National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. I didn't know this until I saw a few people posting about it on social media. Since we homeschool, I try to make note of days like this with the children and set aside lesson time to discuss it. And this one especially, since God isn't welcome in public school much these days. Celebrate Dr. Suess' birthday? You betcha! Spend a whole week prepping for that day. A day to set aside praying for our leaders? Not so much.

We started by looking up the background and mission of the day. Interesting enough, but I could tell the girls' attention was fading so we took the list of recommended things to pray for and talked about what we could pray for each group, specifically. This is where they became engaged and started really blowing my mind with their high level thinking and ability to communicate those high level thoughts...something I struggle with so much! (I'm always wishing I could verbalize what I want to say more intelligently!)

Here is the recommended list of prayer points for today's special day:

Emphasize prayer for America and its leadership in the seven centers of power:

Government

Military

Media

Business

Education

Church

Family

These thoughts below were actual unprompted ideas from my children, ages 13 and 10:

Government - Pray that they will seek God in making important decisions for our country

Military - Pray for their safety while they are away serving, pray for their families at home who are living without them and pray for their ability to function well and feel normal when coming home.

Media - Pray that they will keep television shows PURE and appropriate for the whole family.

Business - Pray that they will seek God when making business decisions and not be afraid to proclaim Christ.

Education - Pray for our leaders in schools and our teachers. Pray that more believers will go into the field of education and therefore hopefully will bring God back into the schools! Thank God that we are allowed freedom in education and the ability to homeschool if we choose.

Church - Pray that the body of believers will grow in relationship to Christ, to each other and congregation size. Pray that the church can be a bigger influence in the community.

Family - Pray for families to be strong and seek God. Pray for adopted children and foster children who come from broken families, that they find love and acceptance and what it feels like to have a family. Pray for the broken families, that they will heal and for the families that can't stay together, that they can retain a friendly and loving relationship with each other.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm doing well enough as a mother to my children. I have a long running list in my head of things I am not doing and ways I am not good enough. I don't have to look very far to see a mom that is so much better at so many things! I wonder if decisions I am making on their behalf are best or if I am really messing up. But I will say, in moments like today, while sitting next to these girls and hearing them speak out about issues like this, in their own words and from their own hearts...I want to weep and raise my hands to God in gratitude for letting me share life with them. In moments like this, I feel like in the MOST important things, maybe I'm not doing so bad after all.