Prayer Posts – good idea?

 

I have had this thought going through my head lately… actually plaguing me at times because it wasn’t something I was sure I wanted to take on.  I also wasn’t sure how well-received it would be.  So here goes… give me your feedback, please!

I’m thinking of having a weekly prayer post – somewhere that anyone who wishes can link to or leave a comment with their prayer requests, and know that others will pray for them.

Sometimes it’s just easier for some reason to confide in online friends than in “real life” friends.  Sometimes the emotions are just very raw, and the typing it all out helps more than actually speaking the words.  Sometimes it’s just nice to have one more place to go to ask for prayers, even after having asked people we know to pray for us.

Here’s the format I have in my mind, but I’m totally open to suggestions too!  I’m thinking of having some scriptural quote or possibly a passage from a book – mainly having to do with motherhood, wife-hood, and/or just basic Christian life; some sort of food for thought.  Then listing my prayer requests for the week.  I will probably be able to keep this fairly short (think bullet points) most weeks, but of course we all have weeks where we need extra prayer for crises or special circumstances.  Then I would either open it up for people to leave prayer requests in the comments, or if there’s enough interest, a McLinky for others to link their own prayer posts to. 

This would be for prayers of petition, intercession, thanksgiving, etc.

(And I PROMISE to not be long-winded in them! :)  )

I’m also thinking of actually setting up a second blog to use specifically for this once-a-week post.  I like the name “Where Two or Three are Gathered…”.  What do you think?  (It’s a reference to a Bible passage about prayer.)

So… any takers?  I feel like this is something that’s been laid on my heart; I am a *pray-er* and I know many of you are too!  Let me know your thoughts!

Have a beautiful day! :)

Thanksgiving Tree Idea and Template

I’ve been seeing a lot of Thanksgiving ideas online lately, so I thought I’d go ahead and share what we are planning to do this year… and hopefully every year from now on! 

A couple of weeks ago I had a whole day to myself while my husband took M to his family farm and they picked apples in the orchard.  So what did I do with my free time?  Why, I made something of course.  I can not stop myself…

We plan to do a Jesse Tree for Advent this year.  We did one last year and it was a lot of fun for M, plus a great way to sneak in a lot of quick Bible stories – one per evening. I’ll write more about the Jesse tree in November.  Anyway, I drew a tree with bare branches and then realized it would be perfect for Thanksgiving too.  I always love something that has more than one use. :)

In fact, I’m guessing there could be a lot more uses for this – like a seasonal tree to decorate with felt ornaments.  Maybe snowflakes in winter, flowers in spring, green leaves in summer, red and orange leaves in fall…

So, I uploaded the template I made, enlarged it, then printed it and cut it from some brown flannel.  Here’s the paper pinned to the fabric:  It ended up being about 24 inches long and maybe 15 to 18 inches wide (my estimation powers are not great so don’t hold me to that!).

I made another flannel board for it (foam core board and flannel) and attached it with some gold-colored tacks so the branches would not be floppy.  I plan to cut leaves from some fall-patterned scrapbook paper and we will each write one thing for which we are thankful on a leaf each evening of the week before Thanksgiving.  We’ll attach them to the tree with more tacks.  :)

I’m really excited about this idea, I think it’s going to look nice!  I’m so pleased with how the tree turned out.   And it’s going to be nice to have our focus on what we are thankful for instead of just how are we ever going to stuff all that food into ourselves.  ;)

If you are interested in making one like this, feel free to use my template.  You can download it here.  Be warned that the cutting can be a little tricky in some places.  You can find the original small version here if you need a visual to help you out while you are cutting.  This is my original drawing, so please link back here if you make this and post about it. 

Have a beautiful day! :)