How to Pray About a Big Decision

What is God's will?  What is the right decision?
Have you ever wondered that and fretted over those questions?  

When I'm praying and needing to make a decision, I have learned to do the following few things:

1- Pray alone.
I like to wake up before anyone else in the house is up to pray!  

2- Pray for an extended period of time.

Not a quick, before you eat type of prayer.  Like sit down and spend some time with God.

3- Write out your prayer in a journal.  Make a list of what your worried about.  Write out Bible verses.  Just get it off your mind, onto the paper, and over to God!
I will write at the top of my prayer journal - "God, I trust you with..." and then I'll list everything out that I'm anxious about or need to make a decision about.  I also love journaling because you can go back and literately see answered prayers! .
4- Read the Bible.  Ask God to speak to you through His Word.  
If I'm not sure what to read, I turn to Psalms and just focus on praising Him, remembering His promises, and reminding myself of God's loving character...Psalms always helps me with this!  
5- Sometimes God asks us to just take a step of action first.  He doesn't always give us "signs".
I hear girls say that all the time - "OH!  I think it's a sign!".  But often times God withholds the signs because he's wanting you to take a step of FAITH.  He wants to grow you faith in Him and grow your ability to hear Him...both are done without SEEING.  Asking for a sign means you have to see it before you'll do it.  That's not faith!  (I'm not saying asking for a sign is wrong, just don't only ask for signs...make sense?)
6- Get advice from someone who is wise, Godly, and leads a life you admire.
For something important that I'm making a decision over, I will talk to only people who I trust will give me wise, Godly advice.  So not anyone or everyone. I don't post my question on Facebook or Twitter.  I don't take a poll.  I don't go to people who are just going to tell me what I want to hear.  Instead, I go to a wise mentor, or usually I go to my husband because he is wise and discerning and knows me inside and out.  He also seeks God, so I trust what He tells me.  Often, He will point me back to God and encourage me to pray and just follow God.
7- Have someone Godly pray for you.Sometimes all I need is just that confidence and encouragement from another Christian that God hears me and will answer.  
8- Sometimes the only thing I can do is pray that I will TRUST God that He will lead me.  I'll pray this verse:  But I trust You, O LORD, my times are in Your Hands - Psalm 31:14-15a.
I don't always know God's will right away.  I don't always have a perfectly clear answer from Him.  But I do KNOW that He will lead me.  I do KNOW that I can trust Him.  I can put my heart in His hands.  I don't have to hold back, try to control, or try to push things.  He won't let me go down the wrong path if I'm following Him!  

Think it over:
- What decision are you worrying/thinking about?
- What is holding you back from giving it to God?
- Do you need to pray about it? Is there someone you can ask to pray with you?
- Is God asking you to take a step of faith first?
- What Bible verse could you write out and keep with you to remind you that you can trust Him?








Thank you for letting me share.  This post today is very near to my heart and right-now experience - I hope it's helpful to others! xoxo

Love & Blessings,
Allison

Other Posts from October Prayer Month:

A Daily Prayer to Start Your Day

How to Pray When You're Nervous, Fearful, or Anxious

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A Simple D.A.I.L.Y. Prayer

I'm naming October official "PRAYER MONTH" for my blog!  This past year has been life changing for me, and a major reason is because of prayer and all that praying big and praying with determined hope and belief does inside of a person!  Personally, I don't pray solely for what God can give me (although He loves to give His children great blessings!).  I mostly pray  because He fills me and I love Him.  I want so badly to be close to Him!  Prayer has changed me.

So this month I will be sharing a lot of my personal testimony about prayer, as well as just practical tips on how to pray, prayer routines, etc. Would that be helpful to anyone?  I'm always open to hearing your testimonies and tips too!  We're in this together!

Today I'm sharing with you a great daily prayer that my Pastor taught us.  I keep this on a white index card in my Bible and pray it every morning.  I love it! It's super simple, but gets me immediately focused on JESUS and not just my requests.  I love this little prayer because I feel like it's opening my heart up to Him - and I almost always do my prayer time in the morning so I start my day filled and focused on Jesus.  I can't recommend this enough (praying in the morning), it makes a HUGE difference in my attitude for the remainder of the day! :)

Here is the simple prayer using the DAILY acronym, so it's easy to remember!

Although this is a short and simple prayer list, I really try to focus on the words and not mindlessly recite them.  I want them to mean something, to not just do it like a checklist.

Also, as I pray, I specifically name anything that is directly applicable to each letter.  For example, when I get to the letter I, (the prayer is, "Jesus, I'll try") part, I specifically name something that I feel like God is leading me to try or do.

