Prayer – Journey to Dominican

I’ve Already Prayed About It

I can’t tell you how many times I have prayed about something heavy on my heart, and then not even 24 hours later I start worrying about that same thing again.

It is just a normal human struggle. We pray and say that we trust the Lord, and yet we also crave to be in control and know how things will play out.

It has been such a whirlwind for my husband and I since fall last year. After years of waiting and working hard to obtain my husband’s U.S. visa, the U.S. embassy denied him the visa without even giving him 5 minutes. It was something we had worked so hard for, and we had prayed over sooo much. After being married for 3 years, doing everything lawyers and governments recommend and require just for us to be together, we were denied the chance to travel together. It just didn’t make sense. It was a big blow to say the least.

Less than a month later we found out we were pregnant. But then we got hit with the news of me having a hematoma and being at high risk of miscarriage. I was convinced I was losing our baby. But I pleaded with the Lord for our baby’s little life and to dry up the hematoma. Once I recovered and all of my sonograms came back hematoma free, we had a death in the family.

Oh, we had really cried out to God for this family member, begging the Lord to bring complete restoration and do what seemed impossible. We prayed that He would move in such a mighty way and use it to bring salvation to family members who do not know Him. We had different churches and prayer warriors fighting on their knees with us too. Then, the family member suddenly passed away. We were so sure that God was going to touch his body and bring healing.

Then we got smacked with some financial blows soon after. It has been such a crazy, almost heavy season for us where we have done nothing but run to the Lord in prayer and ask him to move on our behalf and our loved ones’ behalfs. And yet, God hasn’t always answered in the way we would have hoped.

Life is full of celebrations and struggles. How we respond to the trials matters. We can choose to fall into the victim or negative mentality, or we can tackle trials with a positive attitude knowing that Christ always brings us to the other side.

My husband and I have played victim more times than I would like to admit. It is quite honestly embarrassing. In this new season of life, even with all of its hardships, I am choosing to stay positive. My new motto is, “I have already prayed about it, so I am not going to stress.”

I am retraining my mind to not dwell on things that are out of my control, but place them in the hands of the One who holds all the control.

Now, with this I have come to recognize that the Lord may not always answer my prayers in the way that I would hope or expect. BUT–here is the big but– I find a sense of peace knowing that He is sovereign and He will work each thing out for the good of those who love Him. I can trust Him. He is a good Father, even if He tells me no.

I know that there are a lot of BIG changes ahead for our growing family. Some of these changes will come with new responsibilities and bumps in the road. But I will not fear because I have already prayed–and will continue to pray for our family each step of the way. I will rest in the Lord and know that He is working tirelessly behind the scenes for us. He is a good Father, worthy of all of our trust. We can release full control to Him.

Childlike Faith

"Truly I tell you," He said, "unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child--this one is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven."

      Matthew 18:3-4

When it comes to children, there is no such thing as having a filter. They say EVERYTHING that pops into their little, growing brains. You never have to worry what they are thinking. I have been working with kids since I was about 14, a child myself I suppose. I love kiddos. They are silly, honest, real, and not self conscious.

I am currently a 2nd grade teacher at a Christian school. Our curriculum includes Bible integration, so I get to point everything we learn back to God’s word and His original design for the world. We sometimes start classes off with a Bible story, worship song, memory verse, or prayer. There is nothing that melts me more than listening to a child pray. Their prayers are real, tender, vulnerable, and powerful. When I ask for a volunteer to pray, I am not kidding you when I say that every hand in the class shoots up. If a student isn’t picked, they get upset that they do not get to pray (not a bad thing to be upset about, right?)

We recently had Dengue, COVID, and Influenza A floating around the school. There was a week where one of my classes had 8 out of 20 students out due to illness. I wish you could have heard the way these students prayed for their sick friends. As they asked the Lord to pass His healing hand over their classmates that were hurting, I had to fight back little tears welling up in my eyes. There is just something about the prayers of a child.

I am very passionate about the global church and being aware of what is happening in the world, so that we know how to pray for our world. I shared with my students about the war in Israel, and we took some time to talk to God about what was happening. They asked God to help the innocent and for His protection over everyone. These are unscripted, straight from the heart prayers.

I had a conversation with one of my students the other day about how we should shine our lights for Jesus. We talked about how some people are just not kind, even people who say they love Jesus can be mean and hurt our feelings. Her response was so pure and straight to the point. She said, “You know teacher when the Fall entered the world and there was sin, it made people really bad. Then they hurt people.” She looked up at me with her big brown eyes and her piggy tails swaying with her head as she spoke.

