2019 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

attention birthday

Tomorrow, another one of my kids turns 13. (Golly, I am getting old.) I’ll let you in on a little secret. One of his friend’s moms and I decided to share planning a small party for both of our sons together–because it turns out neither of us likes planning parties.

Birthdays seem to require a sudden push of adrenaline, past the normal working-mom-with-four-kids schedule. (It is no doubt a sign of my lack of margin.) So far, I don’t know that my kids have had a birthday that didn’t feel special. (Gosh, I hope not.) But days before, I’m always like, Shoot. I really need to do something! read more

How Far You’ve Come: 20+ End-of-Year Prompts to Journal & Reflect

December 5, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

As we waltz into December, it’s meaningful to me to look back on this year and ask my soul a few questions. How you doing in there?

David Benner, in The Gift of Being Yourself: The Sacred Call to Self-Discovery, writes,

Christian spirituality involves a transformation of the self that occurs only when God and self are both deeply known. Both, therefore, have an important place in Christian spirituality. There is no deep knowing of God without a deep knowing of self, and no deep knowing of self without a deep knowing of God. John Calvin wrote, “Nearly the whole of sacred doctrine consists in these two parts: knowledge of God and of ourselves.” read more

Printable Infographic: 9 Ways to Pray for Kids in School!

September 11, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

Want to pray for teachers and administrators, too? Grab that printable here.

I’ve probably written before about my dad sending my sisters and I off to the bus on so many mornings, in that flurry most of us with school-bound children know well. Lunches! Instrument! Mom, you didn’t put that in my lunch, did you? Permission slip! Did you finish that homework? Who’s picking me up from practice? Yes, you have to wear a coat; this is not optional.  He’d surround us in his big farmer-arms or put those sausage-like fingers on our shoulders. “Go MAD!” He’d say. My dad finds little shame in the corny, so that was Dad-code for “Go make a difference.”

Now I’m the one pecking heads while they run out the door, my fingers reaching (when not scrambling for the lunch and permission slips) for those shoulders that grow just a little more every year. I’m sending them on a mission, really.

12 Prayers for Teachers and Administrators (FREE PRINTABLES)

August 24, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 3 minutes

12 ways to pray teachers

So…I’m guilty of reposting this every year. Because even this morning as I left an absurdly quiet house to go on a jog, I realized I wanted, needed, to pray for these key influencers in my kids’ lives. And I’ve seen them make a tangible difference. (If you’re looking for prayers for your kids, check out this printable–a prayer from Scripture for each day of the month–and this word cloud, which can give you a lot of ideas when you don’t know how to pray).  I originally wrote these for teachers, but they’re just as relevant for the administrators who make so many key decisions in our schools. DOWNLOAD THIS LIST HERE FREE here as a pdf–great for small groups, personal use, parent prayer groups–or this format for church bulletin inserts. I’m hoping it’s a great way to kick off loving on the teachers in our lives and cheering them on throughout the year. Please feel free to share if you find this useful. -Janel

Creativity.

Pray that God will help them engage students in practical, exciting ways that help students become lifelong learners about His world in each subject.

Freebie Friday: Prayers for My Kids Printable Word Cloud

July 27, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

It’s raining here. I’m curled up with a little leftover creativity and a computer as drops fall from the pines outside. So that means you’re getting this today: a free printable word cloud of ideas to pray for our kids. I think I’ll tape a copy inside my cupboard door or on the fridge; maybe glue one inside my journal. (There is something about prayer that reminds me of planting trees.)

A lot of these are based off this printable from back in the day: 31 Scriptures to Pray for Your Kids. (That’s the one beside my bed.)

Any parent knows a whole lot can happen really fast when you have kids. (Um. I once had a kid poop in the closet?) But when we’re taking just a few minutes to pray for them, think of what could go right…and how long it could last. read more

On Raising Teenagers, and Other Frightening Impossibilities

June 29, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 5 minutes

So I have a teenager, and another just about. Most of me is tickled pink about all the real conversations we get to hold, all the fun we have as a maturing family, all the crazy jokes they tell me that leave all of us laughing.

And there’s this leeettle part of it that scares the bejeebies out of me.

Seemingly separate note: I have recently acquired an agent for a non-fiction book I’m writing, which makes my heart do little cartwheels of happiness. It was a moment I wasn’t sure would ever happen. read more

Freebie Fridays [INFOGRAPHIC]: Helping Kids Deal with Their Fears

April 6, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 2 minutes

We were on our way to the local aquatic center with friends in my trusty, dented little Subaru. We passed a few yard signs for our small town’s upcoming election. I was listening to my 10-year-old chat with her friends about how excited they were about summer’s approach. Of course, right? But get this. “Yeah, I can’t wait for summer, with all this election stuff and the school shootings.”

Well. Is that how you know that your daughter is growing up in a different world?

I eventually talked with her about the local election: That despite she and her siblings’ wide-eyed ingestion of the scrolling newsfeed in 2016, elections are not usually scary things in our country. (This was less so in Africa, where she grew up, so I get that, too.) read more

Spiritual Life Skills for Kids: 11 Ideas to Encourage Confession

January 11, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 5 minutes

Missed the earlier posts in this series? Get ’em here.

One of my favorite moments from Christmas break found my daughter and I in my little sunroom, paintbrushes in hand. She was trying out her new easel, and I was leaning against the loveseat, watercoloring. A happy surprise was how much she shared about what was going on at school. read more

Shadows, Gwyneth Paltrow, and the Inside-out Life

November 2, 2017 / / 0 Comments
Reading Time: 4 minutes

inner life inside out smallerAllow me to briefly refer to a bad movie, if you would. After all, that’s what makes for a great Thursday.

Remember Shallow Hal (2001), with Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow? Tacky as it was, the idea of the movie is actually sheer genius. Hal, a total womanizer (this is not the genius part), disregards any woman outside of the “knockout” category. That is, until a spell is cast upon him. Within the spell, women’s inner beauty–or lack thereof–manifests as outer beauty. Hal falls hard for a woman who, to him, looks like Gwyneth Paltrow. To the rest of the world, she’s woefully obese. Hal can’t figure out why she’s treated with such disdain; why no one can see how he’s won the jackpot. She’s unspeakably kind and physically dazzling.

What I like about an otherwise dumb movie: What if the portion others see of us misleads and distracts from our actual selves?

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