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Using Your Journals

1.2.2014 • 1 Comment

DSC_1239So we have about 1,300 journals out there in the world and many more being shipped tomorrow. I still can’t believe it! I thought I’d share a post as we kick off our prayer journals!! : ) And if you gave this as a gift, be sure to share this post if they have any questions about how to use them!! 

This is the time for prayer. It’s the start of a new year and I’m sure you’ve come up with a few goals for what you’d like to do this year. Prayer gives those goals wings to soar. So cheesy, but its true. Pray God gives you clarity for your goals and the strength to see them through. And so much more.

Me becoming a pray-er all came from me being a worrier. So many fearful thoughts would enter my head and it got overwhelming. At some point in my life (I’m not really sure when) I became so overwhelmed, I had no other option but to pray. It was a last ditch effort when it should have been my first. So now I do a lot of praying. At Vivi’s shower Tyler included this as one of the five qualities he hoped she could learn from me. He teased that I will pray for EVERYTHING! When Vivi is fussy or not sleeping like she should, we pray. Yep. While she’s screaming. In those early days, we prayed ALOT during nursing for both of us. I prayed for God to give us little victories each day just so we’d be encouraged to keep going. I interrupt Tyler’s conversations about work frustrations to pray. I have seen the power it has. Not only in seeing God change a situation but seeing God change a heart.

You don’t need a prayer journal to pray. You just need 10 seconds of quieting your heart and mind. I have found the journals so helpful to organize all those jumbled thoughts. And even moreso, never letting me forget to pray for those people around me.

Can I tell y’all one of my current concerns? I REALLY don’t want these to sit on shelves or collect dust in someone’s closet. I would honestly rather not sell them if that’s where they end up. I am the first to admit I will by something and HOPE it will help but I don’t alway put the time and effort into it. Y’all, this is the power of God we’re talking about in these journals. It is worth the effort!

I truly want to encourage y’all and be encouraged by y’all to use them effectively. I think accountability and a community is a great way to do that.

A few ways to do that:

1. Text, message or call your friends and family when you are setting up your journal for the month and ask what they need prayer for. I have been doing this for about a year now. In the beginning it was a bit more infrequent and I just used a blank moleskin but now with the journals the last few months, it’s my little monthly routine. It has been so neat to stay up to date on some of the things weighing on my friends. Many don’t live in my hometown anymore, so this has helped me keep up with them. It’s crazy how many times I think I know what they’d need pray for and then when I ask, it’s completely different. I love getting to know what’s going on with them even more through this.

The power of instagram!! I truly hope our Instagram feed will be an encouraging place. We already spend time here so let’s make it uplifting. (Mine is @ValWoerner!)

2. Share your requests on Instagram with the #vmpprayer. I can’t tell you how comforted I was to know so many people were praying for Vivi’s delivery. I felt the presence of God in such a real way that day and know it was thanks to so many of y’all praying.

3. The world is always something a bit hard for me to pray for because I don’t know what’s going on with it. I’m in my own little bubble and I don’t necessarily think the news is the place for me to find out more. If you have been to countries that need prayer, please share them with the #vmpprayer. Us grounded birds (I can’t fly) need you to report back on what to pray for.

4. Check out the hashtag #vmpjournals or #vmpprayer.  #vmpjournals you will find my posts about them as well as other people’s. I have already been encouraged by seeing y’all use them. It inspires me each time to pull mine out. #vmpprayer is a place to leave prayer requests as well as to prayer for others. I didn’t do this for January but for February, one of my blank sections is going to be entitled “Community” and it will be a place to write down some of these requests y’all leave. Check out more of my thoughts on the #vmpprayer hashtag here.

5. Yall we are such a busy people. It can be hard to find time to prayer if we are looking for a 30 minute block of uninterrupted down time. So show us where you are using yours. I posted a photo a while back of me using mine while I straightened my hair in the morning. It’s something I do all the time and can easily be a special time of prayer. Maybe you read over yours in the car line to pick up kids. I want to see it!! Those early days with Vivi, I pulled mine out EVERY nursing session. It was incredible. To constantly refocus my mind that many times a day helped me so much to stay positive and trusting in the Lords plan. Remind us where we can pray. It’s so easy to forget.

I’m so happy to have sold so many journals. I really feel like they can change lives. But it’s not up to me if they change your life. You’ve got to use it.

Today’s Jesus Calling spoke so clearly to me regarding this. It’s my first day back in the office and I have so many emails to respond to AND go back for round two of Vivi’s shots! This reminded me that carving out time for God is way worth it.

Do not skimp on our time together. Resist the clamor of tasks waiting to be done. You have chosen what is better and it will not be taken away from you. 

If you haven’t ordered your journal, we still have some in stock and can be ordered here.

 

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Comments (2)

My sister, Nicole, gave me a Prayer Journal as a gift last year and I couldn’t wait until Jan 1st to start using it! It was even part of my New Years Resolution:
https://southernarchitectress.blogspot.com/2014/01/new-years-resolution.html

I have already ordered another one in Mint!