What would it look like if we all had this childlike faith? Where we are in awe of our Creator again, talk to Him like a friend and not use all the fancy Christian lingo? What if we looked at the Bible through a child’s lens and had that childlike wonder again?

Matthew 18:3-4 tells us that we won’t enter into the kingdom of heaven unless we humble ourselves like children. We need to take off selfishness, pride, and people pleasing. We can start here.

God, give us that wide-eyed childlike faith. Remove all the things that hinder us from having intimacy with You. Take away performance, striving, self consciousness, and pride so that we can walk humbly with You and others. Open up all of our senses to see you in new ways and be in awe of our Creator, our Savior. Give us childlike faith. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

You Create the Atmosphere

Have you ever walked into someone’s home and immediately felt a sense of peace rush over you? It is like you are walking into someone else’s home, and yet you feel at home.

Do you know why this is? It is because the Holy Spirit is present in that home.

I have LOVED being a homemaker. I truly do enjoy cleaning and creating a safe place for my husband and anyone that walks through our front door. My desire is that our home would be the Lord’s dwelling place. That every evil thing that dares to enter ends up running in every direction because Jesus is the ultimate authority and His presence is so thick and evident in our house. I pray that our home is a place where the fruits of the spirit are produced and it is our overflow as we walk out the door each day on our way to work. And I pray that as we host and invite others into our place, that they would feel their burdens fall when they enter. That they would feel heard, seen, refreshed, and leave craving more of Jesus.

Do you know that we, women, have the honor and responsibility to cultivate a healthy environment in our homes? Women, do you know that we have spiritual authority in our homes? We are the ones who allow what comes into our homes-whether it is through what we watch, listen to, even our conversations-because the enemy is always looking for an open door.

You may be reading and you’re like, “uh, what exactly does this mean?” It means that you get to set the tone in your home and for everyone in it. I want to share with you an example.

Growing up, my family loved to have people over. My parents hosted a small church group, we had families over for meals, we invited people that maybe didn’t have families or a place to go into our home for holidays, we had bonfires in our backyard, pool parties, game nights, you name it. Even my stubborn teenage friends or my cool, college friends enjoyed coming over. Our door was always open to whoever, and everyone felt welcomed and loved in our home. Do you want to know why? It was because my momma is a mighty woman of God. She would pray in the middle of the night, early in the morning, afternoon, literally every hour. Some of my favorite memories of living with her are waking up to her worshiping or speaking in tongues while doing her hair, and other mornings when I would walk downstairs to find her fast asleep with her Bible open wide on her lap. She fought in prayer for us and for everyone that came into our home, and it made the difference.

I aspire to be like my momma Linda. As my husband and I think about starting our own family soon, I think about the habits that I want to form or even work on in order to create an atmosphere that ushers in the presence of God in my home. Here are some things that I am working on:

–Praying through my home more. Seriously, there is so much power in this. I take my anointing oil, lay my hands on things, and I pray in every room. I pray over the conversations that will happen at our dining table, the things that we watch or listen to and that the Lord would give us conviction and discernment on what we allow in our home. I pray over our room and that the Lord guards us from any temptation and is the glue in our marriage. I pray over our office and finances that we are good stewards and that we recognize that Jesus is always our source. I cover every room in prayer and plead the blood of Jesus over every entrance.

–Play worship in our home more. I do this when cooking, cleaning, any chance I get really! I especially like to do this when people are coming over. Which leads me to the next one!

–Praying in our home right before people come over. I pray over the individuals, whatever they may be wrestling with, and that they would feel the presence of Jesus in our home.

–Changing my attitude about house chores. Okay, I know I said I love cleaning, and I truly do. However, there are times when the piles of laundry seem endless, and I want to scream. I heard someone say that they use cleaning as an opportunity to pray over their family or friends. For example, while they are folding their husband’s clothes, they pray for him. While they wash and put away dishes from having guests over, they pray for those people. I love this! And I think it really puts our hearts in a place of gratitude instead of grumbling.

I think I could keep going on for a while, but I will stop here. There are so many things that we can do to usher in the Lord’s presence in our homes. You can shift the atmosphere through prayer, adoration, and discerning what you allow in your home. Your home can be a place where the fruits of the spirit are produced and that draws others into a relationship with Christ. It all starts with us.