My 2013 Word: Prayer
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For the past two years I have picked a word that I wanted to describe my life in the new year -something for me to focus on and to work on throughout the year. In 2011, my word was “growth” and last year my word was “trust.” A few weeks ago I prayed and asked God to show me what word He would have me pick for my theme this year. I simply had no idea what I wanted to work on this year, but after what seemed like only a few moments later, it came to me: Prayer.
Last year, my word was “trust” and I listed three ways that I wanted to learn to trust in 2012. I wanted to learn to trust God more and with everything I have, I wanted to learn to trust my husband more with being the leader of our home, and I wanted to learn to trust others and to take them at their word.
If you read our Christmas Family Newsletter or have been following along this blog for the past year, you know that 2012 was a very hard year for us. My husband was deployed, his grandfather died, my son ended up in the hospital, my son had to have a lot of tests and procedures done because of his health problems, and finally he was diagnosed with SPD and Autism. Most recently, we found out that my husband has some kind of heart problem that may prevent him from deploying in several months and may even get him medically discharged from the military.
Yes, when you ask God to help you to learn to trust He certainly will bring things your way to help you learn it well! I feel that 2012 was definitely a test of how well I was going to learn to trust and I think I am finally getting the hint and learning that it’s the only way to go. That is why I think prayer is going to be just the right key to this new year.
Now that I have been through all these trials that have taught me how to trust, I feel I am ready for the next step: to pray to Him with everything I have and in prayer trust Him with all that I have. I am giving over everything that is in my life and saying, “Here it is Lord, use me,” or “Here it is Lord, help me.”
How I Want Prayer to Describe my Life in 2013:
1. I want to learn to pray better and more often.
I know there is no right or wrong way to pray, but what I mean by better is to be more focused and more intentional in how I pray. I talk a lot about helping others and how I want to be an encouragement, but in order to do that, my life and especially my prayer life needs to be in order and focused on the Lord.
2. I want to have a set prayer time every day or even once a week.
Being a mom to a toddler is hard enough, but being a mom to a special needs toddler who has therapy 9-10 times a week is even harder. Finding time in my crazy and busy schedule to pray is no joke! I want to be intentional in how I make time to pray. Sure I can pray as I am going, but I really want to find time at the very least once a week to sit down and have an actual prayer time.
3. I want to pray with my husband and as a family.
We already do this a little bit as we pray over meals and pray with my son before bedtime, but I want my son to learn from our example. I would love to teach him more about prayer and I would love to find time to pray every day or even once a week. To be able to come together and pray for our needs together as husband and wife or even as a family would be a huge blessing.
4. I want to learn to rely on prayer, not on myself or my abilities.
So many times in my busy I day I forget to rely on God to help me through the little or even the big things I go through on a daily basis. I think that I can get through it on my own, that I just need to keep pushing through. But I don’t need to “just push through.” God is there waiting for me to call on Him and He is willing to help me.
5. I want prayer to define my life.
I would really love for prayer to be more than just a thing I do at meal times or at bedtime. I want it to be a real part of my life. As a friend of mine said “I have a constant dialogue going on with God every day.” I want it to be like that.
My Plan of Action:
1. You might have remembered a book I told you about in another post called: He’s Real. I typed up a very powerful excerpt from the book to share with you and promised that when I finished it I would give you the review. Well I am still only about half way through, but I promise this book is a life-changer! And I think this is one of the main things that started me on this journey to prayer. The book is called: Confessions of a Prayer Slacker
2. My husband bought me this beautiful hand-made journal from Kuwait when he was deployed. The paper is just beautiful and the outside of it is leather. It’s special so I wanted to save it for something special and so I started using it as a prayer journal from time-to-time. Yes, I blog here, but this journal is for my utmost and private thoughts to God. I hope to use this journal more and fill it with more prayers to Him.
