Tuesday, May 1, 2007

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER

As I'm sure many of you already know, tomorrow is being recognized as the NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER. You can visit www.nationaldayofprayer.org to read President Bush's official proclamation, and view specific prayer needs. We are in particular need of God's hand to work in our judicial system; this is where the moral battle is waged.

In thinking of prayer, I thought I would share a prayer model that we have been using with our children which I thought others of you may find useful. After we bring our thanksgivings to God, we bring our requests in this manner:

Hold your hand out in front of you. You will notice that your thumb curves back toward you. Let your thumb remind you to pray for those closest to you: your spouse, children, siblings, etc.

Your pointer is your strongest finger. Let your pointer finger remind you to pray for those in leadership and positions of authority: our President, local government officials, your pastor and his family.

Your third finger, 'tallman', points farther away than your other fingers. Let your tallman remind you to pray for those who are far away: Missionaries, our brave Military men and women, long-distance relatives, etc.

Your fourth finger is your weakest finger. Let your fourth finger remind you to pray for those who are weak: the poor, the sick, the unborn.

The pinky is your smallest finger and comes last. Use your pinky as a reminder to pray for yourself. Bring your personal requests to God.

Derek began teaching this Hand Model for prayer to our kids several months ago, and it has been a joy to watch them begin to develop a prayer life. I hope it will be a blessing to your families as well!

Let's all be in prayer together for our beloved Nation tomorrow and all through the year. Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD!

12 comments:

J Luck said...

Oh I like that! Thanks for sharing it.

kayla said...

Thanks for the reminder. I love the hand model. We will have to start using it.

Anonymous said...

Reminds me of Uncle George & Aunt Ruthie! They taught that model in VBS services. Brent made a big hand for them to use. :)

Tara said...

Sonja!
I didn't remember that! That is so cool; was the model the same? We have seen some variations. My kids would LOVE to see the big hand, I'm sure! We don't have any cool props around here:)

Kelly S said...

Thank you for the reminder Tara. I love the prayer idea for the kids. I may try that this week.

I've been thinking...My side of the family all got together last summer and took a vacation in Gatlinburg, TN in a gorgeous huge cabin overlooking the mountains. I saw in the guestbook that a group of mothers had gotten together and had a little retreat there. I was thinking, wouldn't it be so fun if we could all get away for one or two nights and get together in the smokies? I don't think most of us live that far away. It's only 4-5 hours from me. We would have to fly Heather in from Columbia:) I know it's probably as impossible for you all as it is for me; but...would be fun, wouldn't it?!

The men could get another cabin and keep all the kids...hee hee:)

Tara said...

Kelly,
That is certainly a great idea! I will admit, that for several years before all the children starting coming along, we used to do a Friends Vacation with a lot of people on here. THOSE WERE THE DAYS!! We've been hoping, trying, talking, etc. about trying to do it again, but it seems SO hard to work out now that just in our little group we have 17 kids and one on the way!

I also tried to get a 'Girls Only' thing going at one point; it's just HARD! Since we're all reconnecting better these days through blogging, it may be more likely to happen now, though. IF you can stir up some interest, I'm right there with ya, sister!!!

Kimberly said...

Do you have to be a Mom to come?:)
I love the prayers of children..maybe they "Get through" the fastest...no pretentions.
Love the drawings you posted!!

Tara said...

Kim: notice I said 'girls only' NOT 'moms only'!! Would be no fun without you:)
So, does your psychologist mind see anything of interest in those drawings? Are my kid well-adjusted? :)

Kimberly said...

Tara..I'm very out of art therapy lingo..but was impressed by the detail, use of colors..and thankfully no scary monsters lurking anywhere.:)..just happiness. Definately "Above average"...to quote Garrison Keillor!

The Dickinsons said...

Dear Tara,
No, your questions were fine. I'll see if I can remember all of them. Phillip felt it on his heart for us to come to Colombia. Then he asked our church in Goshen, Ohio (Carl Eisenhart's the pastor) if we could go out under them. They agreed. We then traveled around doing deputation for 8 months, raising our support. We're not sure when we'll take the next deputation...but probably in 2008 sometime. Bro. Mark Becker is our missions director...And we could ask for NO BETTER director. He and his wife are just the best! Hope I've answered all of the ?'s. If not, it's fine to ask more! =)
Love, Heather

Kim M. said...

Love the prayer hand. I am always trying to figure out new ways to help my kids spiritually. Sometimes my boys act like total HEATHENS during devotions and giggle and add silly words to their prayer. Jonathan (age 4) who was trying to be funny during prayer giggled and said to his brother.. "look at her face". I was making a "you better stop now or you are gonna get it" face. Other times they pray things like "Lord give us wisdom, You are the Prince of Peace". Thanks for sharing that prayer idea! Also Kelly, Love the vacation idea.. would be a great Mother's day gift. As far as the men getting together in another cabin.. it reminds me of an email I got once with a picture of a baby with magic marker all over it's face and a grinning, guilty toddler standing beside it. The caption underneath said "This is what happens when daddy babysits".

Kelly S said...

Kim N: I didn't mean that it would be just for mothers - absolutely not. We would definitely want you along! I wish we could make it happen.

Kim M: So true about the Daddys! I was definitely kidding about that.:)