Completed project

Aaah. I breathe a sigh of relief. I love the process of making each new prayer album - finding photos, picking the papers, reviewing the concepts, planning the pages - but the part I like best is the first day of using my completed album. My enthusiasm for prayer is renewed. It's just... well... great!

I have discovered when each album is completed that there is a page or two I really like. Something just clicks and, for me, that page is particularly beautiful or it expresses perfectly the concept I had in mind. It isn't that I plan so well, or that I'm so artsy that beautiful things happen. It just comes together. The combination of papers, colors, and extras adds up to special.

This book has several of those pages. I want to share the sense of just three...

The "Thy will be done in earth" page...

the "families" page...


the page for one of my children.


With this project finished, I am off on my prayer journey again. My album and I are refreshed, renewed, and reporting for duty!

Pray without ceasing. I Thessalonians 5:17

Praying in color

These books are tangible evidence of a spiritual decision I made ten years ago.


You see, my finite mind has a tendency to wander, to follow rabbit trails, or, if left too quiet, to lapse into dreamland.

I'm saying that to sugarcoat the fact that all my adult life, I never was disciplined about daily prayer. Oh, not the "now I lay me down to sleep..." or "Thank you Father for my food..." type of prayer, but the kind of prayer that reviews the wonder of who God is and then invites Him to "search me... and know my heart... see if there be any wicked way in me..." (Psalm 139:23,24)

But 10 years ago, I realized that I would never know God if I never talked with Him. In May, 1998, I resolved to pray every day from that day forward.

Using the Lord's Prayer as my pattern, I created an album to be my crutch - my visual prayer list. The colorful pages keep me focused... or bring me back from my woolgatherng. (The picture above shows almost all the albums I have worn out over the past days, months, years of praying.)

Today, I am celebrating ten years of consistent, daily prayer. I am filling a new blank book with fresh photos and colorful images that will draw me into conversation with God about the topics of His choosing.

I am a different person than I was ten years ago. Praise God alone.

Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen. Matthew 6:9 - 13