Praying Out of Distraction

"Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice.  Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand;  do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.  What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me—practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you."  

Philippians 4:4-9 (ESV)

I've found myself praying a lot more in the past few weeks.  I'd like to say it's out of a desperation to know God intimately.  But I must confess, I've been praying more "out of distraction".  Recently I've been thinking about a particular matter quite a bit.  This particular matter isn't anything bad, but I just find myself thinking about it much, at work, in the car and whenever I have time to myself.  Normally I would just lift up my prayer request to the Lord right then and there, but it was getting ridiculous thinking about it 6-7 times a day, so I knew I needed to do SOMETHING to keep me from going crazy.  So I made a conscious decision-- the first 1 to 2 times the matter came to mind, I would pray for it.  But the other 5-6 times, I would use it as an opportunity to pray for other people.

And so these past few weeks have been dedicated to praying for co-workers, my Missionary Support Team (MST) and other missionaries on the field.  I've been praying more about preparing to serve with the Frys in Ixtapaluca in a few months.  And it's been so good to talk to God.

This idea definitely wasn't something sparked out of my own accord.  I've been blessed to go through Biblical Counseling through my church before heading off to the field.  Part of the counseling focused on fighting for God and remembering to medicate on God's truth, instead of letting my mind wander down the 'rabbit trail' and listening to myself.

Sure it's hard-- I get tired of disciplining my mind sometimes and I would rather just zone out and let myself dwell on the issue at hand because it's easier that way.  But I realize that it just creates a lot of unnecessary anxiety about things that may never come to pass.  I'm still continuing to fight for joy in the Lord everyday and fighting to mediate on His truth.  It's tiring and hard sometimes, but totally worth it.

Jr Highers: The One With Nothing

We were in small groups with the Jr high girls last week, asking what it looks like for them to "deny themselves and take up their cross" as Jesus said to His disciples.  They looked puzzled and didn't understand what that meant, so we broke it down for them.  We asked them if there were times in their lives when they really wanted to do something but decided to put aside their own desires and chose to sacrifice because they knew it would honor God and bless someone else.  After thinking about it for awhile, one girl said she would put together an Easter egg hunt for her sister because she's been begging her to do it all week long.

Jr higher:  One time I put a piece of paper with nothing on it in an egg for her.
Co-leader:  Well, maybe this time you can write a note to her!
Jr higher:  Oh.  I did write a note to her last time... I wrote the word "nothing" on the paper...
Us:  0_o

She's good.