A Prayer Book

I love to pray.  I want to pray.  But, I am ever so easily distracted when I try to pray.  Unless, I am writing my prayers in my journal, my mind quickly wanders to my to-do lists, the days anxieties, future plans.  Frustration ensues, I struggle to try again, my mind wanders again and the vicious cycle continues, leaving me feeling guilty and defeated. 

And I tell people that I'll pray for them constantly.  It is always heartfelt, but I must admit that it does roll off the Christian tongue too easily, at times.  Am I really remembering to pray for all these people I've promised?  

I desperately needed a way to help me focus and organize my prayer life...

It must be the special ed teacher in me, or perhaps the artist in me; probably both.  I love visuals. I love tangible things that I can hold and touch and see. In college, I scrap-booked quite a bit, and during this time, I came up with the idea of making a prayer book to house my lists of people and things to pray for. 


Through the years my book has grown and changed, at times well-used and at times left to collect dust on the shelf.  I've recently revamped my current prayer book and thought I'd share. This has become my favorite and most useful tool that I use to help me pray. 

First, I bought a 4x6 photo album. Next, I made a list of general categories of prayer. I created a 4x6 card for each of these categories and put this in the top slot and then in the bottom slot, I switch out index cards with the current prayers for each category.  I switch them out weekly or whenever else I need to update it. You can see my list of categories in the photos below, but I also have a couple of special cards, for example, I have a general priority guideline at the beginning of my book; "Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication".  


There are so many ways to customize this depending on your own prayer needs and lists. The great thing about the prayer book is that it's easy to change whenever you need to. 


Now, when I pray, I can go through my book, page by page, and stay focused, remembering to pray for those who I feel called to pray for. 

Inside my Prayer Book..

(My first page.  It reminds me of the priority of thankfulness and repentance, before I begin asking for my own needs and wants)

(Under this header, I list the week's praises and answers to prayer)

(Here I list all of my family members, but I take turns praying for them on different days, unless there are specific requests)

(This is a much rotated list, depending on who needs prayer)

(on the next pages after "Friends", I also slide in the postcards I receive from the girls)

(prayer requests from the people in our small group)

(I pray for my 7 students, daily)

(This is where I cut out the prayer list from the church bulletin)

Do you use anything special to aide you in your prayer life?