day two: praying the Word.

I picked "PRAY BIG" to write about because it just won't leave me alone.  I am feeling the Spirit nudging me all the time to pray bigger and stop being so lame when I'm talking to God who is, oh by the way,  SOVEREIGN.  And by nudging, I mean it's almost like He is a three year old who really wants a cupcake and keeps reminding you.  Not that I have any experience in that department.

(We know a lot about cupcakes because today was this little one's birthday!!!)

This is kind of how I feel like the conversation keeps going between me and the Lord:
GOD: "Hey sweet Meg.  Loving your prayers.  How bout you make them a little bigger and see what we can do from there? I'm doing some pretty big things and would love to have you be a part of them."
MEG: "That sounds great. Not real sure where to get started with that."
GOD: "What's that pretty little pink & green book over there on top of your BSF lesson that you need to finish since it's tomorrow morning?"
MEG: "Well I'll be darned--my Bible!  What a fantastic place to start."

There are many things that I don't like.  Bananas. Rudeness. WWF Wrestling. Carpet. Brett's dirty socks just laying around the house.  But the Bible is not one of those things.  I love the Bible like crazy, y'all.  LOVE IT.  And by the SHEER GRACE OF GOD, I have found recently that any time I am at a loss for just about anything, that is where I run.  And I have not been let down.

And what I'm learning is that when I pray His Word, I CAN'T PRAY SMALL.

God has put amazing people in my life along the way and one of them is Jean Motsinger.  Any time I spend with her, she constantly points me back to the Word.  When Brett's sister had her first baby many moons ago, Jean gave me this sheet of paper with ways to pray for children monthly.  With each month's prayer there was also a verse.  Over time, more babies started being born and I was praying for them with this great list of ways to pray for kiddos. But I've got to be honest, for the first year I never looked up the verses.  You know, because it's just soooo hard to read all thirteen words in one verse. #queenofexcuses #ilovehashtags #especiallylongnonsensicalones #butidigress

But when I finally looked up those verses and made this -- laminated copy of the prayers for each month with the verse for each month on an index card to switch in and out -- things changed. I mean it.  I pray differently now.

That Colossians 4:2 verse right there has saved me from praying (for September's prayer) that our little girls would like to pray or understand it or teach about it someday or something else that honestly is a little bit lame when compared to this: "DEVOTE YOURSELVES TO PRAYER."  I don't want my kids to just like prayer, I want to raise women who are DEVOTED to it.  Not just people who say "I'll be praying for you!" half-heartedly but women who stop and say, "Let's pray NOW" and who get on their knees and are brave enough to ask God for big things because they don't just think prayer is cool--they are devoted.

Jesus, lead me.  Show me in Your Words how to pray BIG -- specific verses for specific people and specific situations.