3. Recently, a friend told me about an app called Pocket Prayer Pro. You can use it to keep track of your prayer requests, prayers, and it even comes with beautiful prayers listed by category to help you know what to pray. I just downloaded it the other day and I love it already. I think this is going to be a huge help in my prayer life and in getting me started.
What are your goals for this year? What is one word that you want to describe 2013?
Hi there. I recently re-activated my blog after a year of disappearance and yours is one I used to follow, so I was catching up đ I’m sorry to hear about all the events of last year for you. I, too, am a military wife and understand the hardship of deployment. My husband is currently deployed. Anyway, your post encouraged me this morning because I also strive to improve my prayer life this year. I fall under the category of praying only when I feel like it or when things are just too hard and I’ve tried everything else. Not how it should be, I know. Anyway, I guess I just wanted to say thank you for sharing this post and your goal to improve your prayer life đ It reminded me of important such a simple thing is and also how necessary it is as well. đ
Hey Alaina!
Yes, I totally remember you! So glad you are back in the blogosphere! I was totally there where you are too. I have really worked on it this month and It’s been a blessing! đ Thanks for coming by and commenting!
Great post!!! Your journal is beautiful!! I too have a prayer journal and have found it to be such a great tool. It’s such a treasure to look back at and see how God is answering my prayers. Happy new year to you and your family!!
Thank you! đ I love it and will treasure it always. I totally agree about the looking back. It is amazing to see how I’ve grown and the things that have happened. Thanks for commenting and Happy New Year to you too!
I loved your post! This is a new concept to me (heard of it in December). I finally settled on the word “Invest” for my 2013 word. I want to invest in so many areas of life – God, marriage, children, home, finances, etc. I felt like God reminded me to “seek ye first the kingdom of God”….and He would add all these (other) things to me. I started a journal to help me stay focused, too. :). Anyway, thanks for the post – I found it to be very inspiring! I follow you on Twitter. God bless!
Hi Janice,
Thanks for stopping by and commenting! I love the word you chose I think it’s such a good one and that it covers a lot of area. Good luck and blessings as you work told your goal this year!
Great post like Jessica said, I keep buying journals but never fill them. So I decided I am going to make a devotional binder. I think my word for this year will be devoted. I want to devote more time to God, praying, and being thankful for every blessing and problem that comes in to my life on a daily basis. I look forward to hearing more about your journey with prayer. As always, your family is in my prayers.
haha I used to be the same way growing up! I would but all this pretty spiral notebooks to use as journals, but then never fill them, I just liked them because they were pretty. I like the idea of a devotional journal, I think that’s a great idea! Thanks for the prayers, I hope you are doing well!
Here’s a link to my one word: http://beautifulinhistime.com/2013/01/01/home-one-word-for-2013/
I need to work on this one too <3
It's not my 'one word' but it defintely could be.
Glad I’m not the only one! It’s sometimes as busy mommies! đ
I don’t know that I could possibly pick one word! There are so many things I want to work on this year… but I will say, prayer is one of them. I need to put a larger focus on God for myself and my children. Beautiful post.
It is hard to pick one word and of course I have other goals, but this is the main one I want to work on throughout the year! Thanks for commenting and sharing. đ
Prayer is such a precious gift we have been given, yet we don’t take advantage of it enough. Have you ever read any of the Power of Praying books? They are really great tools.
Yes, that is so true! Yes, I have read the Power of a Praying Wife and love it! I need to read more of her books as they are so powerful. Thanks for stopping by and commenting! đ
My goodness. I am overwhelmed with your website. I just started blogging. The only reason I started a blog is because friends encouraged my to publish my e-book, A Journey In Prayer. I am honestly not trying to get you or anyone else to buy it, I just have to put it out there because when I decided to follow through on the prayer blog, I had no idea there were so many people who were so devoted to the life of prayer that they blogged about it! You are an inspiration to me. Thank you so much. I plan on following you and also plan on adding you to my prayer list. And, I plan on asking God to help me choose a word for this year. Thank you and God Bless!