I will be the first to admit that my walk with God falters more frequently than I’d like.  I have a difficult time disciplining myself to do a quiet time daily or to wake up on Sunday for church.  One thing that I’ve worked on over many years and actually feel decently adequate at is prayer.  There are times I pray more or less than other times, but overall, I make a genuine effort to be intentional in my prayer life, even if other aspects of my spiritual life suffer.

{1} Keep a Prayer Journal

A few weeks back I posted this photo on instagram.  I talked about how I ran with purpose on this particular day by praying.  I’m certain that we each have activities in our every day life that don’t use much brain power or focus and although the time is already being used productively (i.e. running, driving, baking) it could be used for more – for prayer.  There are runs that I take where I specifically think about who I want to be praying for on that run.  If I’m driving, I’ll turn the music off sometimes just to think and it can sometimes turn into prayer.  I haven’t tried this baking before, but I thought it could be a great activity to pray during (if you’re not already using that time cleaning or prepping for the next stage of baking).  Use monotonous activities to intentionally pray.

{3} Consider your words before they’re spoken.
How many times have you heard “I’ll be praying for you”?  I’m not the only person who has said that or heard that.  The problem I’ve realized with this is that many people don’t actually end up praying for that person.  That doesn’t make you a horrible person, but there are ways to be more intentional with that prayer.  When you say “I’ll be praying for you” then either 1. Go ahead and send up a little prayer.  If you can remember to pray later, that’s great, but at least you went ahead and prayed for that person like you said you would and whether they believe you will or not, you know you did.  2. Write it down.  There are times when I don’t always pray right away, or I will say a little prayer, but I want to make sure to continue praying for them so I’ll write the prayer request down in my prayer journal.  Before you say “I’ll be praying for you”, make sure that you consider those words and do your best to fulfill your words.  If you don’t intend to pray for that person, then don’t say it.

{4} Pray God’s Will, not yours!
This is by far the most important aspect of praying intentionally.  We can pray until we are out of breath, but if it’s not God’s WILL then you’ll either get something you shouldn’t have to begin with (and therefore, regret it) or you’ll not see any response.  This is by far the hardest part of prayer too though because sometimes we don’t want God’s will – at least not at the time.  If you’re praying for healing on a loved one… it’s hard to understand why God’s will would not want healing of that loved one as well.  So instead of praying “Lord, I pray for healing and comfort during this time, but most importantly, I pray for your will to be done in this situation, whether I like the outcome or not” we pray for our own selfish desires. Believe me, I know… those words are ROUGH, but if you begin praying God’s will more intentionally, you’ll find greater peace and comfort and eventually God will reveal himself to you.

How do you remain Intentional in Prayer?  Any other suggestions for doing this?
Do you keep a prayer journal?

I mentioned in this post that I wasn’t exactly a concert person.  I’ve had a few people say something along the lines of this, “OMG… you don’t like concerts?  How is that possible?  I just don’t understand….”  Ok, maybe not in so many words haha, but when I was at Bulldog Bash (which is a yearly thing at MSU with a big concert on Friday night) I realized for a fact that I am just NOT a concert person.

{1} It may have something to do with my dislike of people in general.
Don’t go freak out on me… I do genuinely like people, yet sometimes I just really don’t.  That sounds crazy, I know and you’re probably thinking that I seem like a decently nice person here on the blog and truth be told… I think I am.  I’m just not big into crowds.  I know that’s something to be expected at a concert, but it’s one of the reasons I don’t like it.  Too many people, usually drunk people, acting a fool, stampeding all over you, possibly throwing up and being gross.  Now… please understand that I do actually like people and I enjoy hanging out with people and I’m actually pretty extroverted… I just don’t have a lot of patience for rude people or dumb people and in my experience… you find a lot of those people at a concert.

{2}Sweat
Am I the only person in the universe that ends up with drops of sweat working it’s way down my legs during a concert.  I don’t think I had sweat so much during my entire lifetime as I did at that concert on Friday.  I was wearing a skirt – I could feel actual drops of sweat rolling down my skin, sometimes 20 drops at a time.  If I had been wearing jeans, chances are I wouldn’t have even been able to walk because my clothes would have been stuck to me.

{3} Pretty certain I’m deaf
In order to get a good spot to see the band well, you usually need to find a closer spot and for some reason, I always… ALWAYS end up near the speaker.  My ear drums vibrate and I’m constantly covering them or massaging them.

{4} I think mentioning RUDE again is alright.
When you find a spot, people are CONSTANTLY moving and shoving you aside.  They don’t say they’re sorry, they shove you around to get what they want, and it’s just plain rude.  I can’t handle all the rudeness.

Maybe these only work for outdoor concerts or college concerts?  I did go to the Elton John Concert and had a wonderful time, but then again… there was a mature viewership, I had an assigned seat, and I didn’t sweat buckets.  Am I a completely uncool 24 year old because I’m this way?  Probably so…

That’s me sweat free!!

Before I check out for the evening, I will mention a few reasons I did enjoy the outdoor concert last Friday:
-There are restaurants and bars all around the event
-The walk to and from the concert when the weather is nice
-The ability to walk around freely where you can see random people you haven’t seen in forever!

Are you a concert person?  Indoor/Outdoor/Neither or Both?
If you don’t like the outdoor concerts, did I leave out another good reason to dislike them?
If you don’t like outdoor concerts, do you choose to NEVER go?  Or are you like me where you forget how much you dislike them (because you go very rarely) and end up going and then realize quickly why you don’t go often?

Hello friends!  You’re about to get a hodge podge of a discussion tonight because that’s just how I’m feeling.

I’m watching Bones right now, no surprise there.  I’m on season 4 now.  I should probably stop watching it so much and actually be productive with this life of mine, but sometimes I just get sucked in.

Do you have those big bloggers that you just adore?  The ones that remind you about why you chose to blog?  The ones that inspire you to be not just a better blogger, but a better person all around.  I have a few of those bloggers that I admire and can I just say that it warms my heart when they respond to a comment I make on their blog?  Like really… my night was just made because I got a response from a blogger I have been loving lately.

I have a long list of blog post ideas… a really long list… and I should really get to writing up those posts.  They’re great ideas and I’m excited about publishing them eventually – I just need to get to writing them.  Maybe I’ll start tomorrow?

I had a great 9 mile run yesterday, but today my hip has been popping when I walk and that’s rather annoying.  It’s calmed down now and I’m hoping it will be better by tomorrow so I can do a run.  I’ll probably do a bike ride tomorrow also.  I haven’t ridden my bike in a long while and I miss it.

I still have a lot I want to do from Blog Elevated.  I have awesome notes and great suggestions on improving my blog and I’m still sorting through those.  I don’t want to be the blogger that goes to the conference and then doesn’t do anything with what I learn.  We were warned about that at the conference.

I get overwhelmed with how many blogs I want to follow.  Sometimes, my bloglovin feed gets fully loaded and I just can’t read all of that… sometimes, I admit, I have to mark all as read and start fresh.  I’ll always read my “Daily Reads” section because I like staying up to date, but sometimes the other people fall to the side.

I just saw someone throw fruit loops on a really smooshy sandwich just now on Bones and I may have almost puked in my mouth.  That was disgusting.

And I’m going to end this random post on that note.  Hope each of you are having a wonderful Tuesday!