Goodness Unveiled

One of the main points of this blog is to encourage us to see the character of God in our lives. One of my most favorite and impactful ways of remembering and seeing His faithfulness is to look back on how He has been faithful in my life through my prayer journals.

My prayer journals have looked different through various stages of my life. I have been an active and busy mom for almost 20 years now, so I have not sat down to write out lengthy thoughts and feelings in about two decades. Instead, I write prayer lists from church, small groups we have led or attended, and from my personal prayer times. Most of the time they are jotted down quickly as I think of them, rarely with anything more than a reminder or key points. Some of those prayer requests were only one word, because I didn’t know how to pray for it at the time. Throughout the years my prayer lists have been on my calendar/planner, on a spiral notebook, in my Write the Word books (see notes below), or in a regular journal notebook.

Our oldest son was flown to Cook Children’s in Fort Worth, TX, with a brain tumor on my birthday in September of 2021. As I walked into the room at my sister-in-law’s house at almost midnight that night, she had laid out gifts on the guest bed for me. It included a journal that I took with me to the hospital the next day. I have notes of what I wrote down from the neurosurgeon, the neuro-oncology team, nurses and case workers, the phone number of my sister-in-law’s friend who worked at the hospital, Bible verses, and prayers for my son. Some of those entries are upside-down in the middle of the book because I was so distraught with all of the information flowing into my brain. Nothing else is written in that notebook yet, but one day I will take the time to write out how incredibly God answered those prayers that notebook represented.

As I look back on the dozens of prayer journals I have kept through the years, I have taken notes in a different color of how God answered those, or if I was still praying for them. It is an incredible feeling to remember how I felt in the midst of those times or the burden I felt for someone I was praying for, and how I can see now that He was actively working in each. Babies prayed for, then babies born or adopted; sickness, and then healing, whether in heaven or on earth; financial hardships, and then provision; jobs or ministry needs, and how God worked in those requests. What I see when reviewing each of these is God’s sovereignty and unchanging character, even when the answers where not what I was hoping for or expecting.

In some of the notebooks, I see how some of my kids doodled with their tiny hands throughout the years. I can look at my early journals and see what a perfectionist I was about my prayer lists, and my life in general. I can see as time went on, the journals got messier and more disorganized, much like life. The good news is, God was still there through the messy ones. In fact, the messy ones, like my upside-down journal entries in the middle of a new journal on the day my son had brain surgery, were the ones I envision God taking my face in His hands to point my eyes directly at Him.

Deuteronomy 4:9-10 says “Only be on your guard and diligently watch yourselves, so that you don’t forget the things your eyes have seen and so that they don’t slip from your mind as long as you live. Teach them to your children and your grandchildren. The day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, the Lord said to me, ‘Assemble the people before me, and I will let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me all the days they live on the earth and may instruct their children.” (CSB). God told the Israelites to remember what He had done in bringing them out of intense hardship, to remember His commands, and to teach it to their children. A simple prayer journal is how I do this as recurring reminders of the sovereignty and faithfulness of God. Don’t put too much pressure on it being perfect or long, just focus on praying and seeing God’s character come through as you remember what He has done in your life and the lives of those you pray for.

(pictures of my notebooks in front of the flowers that one of my sweetest friends sent me today, they are too beautiful not to share with you)

*Write the Word | Prayer – Cultivate (cultivatewhatmatters.com) I love these journals for a simple way of writing down verses, thankfulness, and prayers. There is something about handwriting that makes us focus on the Word and hide it in our hearts. I have done several of the Write the Word series and love them all. They also have homeschool planners for my homeschool friends and items for kids as well!