Prayer Journal

Wednesday. One of my favorite days at Mt. Olive. We have chapel, and it's not just a basic, bare minimum chapel. It's a full on liturgy with singing and hymns. Warms my heart. I might make 8am chapel there a weekly occurrence when I'm not teaching here anymore. Non-school people are welcome to attend; I noticed a handful of parents who came and sat with their kids.

After chapel the 5th graders fill out a prayer journal. I've never been in their classroom for a normal session, so I'm not sure how that goes. Today, however, each student wrote a special prayer on a colorful notecard for Mrs. M and her baby. I had listed some examples up on the board of specific things to pray for they could use or not use. The main thing was to pray from the heart. We'll bind these up and send them in a school care package to her so she can read these prayers over her baby over and over. The kids always ask about Mrs. M and the baby and want to pray for her often, so they had lots of ideas for themselves. Everyone finished quickly.

Following lunch, we have another class devotion with prayer. Today they asked if we could say a special prayer for Mrs. M. I had the idea to read one of their written prayers from the morning. "You can say 'no thank you' if you don't want to share yours out loud," I told them. 

We read two aloud, and the class loved it. They were so supportive of what their classmates had written. "That was so good!" I heard many of them say. They enjoyed it so much, they asked to read more. We had time, so, why not? Only a handful of students passed. A few were on the fence and I reassured them there was no pressure. Once we went through all that wanted to share, I thanked the students who had allowed their prayers to be read. "It's a very personal thing, these prayers, so thank you for sharing your thoughts. And those of you who didn't share, thank you for saying no and keeping them to yourself, because again, these are private things and it's okay to not share them." 

After that, a few kids changed their minds and asked me to read their prayers. One boy said that his could be read if he wasn't in the room. I said no he had to stay. Another male student said that he would let his prayer be read if that first classmate let his be read. So both of them let their prayers be heard. The first one said he was going to plug his ears when I read his, but I don't think he did in the end. And once those two were read, the whole class cheered them on and said they had done well. It was so sweet to watch. 

These kids really worm their way into your heart, don't they???