Tag Archive - prayer

Top Ten {Tuesday} – Ten Starting Points for Determining Your Priorities

April 17, 2012 in Faith, Women with 4 Comments

Top Ten Tuesday at Many Little Blessings

I shared this weekend about how my family passes our priorities through 3 filters: God, family, and our goal to be debt-free.  I’d recommend heading over to that post on priorities before reading on.  It’s ok…  I’ll wait…

Ok.  So, how do you determine what your priorities should be?

Ten Starting Points for Determining Your Priorities

  1. God needs to be at the center of your life. Everything that you do needs to flow out of your relationship with God.
  2. Scripture. The Bible is God’s special revelation to us. There are universal mandates and Truths that you need to determine how to specifically apply in your life.
  3. Prayer. This is our ongoing conversation with God.
  4. Spiritual Gifts. God has given you unique gifts to be used for His service. See Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, and Ephesians 4 for lists of spiritual gifts. There are various “tests” that you can take to help guide you to an understanding of your gifts.
  5. Strengths and talents. You’re uniquely wired with special abilities and desires to do well at certain things.  Figure out what those are. I recommend any of Marcus Buckingham’s books as a good first step in determine your strengths.
  6. Experiences. You’ve gone through unique things in your life that have made you who you are.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4 tells us that we’re supposed to use those experiences to comfort others. Is there something in your life that points to what your priorities should be?  For me, I wrote Finding Joy in Depression out of my experiences and a desire to encourage those dealing with depression. This is a priority that came out of my experiences.
  7. Spouse. What does your spouse think your priorities should be? How does he fit into those priorities?
  8. Family. Do you have kids? Extended family? How does these people play into your priorities?
  9. Current circumstances and needs. I’m a stay at home mom who doesn’t regularly have a car available during the day. My priorities can’t regularly fall in times and places that I can’t possibly be. What are your regular limitations that need to be worked with or around?
  10. Flexibility. Sometimes God throws everything out the window and calls you to do something that seems crazy. If you’ve been working on #1-9 and regularly and filtering the things that you do and decisions that need to be made through those lens, you’ll be ready when God says that something that doesn’t normally fit is urgent and takes priority today.

Happy prioritizing!  Got an additional suggestion or a way that God has shown you how to use one of these starting points? Let’s talk about it in the comments.

Another 21 Days of Prayer for Sons

February 20, 2012 in Books, Boys, Faith with 0 Comments

“The fervent prayers of a righteous {mom} avail much.” James 5:17

Another 21 Days of Prayer for Sons is coming May 1-21 at The MOB Society.

Thru the end of February, grab your copy of Warrior Prayers for just $.99!

Mothers of Boys

*A

Seasons of a Mother’s Heart ~ Chapter 10

November 4, 2011 in Books, Homeschooling with 2 Comments

Seasons of a Mother's Heart Book Cover 

I’m linking up with Home with the Boys and reading Seasons of a Mother’s Heart by Sally Clarkson.   If you’d like to join in, here is the original post from Erin with the details and reading schedule.

Some of my favorite quotes from Chapter 10:

  • How they turn out will depend more on how much I prayed for them, how much I depended on God, rather than on how much I did for them. pg. 196
  • I cannot do it without God’s grace. pg. 196
  • Prayer is a means by which God releases more of his grace into my life.  Without prayer, I cut myself off from a major source of the grace of God. pg. 197
  • Only prayer that is “in the Spirit” will have power to defeat the enemy against whom I pray. pg. 198
  • My children need me to pray for them as they engage in their own spiritual battles. pg. 199
  • But prayer… it is never really finished. pg. 200

Sally’s words in this book have come to me like they are words straight from God… and it happened again this week.

Being a perfectionistic type A personality, I think I can do anything and that checking things off my to-do list is the top thing on my list of priorities.  {Want a wake up call on that one?  Read this from my friend Rebecca at Moms Mustard Seeds.}  I check off one thing just in time to have to do it again.  So many things to DO that I forget about what I need BE.  What my children need most from me is prayer, not all my running around doing.

First they need me to simply be praying so that I’m connected to God.  When I’m connected to God in prayer, I’m more understanding and gracious.  God gives me the grace I need to make it through each day.

Second, they need me praying for them.  Praying for their todays and their tomorrows.  It is my responsibility to be praying for their growth and protection.  No one else can pray like for them like their momma.  No one else can have that kind of understanding and determination in prayer for them except me.  Me.  Only me.

Stop making check marks.  Put the to do list down.  Make praying for your kids a priority.

How do you pray for your kids?  How do you make it a priority?

Prayer and Depression

October 27, 2011 in 31 Days of Finding Joy in Depression, Faith, Women with 0 Comments

prayer and depression

Joy Depression

This is day 26 of 31 Days of Finding Joy in Depression. Yesterday, I shared about coffee and depression. Today, I’m talking about prayer and depression.

prayer and depression

Photo Credit

Prayer and depression can be a touchy subject.  I think this stems from people thinking that you can “pray away” depression.  Like with any illness or situation, sometimes God immediately heals or removes the thing, but more often he walks with us through it.

Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

The real importance of prayer and depression is relationship and attitude.  God is our comforter and that comes from talking and walking with him.  At the same time, focusing on God rather than your depression helps elevate your mood.

Remember that prayer is not a one time thing.  We don’t pray and walk away.  It is an all the time thing.  Prayer is an ongoing conversation.

Do you pray?  How does prayer affect your depression?

If you deal with depression, please comment and share your journey too.  If you’re a blogger, you can use the button and code below to share your story and link back on your blog.  Feel free to leave links to your posts in the comments area.

 

The Pelsers

I’m linking up with The Nester and others who are writing 31 posts this month on various topics.  I’m not a doctor or a counselor and this is not intended to be medical advice.  This is simply the story of my experience with depression.

Warrior Prayers On Sale for $2.99

September 29, 2011 in Books, Boys, Faith with 0 Comments

Warrior Prayers E-Book

Do you have a copy of Warrior Prayers?  Been holding out?  Waiting for a good deal?

Now is your chance!  It’s on sale through Friday, September 30 for just $2.99!

Click here to go to the Warrior Prayers site and buy your PDF copy.

Not familiar with Warrior Prayers?  Take a look back at some of these posts to see why I love this book.

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