Wednesday, September 5, 2007

"All the Days of Her Life"

To finish the thoughts from the 31st...

One evening after Bible Study in our home, four of the teen girls were sitting at the table talking about God boys. Two of us adult ladies were at the table listening to these vicious precious young ladies give example after scenario about "this boy did this", and "she should not take that from him"... It was unbelievable! They were 12, 13 and 14 year old girls!! To be truthful, only two were talking, the others were "uh huh"ing, and "oh My!"ing! I was none-to-little panicked! This was my home, and I needed to have an intervention- and FAST!

The Lord really performed a miracle that night! I went to my home school hutch, and got out four blank dollar store journals. Now, mind you, I do not usually have these things on hand! I "just happen" to see them a few weeks before, and they were just so neat- I had to get them! (Think "Jesus made me"!) I tossed the journals onto the table and said to the girls... "pick one!" They had no idea what I was doing, frankly I was unsure where this whole thing was going! I began to ask them if they thought they would marry some one younger than they were. They all replied "no", and then I began to make them realize that their husband, if they were to marry, was born and living somewhere in the world... right now!

Can I tell you, they all were shocked at the thought!

I then asked them if they were a fly on the wall viewing him, would they like to see him doing what they were not two seconds prior doing? They were appalled at the thought, and thought he would be such a jerk, and they weren't really saying things that terrible... !!! You get the point!

Enter Proverbs 31:12 She will do him good and not evil all the days of her life.

I explained the journal was to be a record of prayers to God for their husbands. Pray for him, his family, his salvation, his health. Pray he has a good education, and a good church, and youth group to attend. Pray he journals, and dates the entries. Can you imagine knitting together you lives even if you don't meet until after college?

Girl: "Hey, did you write around July 15, 2007?"
Boy:" Yeah! We went camping at Letchworth that week!"
Girl:"What? No way!!! So did we!"

The girls were so excited at the thought of praying for them! They felt like they could directly have an impact on their own future right now! Not only did it encourage them to think about the future, it made them realize that today they were "packing" their potential baggage that would be brought into the relationship! Whew! The conversation changed and quick! Thank you God!

I then told them this was to be looked at as a gift to give him on their honeymoon. What a gift! To know that he was prayed for many times over, and for years! Wow!

Relevance to others?

Do you have someone in your life that you care about? Would you think a journal filled with prayers for them would be a special gift? What about a Bible that was read with a certain child/friend in mind, and notes written on the side when the Lord impressed a passage in your heart? What a gift of time and love that would be.

Amazing how much one little verse can generate! I now know of about 16 girls that journal prayers for their husbands. Very cool!

5 comments:

Victoria said...

WOW!! That's a great idea! I remember praying for my husband before I met him, but that's as far as that went. Thanks for the encouragement to this mom of 4 girls!

JulieMom said...

Right on! Great idea. As soon as the girls learn to spell and write, I'm gonna break out the journals.

Michael & Erika Barone said...

Natalia has been doing this for months! To the naked eye it just looks like scribble, however it is a journal of prayers that she marries a man after God own heart...or at least that is our prayer for her!

Janice said...

JulieMom, you need to talk to the Barones... I believe Natalia is not quite 2, and she seems to have it mastered! Must be they have a gifted child!

Anonymous said...

Great idea! As a 17 yr old girl, I can totally understand what you're saying here. It's amazing how much time a bunch of girls can spend discussing guys-and how little time we spend PRAYING about it!!! I'd like to say just 2 things though...
#1 Be careful not to let journaling turn into a daydream session! I'm just saying don't spend TOO much time on it. Sure, it will be a HUGE part of our lives. But we girls also can do plenty to serve God TODAY too! :)
#2 I would include~right alongside the prayers for my future husband~related prayers for myself...pointing out areas that I would fail as a helpmeet, and tracking the progress toward improvement. Wouldn't it be something to give Mr. Wonderful a journal telling him how you've been praying for HIM, and how you've been asking God to prepare YOU for this special guy!
your blog is an inspiration in many ways...I'm a friend of Vicki's & followed the link here a while ago; I've been stopping by regularly ever since! :)