It’s just too good to not use again: “The Attempt Of One Christian To Actually Remember To Pray Daily For The People And Things That Are Important To Her.”

So here is mi parto dos de prayer.

[I don't know Spanish.]

(Why I’m doing this is HERE, and Part 1 is HERE, just in case.)

Part Two: Prayer Coupons

That’s the most inaccurate title in the world. But I’m using a coupon holder, so it feels kinda right. But it’s really not.

And this part of the prayer plan is brought to you by my friend Katie. We had fajitas and prayer time at her house Saturday night, about 20 girls, and while we sat together [literally in the same chair], I interviewed her about her prayer life. You know, one of those ask someone wiser moments. And this is her idea that I’ve stolen and claimed as my own decided to use as well.

All I’m doing is separating my prayers into categories:

• Family
• Friends
• Future
• Nashville / community
• World

And each of these categories has a different colored card. So I’ve written one card for each day in each color. Give or take. Listen. No reason to get all rules-y and legalistic. So EVERY DAY might not have EVERY COLOR. No biggie. I’m just trying this to see if it works. So I bought a coupon holder and stack of multi-colored index cards.

Inside the coupon holder, I’ve labeled the tabs each day of the week. You can kinda see the white in there. And then on each card, I wrote what I’m praying for. Then I’m going to put the first set of cards behind the “Monday” tab, etc.

Nope, not showing you.

But I’ll give you an example.

For Nashville /community, on Tuesdays I am praying for my small group. So I pulled out one green card (the Nashville / community color) and I wrote:

NFG [which stands for neighborhood fellowship group, just FYI]

Then I listed each member in our group on the card. So that every Tuesday, I will be SURE to pray for them. Not that I can’t pray other days, but that is guaranteed.

And I’m going to keep notes on the card- when a scripture comes to mind, when a prayer is answered, etc. And after I pray on Tuesday, I’ll put it back in the Tuesday tab. Easy, right?

It will pretty much stay consistent every week. Like every Monday, I’ll pray for the same things:

• Family: My Dad
• Friends: Brandon, Molly, and Webb
• Future: My agent and her communication on my behalf
• Nashville / Community: The creative community in our town
• World: President Obama

Make sense? And like I said- no legalism here. If I decide I want to pray for Dad on Monday and then again on Thursday, I can move the card or pretty much just do whatever I want. These coupons are not the boss of me.

So there you go.

I am totally digging the comments you guys are leaving- I love some of these ideas. So feel free to leave more today or go back through yesterday’s comments and see if any of those ideas work better for you.

Here’s to a Fall of answered prayers!

Like Melanie quoted at the All Access blog-

“Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever!”

–Ephesians 3:20

This is “The Attempt Of One Christian To Actually Remember To Pray Daily For The People And Things That Are Important To Her.”

I know the subtitle is fairly pointless in this particular placement, but when you write something that grandiose, it is just a shame not to find a way to use it. Twice.

Now, here’s the thing about me.

I’m a visual learner. You tell me about your puppy on the phone? I most likely will remember it. You draw me a picture of said puppy? I will be impressed. And remember.

So part uno and part dos [tomorrow] of this plan are visual. Which may or may not work for you.

Part One: The Bulletin Board of Hope

I thought if I could see the pictures of people that I wanted to pray for, I would remember to pray. So I had pictured in my mind hanging a bulletin board thingy on my wall. And literally printing out pictures and tacking them up. So that while I’m sitting in my favorite chair, I see the pictures right there above me.

I had already seen, in my mind, the word “HOPE” around the frame of the bulletin board. So that was my plan.

And then… Sunday at church our preacher talked about hope and literally, he hung a wooden frame in front of the congregation. And then he said, I kid you not, “Frame your life with hope.” And I thought I would fall out of my chair.

So I made it. I won’t spend your time or mine on the drama of finding an inexpensive cork board or how my crafts never turn out as cute in real life as they are in my head. It is the disappointment of my creative life.

And it’s going to have pictures of people I want to pray for every. single. day. and topics I don’t want to forget to pray for every. single. day. [Now, for example sake, I put up a picture of Dwight from The Office and some cards- you know, cause I'm always praying for you and your mom. I figure it would be somewhat weird to show you what/who I'm really praying for. And don't worry- when I have guests, I'll take it down. That would also be weird.]

But this is what it says across the top and bottom:

“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all…” – Emily Dickinson

I think that’s beautiful. Atta way, Em.

It hangs above my favorite chair where I often sit to read and journal and pray. [Apparently I have a thing for off white.]

So there’s Part 1 of the plan. Seeing Is Believing. Seeing her picture, seeing his picture, seeing their pictures, it’s going to be my reminder to believe.

To believe the truth that God works in the lives of people that I love when I spend time in prayer.

Tomorrow: Part 2. AND…. I totally love y’all’s prayer suggestions in the comments. Keep ‘em coming! We’re gonna be a crazy crowd of praying people by the end of this! Yay!!!

