Summer Prayers: Lord, encircle our schools!

Hello sweet blog followers. Do you know I pray for you? I don’t even know who some of you are.

I have your e-mail addresses in my prayer journal and regularly thank God for you and ask Him to bless you.

Summer is over now. These hot months have been a disappointment, but God has not been.

As always, God has been unbelievably good!

• He let me be a table leader to a group of beautiful ladies at a summer Bible study.
• The Armor of God study kept me focused, learning, and helped keep my eyes on Him instead of my difficulties.
• Some surprise money came from three different locations. The generosity was beyond appreciated and helped tremendously. Made me feel loved and perhaps more importantly, seen.

• My son was well cared for. I love when God takes care of my son when I can’t because I am working or cleaning the house for a showing. (To all the people that invited him to come over or come along on an excursion, thank you.)
• God put together the coolest birthday party for our son. I pray about such events and when He pulls it off for my “earthly treasures,” I am beyond thankful.
• My daughters each succeeded in amazing ways in their individual endeavors, one in her final semester of summer classes and the other in her final year summer of preparing for college soccer.

• My faith has been tested for genuineness as 1 Peter 1:6-7 explains. I can only hope my faith has been found more precious than gold and will result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. I have refused to say anything except, “God is good.”
• I watched my husband work hard for our family…really hard. He looked like love dripping with sweat in sweltering heat to keep the yard beautiful, doing his part to sell the house.
• I learned what I can live with and what I can’t as we stripped our house of so many items to prepare for showings. I missed so little of it, it’s embarrassing.

• I got to listen to Jamie Ivey podcasts. The Happy Hour chats kept my head above my problems as I cleaned my house. I have been introduced to a lot of great women out there as the next generation of influencers for Christ. Lord, preserve them all with your very own hand.
• A Birthday Manifesto poured out of me. It turned out to be the most popular post this summer. It was so clarifying and meaningful to see my heart in print. It serves as living proof that I am alive, preserved in Him and for Him, even in the midst of difficulties.

I also prayed the prayers I blogged this summer. I am trusting they will be answered for me…and you!

• Lord, give me beautiful feet!
• Lord, send your power toward me!
• Lord, protect my children!
• Lord, protect my heart!
• Lord, make me thankful!
• Lord, thank you for my address!
• Lord, bring revival!
• Lord, be my headline!

I saw this on Pinterest yesterday and it made me smile thinking about the prayers we prayed together this summer:

The devil saw me with my head down and got excited…

Then I said Amen.*

We do not waste time praying!

As summer ends and school begins, this is the last prayer of the summer. It stems from a ritual I have practiced all my motherhood years. When my child enters a new school, I encircle it in prayer prior to the opening day of the new year and the first moment my child steps foot into it.

This year is odd because my seniors in college attended the same middle school my son will start attending tomorrow. Weird, right? I had already encircled this school in prayer ten years ago and this week I did it again.

I drove a solid circle around it in constant prayer about anything the Spirit brought to mind but generally speaking, the prayers all stem from one of these three major desires:

• inviting God into that space to increase each day the room He has to operate,
• announcing in Jesus’ name that all godless influences are unwelcome,
• asking Him to build a hedge of protection around the school.

This prayer can be done for workplaces and homes as well, of course, but there is something about those public schools…releasing our sweet children into a dark world and asking God to care for them in a way that brings them out with stronger faith on the other side.

Only He can do that.

Lord, encircle our schools!

Picture Explanation: There were no fancy vacations this summer so I wanted to celebrate my son somehow. We hauled canned goods to a water park and got tickets half price and had the “bestest” day ever! My son smiled all day in the sunshine with a friend, I met another nice family, and summer was celebrated. Best thing was I actually sat some. 🙂

Summer is officially over.

*saved from faithfultogod.tumblr.com

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