The Prayer Book

Eli & Gina - two former youth group kids, still in my prayer book today

We all have people in our lives that we pray for. My prayer list expands and contracts just like my waste line does over the holidays. Some people are on my prayer list for a long time. Others come and go depending on who's in the forefront of my mind on any particular day.

Have you ever finished praying and then remembered somebody you forgot to pray for? I do that ALL the time. That's why I have this little gem - my prayer book.

This little book of mine is filled with some of the faces of the people that I pray for - former youth group kids from when I was a youth leader. Several years ago the empty book was given to me by my friend Gayle. What a blessing it has been, not only to fill the pages with pictures of their smiles, but to turn the page each day and to pray for them.

Each face triggers something special inside of me - a memory, a conversation, a struggle, a triumph. It is always something we have done together. Something we have shared.

I look at Eli here and remember sitting at DQ, talking. I remember an early morning conversation at a local farm as he worked and the night he called me at 2 AM after a car ran into their house.

And Gina. Another long conversation in a restaurant that seemed to pass all too quickly. I remember Katie's wedding and our conversation there. Good times.

Both of these faces are living in Colorado now, living lives on their own. But they are also living in my heart as I remember them and lift them up to God in prayer.

I love the owners of ALL of the faces in my prayer book. My friends, if you don't have a prayer book you have GOT to get one. What better way to pray for those you love than to look into their eyes as you hold them in your hands before the Lord.

Pray - Sam Smith
Prayer of The Children - The Concordia Choir