This one's for the girls

I wrote the following with several girls my age on my heart, and I was going to send it out in a private email, but I never know who is reading my blog and who might be passing through and be encouraged, so here tis!

Dear Girls,

Over the last month or so, God has been impressing upon me something that I have never quite understood the full importance of. Actually, about a year ago, He began a work in my heart which intensified recently and I didn’t notice until about a week ago. Isn’t that just like us, to not even notice that God has been working on our hearts until a year later? =)

When I moved out here to WA the first thing I got involved in at church was a prayer meeting led by a young man named Austin Clement. Austin struck me right away as someone who truly had a passion for prayer and how God uses it to change people, situations and really everything about life. I remember just being so impressed with his heart for prayer and his desire to please God through it. Those meetings were amazing! A few months later he moved away to go to Moody and the prayer meeting fell apart, but God had already begun something in my life…teaching me the vital importance of prayer.

I am a planner. When I am looking forward to something, I really like to plan and prepare and be all perfectly ready and in the best position possible to carry out my goal or mission. I seriously packed two weeks in advance before my Mexico trip =)

All that to say that, in my family and the families of a lot of you, there was always a big emphasis put on the girls preparing for marriage and motherhood; something that we all aspire to and look forward to some day. We read books, cook, clean, plan menus, sew, excel in childcare and slowly collect things in our hope chests…all just waiting for “someday” . We all have heard the ideas of things to do to prepare for our future husbands while still saving our hearts for the perfect one. We wrote letters, stashed stuff, and worked for years to become better equipped.

One idea that I have heard so many times that I want to hone in on was to pray for our future husbands. I collected baby and maternity clothes, various household items and pretty much did everything on the above list, but the one thing I didn’t ever really do was to pray for him. I never felt comfortable because I was always afraid that through various crushes over the years, I would have someone in mind and would not really be able to pray platonically for my “Future Husband”.

God has me in a season of waiting on Him right now for direction and the not being able to prepare was driving me crazy. I just wanted a direction; I knew I had a “go” but where? When? How? The only answer was wait….and pray. In case you read my blog…. That has been a theme for a while, now. ;-)

So, I decided to do just that…wait and pray.

Waiting was inevitable, so I put my main focus on praying, and set myself a 30 day challenge to pray consistently every day without fail and to record my prayers in a journal so I would not be able to give into the temptation to fall asleep or just make it super quick and thoughtless. I asked friends and family to pray that I would be faithful to pray and that God would teach me in this time of waiting on Him.

A week ago, still restless at not “doing” anything but praying, God struck me with just how important being still and praying is. Right now I am doing the most meaningful preparation for my future possible! As I pray and seek His face and just Him, I am building a foundation for my life. I am setting precedence for everything life throws my way. This last month of focused prayer has done unbelievable wonders for my relationship with Him. Just Me and God have gotten SO much closer, which makes complete sense because you usually draw closer to someone you talk to all the time. =) God is using this time in my life to help me become a woman of prayer and someday a wife and mother of prayer.

At some point we come to a place where we can stop praying for Mr Unknown and start praying for someone we know, but while God has you in the place of not knowing I want to encourage you to (of you can platonically) pray for “him”, seriously. Buy “The Power of a Praying Wife” and read through it, pray those things for the young man (even if you don’t know him) who you will someday walk beside. However, as tempting as it can be, don’t focus all your prayers on just him. I am sure he needs it, but really put your focus on becoming a woman “of prayer” in all areas.

Pray for your family, your friends, your coworkers.

Pray just for God, talking to Him and telling Him how much you love and appreciate Him. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends and family how you can be lifting them up before our Father in Heaven and don’t be afraid to pray for yourself too.

One thing I love about praying is that I can do it any time, anywhere. I pray in the car, the shower, when I am sewing or when I am working out and so many other times and places. =)

I love the work my parents put into training me for my future, whatever it may be, but I think the most valuable input I have ever gotten was the words of my father a few weeks ago encouraging me to pray pray pray and to focus my energy in this season on praying.