Share Your Prayer

I have spent a lot of time over the years praying for my kids.  I don’t think there is any little corner of their lives that I have not covered in prayer.  That is, until something else comes up.  My kids are getting older and as they do, my prayers become different.  All the usuals apply of course, I pray for their health and their protection and their happiness.  But I pray more specific prayers now.

I recently asked a friend to pray for my daughter.  She not only said she would but she emailed me the prayer she was praying for her.  As I sat at my computer screen crying and thanking God for friends who get it…I was struck again by the power of prayer.

We pray because we cannot possibly do this on our own.

We pray because we need God’s power and grace.

We pray because sometimes just putting it out there, releases the tight grip it has on our heart and mind. 

We pray because we don’t know what else to do.

I have been blessed to have many friends (and my mom) with whom I can share my worries and concerns and what I’ve realized lately is that we all have a lot of worries and concerns.

A lot of these things we wrestle with are often not appropriate to talk about at dinner parties and happy hours.  These are private things.  Often we feel we should not share, we are embarrassed,  we don’t want to break our child’s trust – all of that is valid.  But if we don’t get it out, we suffer.

I was talking to my friend, Kate, yesterday…sharing some of my worries with her.  After we hung up, she called back and said, “I think we should write a book – a book about the REAL prayers moms say for their kids.”

So that’s what we are doing.  We want it to be the REAL prayers moms say for their kids, not the polite prayers we think we should be saying.

Honest. Authentic. Vulnerable prayers. Prayers that we say in the middle of the night when we can’t sleep because we are so worried.  What is your prayer for your child?

We are going to collect them and put them together in some form.  I say “some form” because a book is expensive and takes a long time and we need an agent and although that would be amazing, it’s really about the prayers and we are interested in getting this prayer wagon rolling immediately.

We are doing this so we can build a community of moms – a community where we will all feel less alone.  Here’s the thing…everyone has something going on that worries them.  Someone may see your prayer and thank God that they are not alone.  They may realize for the first time that other people are going through similar things.  Imagine all moms feeling less alone.  Incredible.

Here’s how it works.  Send your prayers.  I will not include names in anything.    The whole thing will be anonymous.  Send to or comment on the blog.  I will not “publish” the comment or any names (no one will see who it came from) but I will include it in our compilation of prayers.

We will not edit the prayers.  We are looking for raw unedited prayers.  Please don’t feel like you need to be polite.  Just be you…talking to God.  Some of you may be hesitant to send your honest prayers but in order to be truth tellers and soul sharers, we are going to need courage to speak from our hearts.  I know this can be difficult but we need each other.  We need you.

Not only will we see that others may be struggling with the same thing, but we will be able to pray for them too!  Oh my gosh, the power of this!  Can you imagine!  All of us praying together for each other’s kids!?!?  And for each other?!??

So cool.  Let’s do it.

Please send your prayers.

©2013 Sue Bidstrup, Great Big Yes™ All Rights Reserved                                               picture of my oldest and Kate’s oldest about 10 years ago 🙂