Or the when I get to the letter Y, (the prayer is "Jesus, I'll trust you,") part, I will list (usually in a journal) specific things that I'm worried or anxious about, or specific decisions I need guidance with. And then I say it over and over throughout the day as those anxious thoughts pop back up in my mind, "Jesus, I'll trust you,".

As you can see in these examples, I always try to get as specific as possible - it helps me to not just "recite" prayer, but instead, to apply it to my here and now situations.  I want to connect my faith and prayer to whatever is going on in my life.  We want our faith to not only be a "church thing", but to become an every-day part of who we are.  Daily prayer and communication with God is a KEY to this...and this simple D.A.I.L.Y. acronym is a great way to start!

 I hope this is helpful!  Feel free to print off or save to your phone so you can pray D.A.I.L.Y. too! :)

Love & Blessings,
Allison

PS - Be sure to check back this month for more posts on prayer!  Anything you'd like to read about with this topic, or have questions about, please comment below!  Thanks! :)
Other Posts from October Prayer Month:

How to Pray When You're Nervous, Fearful, or Anxious

How to Pray About a Big Decision

 

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Jesus

Read all of Luke 7 and the Woman who was forgiven much...

As I read Luke 7, about this woman, it was like I could feel the story all around me.  I could picture her bursting in, desperate and looking for Jesus.  I could picture the Pharisee's appalled, judgmental faces as she came into their perfect home.  And mostly, I could picture and feel the way Jesus spoke so tenderly and lovingly to her.  It was like everyone else and every politically correct "social norm" was gone from His mind - all He saw was her.
   

A humbled daughter of God.

I could imagine her heavy, long-time burden dropping from her heart, and freedom filling her instead.  I could imagine the sense of security and belonging she felt as Jesus stood up for her in front of important people. I could imagine she felt so safe, so willing to lay her life in His hands, for He had taken away her hardness, her humiliation, her regret and guilt, her stigma.  He loved her purely in spite of it all.

And even now, in my own life, I love how Jesus speaks to me and knows me and loves me purely in spite of all my faults.

I love how Jesus knows and loves us specifically as women.

He knows we are different from men - He made us that way and He speaks to us in a way that we can connect and feel Him. 

He speaks tenderly.  He upholds us.  He knows our strengths, our tendencies, our weaknesses, our neediness, our insecurities, our manipulative ways, our anxieties, our nagging, our common struggles  - He knows IT ALL.  And yet,

He loves us perfectly.

 He never gets tired of us or annoyed by us.  He never thinks, "Ugh, she's soooo needy!  Why is she so moody?!"  I'm so thankful that God loves us perfectly.  We can always always always turn to Him.  We can talk to Him about anything.  He will fill us, strengthen us, make us secure, make us strong, make us able, give us energy, give us forgiveness and freedom, and enable us to hold our head up high.

And, wow, we are so thankful.  We love you, Jesus!

Love & Blessings, 

Allison

  

How to Affirm Our Kids

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How to Be Courageous When Our Kids Make Us Nervous!

This is one of those topics that I don't even know how to exactly start the post...or even how to title it.  So...I'm gonna just dive right in.  The main thoughts I want to portray is what do we do as parents, specifically mothers, when something goes wrong, when something fearful happens, etc...how do we react in front of our children?  Because don't our kids learn more from what we do as opposed to what we say?  

For example, I have taught my son the Bible Verse, "Be strong and Courageous, for God is with you,".  He has memorized it and I have him recite it whenever he is scared at night, or has his feelings hurt, or wants to give up on a task he's working on.  I'm trying to help him learn to apply the Word of God, the TRUTH to his every day, normal life.  And so that's great...I'm telling and teaching him little "lessons".

BUT, what I believe is his real teacher is the observation he has of me when something tough hits me.  What do I do?  How do I respond?  Do I lash out?  Do I panic?  Do I flip-out, freak-out, or act all crazy, therefore creating a lot of insecurity in my children?  Or, do I stay calm?  Do I stop and think?  Do I show him by my body language that things are secure and ok for us, that we'll be just fine?  Do I recite the Word of God and His Truth to that situation?  Do I trust God in that moment of every day, normal life?

