3 Blessings of Keeping a Prayer Notebook

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3 Blessings of Keeping a Prayer Notebook

I am currently praying through the Psalms (a psalm a day.)  I love the psalms as a template for prayer because it shows how we can bring every little to God in prayer: every situation, every emotion and every care. 

King David, who penned some of the most-loved psalms, was a great example of how you don't have to be afraid to share what's on your heart (even the ugly stuff); or afraid to lay bare sins and shortcomings. I'm especially encouraged by all of the psalm writers confidence in God to come through and answer and how they always waited on God alone.

The written prayers in the Bible are here to encourage and equip us.

About 8 years ago, I started keeping a prayer notebook (more out of desperation than anything else)...

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Stop Scrolling and Start Scribing: A Call to Writing Out the Bible

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Stop Scrolling and Start Scribing: A Call to Writing Out the Bible

I have been memorizing the book of Ephesians since last year. It's been a slow and steady process. As part of the memorization, I have been writing out the entire book of Ephesians in a Moleskine notebook. Then the thought hit me: wouldn't it be awesome (and very ambitious) to write out the entire Bible. Crazy thought I know! But a quick Google search proved that it's not as crazy as it seems. I found lots of people who are writing out the Bible. There was even one entry where a family had its patriarch's handwritten scriptures bound in leather books as a family keepsake.

But as awesome as the idea was, I knew I could never do it because I work, have three kids and don't have extra time to spare. Then, as only the Holy Spirit can, He whispered: "instead of scrolling, you could be scribing."

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Praying the Write Way: A Look At My Prayer Notebook

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About six years ago I started a prayer notebook. It started out of sheer desperation really: too many prayers to keep in my heart so I poured them out on paper. 

Quite a few years ago, I'd taken a class at church where the instructor had us write prayers to God. I'd never been taught that and found the exercise to be a powerful expression of prayer.

first prayer notebook

Back to my first prayer notebook, It was a combination of scriptures turned prayer, chapters of the Bible written out, lyrics from songs whose words were like prayer to me, answers to prayer and little snippets of prayer encouragement to name a few. 

It was a simple Mead composition notebook that I toted everywhere. It's seen better days. One thing I didn't like about it was that it was bound so when one section filled up, there was no way to insert more pages.

When I made my DIY planner and discovered discbound notebooks, I decided to transfer the prayer notebook to that system. It's been lovely to have sections that can be added to.

prayer notebook

I created sections for:

Praise: More than prayer, it's a section to praise God for who He is.

Myself: Mainly declarations, lots of prayer requests and scriptures turned into personal prayers.

Husband: self-explanatory.

Kids: There's a general prayer page for all three kids. But each one of my kids also has their own page(s) so I can focus on prayer specific to their individual needs.

Fam+: Includes extended family and friends. I am always saying I'm going to pray for someone. This section helps me not to forget.

Misc: Church, pastor and whatever else doesn't fall into the above sections.

There's also an unmarked tab where I keep articles on prayer and encouragement to pray. 

I used scrapbook paper to make dividers and printed out labels for each section to put on the Post-It tabs.

This notebook helps me to stay organized in prayer more than anything. There's no schedule for who gets prayed for on a certain day, it's just more of a place to jot down requests and answers. Some prayers have been noted on paper for a long time with no answer yet...but seeing it on paper reminds me to keep on praying.