Our church is getting ready to have a series of meeting that Baptist normally call a “revival.” I’m not a huge fan of that term, and we actually aren’t calling our meetings that either,  but that is the fastest way to describe them. Part of our preparation for this week will be (and is currently) several different prayer times and creative ways to pray. One of the ones that we are doing with our children has had a profound impact on my son and his desire to pray for our church and our upcoming revival. Here is the idea.

• During Sunday school we passed out to every child 7 strips of construction paper about 2 inches wide.
• At home the children are to take the paper and pray with their families about our revival.
• They can then either a) journal a short prayer on it or 2) write a predetermined sentence on the paper
• The whole family then signs their name.
• You then take the paper and tape it into a circle
• Each night you add circles to make a “prayer” chain
• Each Sunday (for 4 Sundays) the children are to bring their chain to their Sunday school class
• The class then combines the chains to make one big chain for the whole class.
• Then in a couple of weeks during a special prayer time the whole church will use that chain during part of the service. (We are going to stretch it down the center aisle and have people hold a section of it while we pray.)

So the first week our sentence was “Lord, start a revival in our family.” That week my 5 year old was always excited about making the next link of the chain. Not only that, but in our morning prayer times (on the way to school) he also prayed for a revival in our family. This week we are doing a different prayer emphasis each day. Sunday night was “Lord, do big things in our family.” That has been my son’s prayer all week, and I have to admit as much as it makes me smile it also makes me nervous, because I believe that God will answer  that prayer and I am not entirely sure I am ready.