So let me be honest with you and tell you why this topic even came up.  This weekend my husband was really sick, so Mommy was in charge more than normal.  We went to my nephew's 6-year old birthday party on Saturday afternoon and at the party my son (4 1/2 years old) was super whiny and pouty when he didn't get his way (could be anything - like not getting the exact piece of cake that had the frosting on exactly where he wanted it.  And gift time was hard because his cousin got a lot of Star Wars gifts and he desperately wanted them... tough lessons every kid learns along the way!).  But with this whiny and pouty-ness, he also started saying things like, "No one likes me!", and "I'm not special!", etc.  By the time we left I was SUPER upset and exhausted, and because my husband was sick and wasn't there to strongly help my son through his emotional roller-coaster, I felt even more exhausted because I felt whatever I was trying to do was not working and that I couldn't control my son and snap him out of his self-absorption.  My heart was burdened BIG TIME because of my son's words.  Especially the "I'm not special" one.  He later told my husband the same thing at bed time and then we were both majorly upset.  I could barely sleep that night.  I think I literally prayed off and on the entire night for my son.  I woke up early before our baby woke up to read the Bible and to pray even more.  For me, when something goes wrong with my family, God keeps me AWAKE and everything else goes on the back-burner...and I pray my head off.  And maybe my son's little "I'm not special" statement seems trite to some people, but you see, my son is adopted and I continually pray for him that he won't give in to any lies about him "not belonging" or any other LIES about being adopted.  So honestly, I felt kinda panicked...hence the not sleeping and praying all night/morning.  

So in the early morning during my quiet time with God, He showed me something.  

He showed me that as our children display insecurities and emotional ups and downs - that I can TRUST God with them and I personally don't need to also become insecure and show extreme emotion.  That yes, I need to pray and talk to my children, but no, I don't need to panic and I certainly don't need to show my children that I'm panicking or feeling upset.  I believe that if I consistently have an emotional response to my son's emotions, it could create major manipulation from him, it could escalate the situation and make him more emotional and nervous, and overall it just would not be a good example of how to take my fears to God.  Wouldn't my stability help to give my son confidence and security?  Isn't the opposite true, as well?  Wouldn't my personal strength in an emotional situation help to de-escalate his fears and teach him how to remain strong and stable through hard times? Again, if I had a  personal anxiety response to these things, wouldn't it teach him the opposite?  In conclusion, God basically taught me to calm down. :)  To be strong and courageous and to not panic in front of my kids.  They're watching and their learning from my example.

I do not, not, not have this all together.  I'm probably most insecure in all the different roles of my life, as a mother... probably because it's what I care most about and I understand the responsibility of the role.

I pray God would help me increasingly to respond to my children with strength and wisdom.  I pray God would increasingly help me to come to Him with my fears, that I wouldn't take them on soooo much.  I pray that God would increasingly help me to trust Him.  I pray that God would increasingly make me a strong woman of God, and therefore a wise and strong example for my children.  


Christian moms, let's do this together!Thanks for reading and letting me share what God is doing in my normal, every day life.  I'd love to hear any responses or advice from other moms or grandmas on this topic!

Love & Blessings,
Allison

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CHOSEN

There is something so awesome about the word "chosen".  

When I think of this word
- CHOSEN -
a rush of security, confidence, and power comes into my heart.  To be chosen... it's special. It's actually more than just special - to be chosen means you are wanted, sought after, pursued, loved, cherished.

Today, this word came into my mind as I looked down at my tiny little baby girl.  She is now 6 weeks old!  7 weeks ago, she was literally a prayer, a desire of my heart, a constant plea to God.  Today, she's in my arms staring up at me, her eyes connecting with mine as she drinks her bottle, her toes wiggling, her little hands trying to get into her mouth, along with the bottle!  She is chosen.  God picked her up and chose her for our family - a miracle we all call adoption.  God chose me to be her mommy, for my husband to be her daddy, and for Josiah to her big brother...forever.  

When I think of my children and their adoption stories, I imagine God hearing our prayers, and searching the earth, and then... choosing.  Choosing Josiah.  Choosing Abigail.  I imagine Him breathing over them, "You are chosen to be in this family.  I want YOU in a Christian home.  I want YOU to know me from a young age.  YOU have been chosen for a special and great purpose."  

And what about you?  God chooses us to be HIS children, part of HIS forever family too.  Adoption is such a miraculous picture of this.  When we accept His Son, Jesus, as our Savior, then He becomes our Father too.  We're taken from our current situation, and become part of something new.  As God's children, He gives us His name, His heart, His desires, His will.  He teaches us and trains us as our Father.  

We belong.  We're adopted.

Today, rest in knowing that if you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, then you are chosen and adopted into God's family!  You are wanted.
You are sought after.
You are pursued.
You are loved.
You are family.
You are cherished by our perfect God.

My baby girl, Abigail and I.

Love & Blessings,

Allison

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