PRAYING FOR OTHERS MADE EASY

I read the Focus on the Family newsletters cover to cover last night after the kids were in bed. We decided to implement one of their ideas with our kids to make praying for other people a regular habit.

I have a bowl in the center of my table, and in it, we put slips of paper with names of anyone who came to mind that God laid on our hearts to pray for. Then, at every mealtime, we'll pick a name out of the bowl and pray for that person or family. We included people like the mailman, and the not so cheerful cashier at the grocery store. We have every cousin, grandparent, aunt, and uncle in there. We put friends in there by families. (For example, "The Mark Family".) It's been my goal to expand my kids' prayers at dinnertime to more than "bless this food and keep us safe on the road" and I thought this might be a good way to encourage that. When we get to the bottom of the bowl (which will be a while!), we can start all over! :)