I don’t know if this post is going to turn out the way it is turning out in my mind. But we’ll give it a shot.

After Mrs. Couch’s funeral last week, I decided that I want to be a different person.

There was a common theme in the words that people said at her funeral.

Mrs. Couch really prayed for people.

Let me tell you my thoughts on prayer. It has changed my life. I am convinced that the two main reasons I heart Nashville are because of God’s lovingkindness and the prayers of the people that love me. I also know, like KNOW, that I wouldn’t have finished my book in January without your prayers.

I have seen prayer change my life. I have seen prayer change other people’s lives. I have seen how prayer draws me closer to the heart of God. I’m a big believer in the power of prayer.

I’m also a big slacker. And a big over-sleeper. Which means I’m not a big pray-er.

But I’m going to be different.

I’ve really been pondering things since Wednesday. I’ve replayed conversations in my mind between myself and Mrs. Couch and honestly, many of them focused on prayer. There are some things that we both consistently prayed for, and those things were often what we spoke of.

And yet I look at my life and realize that I talk about prayer more than I pray.

[Dear reader who thinks AnnieBlogs is a perfect Christian, sorry.]

I’ve been listening to a series of the book of Proverbs by Mark Driscoll. And I have finished the series with this set of thoughts:

1. I don’t know everything like I think I do.
2. Other people do know everything about some things.
3. I should ask people to tell me everything about their something.
4. Because maybe part of wisdom is knowing that other people have wisdom that I need.

So I drove back to Nashville on Thursday and began to ask people how they pray. And what they pray for. And how in the name of everything sleepy-time they convince themselves to get up early to pray.

Because you know, there are people I want to pray for everyday. But I forget. And there are things that are deeply important to me, that I whine and complain about, but that I don’t pray about on a daily basis.

So after a full-on interrogation of wise folks around me, I have a plan. A praying plan.

Thanks to what I learned last week about Mrs. Couch and the life that she led, I don’t think I’ll ever be the same.

My prayer times, they are a changin’.

Tomorrow, I’m gonna show you my two part plan. I’ve titled it–

Seeing is Believing: The Attempt Of One Christian To Actually Remember To Pray Daily For The People And Things That Are Important To Her.

I think the subtitle is a tad long, but very informative.

After the funeral last week, my friends Ashley, Taylor, and I headed back towards Atlanta.

And somewhere between Waycross and Marietta, we got the idea in our noggins that we wanted some dinner. At a local establishment. As in, no fast food. No Subway. Nothing we could find in Atlanta. We were craving some local flavor. Something that screamed “THIS IS THE COUNTRY AND YOU CAN TASTE IT!”

So we pulled out our trusty iPhones and exited the interstate. Using UrbanSpoon [a very cool but apparently less than reliable application], we found this restaurant.

This is a screen shot reenactment [that took a RIDICULOUSLY long time to capture.]

So we found American food for only one dollar sign- Shelia’s Restaurant.

Anyways, we get excited about Shelia’s. Which, until this very moment, we called “Sheila’s”, when actually, we were trying to find “She-lia’s”. Maybe that was our problem.

As we turned right off the interstate, Taylor was driving [like a good Southern gentleman should], I was navigating [worst.decision.ever.], and Ashley was riding in the back seat like this [don't judge her- she likes to read in the dark].

And I realize these pics are blurry. Myself and Anita the iPhone. We have some issues.

We turn off the interstate and immediately Ashley says, “Well. There’s a sign right there for Sheila’s.”

Taylor and I, being idiots older and wiser, said, “Ok, cool. But the iPhone says the restaurant is about one mile away.” Because the fancy phone will give you the address of the restaurant. Or, as in our case, the address of a gas station that exists now where Shelia’s used to be.

So I’m gonna fast forward the story. 30 minutes later. An entire lap of the city. And we are back where we started. With no Shelia’s and no food and really, at this point, heavy hearts.

When suddenly, Ashley quietly says to from the back, “Um, there’s the Sheila’s sign again.”

Oh. You meant the huge sign. The huge red and white sign. The one we passed 30 minutes ago. Is sitting in the yard of the restaurant. Sometimes, maybe, it just makes more sense to look around instead of trusting ye old iPhone.

We park, enter the restaurant, and sit down. The temperature was hovering between a cool winter afternoon and blizzard-like conditions. We order some warm food, and quick, cause we may be getting charged for this extreme air conditioning. Taylor and Ashley ordered- catfish and salad.

Excuse the bright-to-the-extreme candelabras in the background. This place spares no expense on low temperature and high lighting.

The food was delicious and shockingly inexpensive. We may have been freezing cold, but we had happy tummies. Locally fed, Southern sweet tea, fried with the bad stuff, kind of tummies.

We loved the place.

And somehow, this little blunder on the menu is just simply endearing.

If there is one thing I always want to see on a menu, it’s chips and caso.

Or chips and queso.

Equally delicious.

I need a day to breathe.

So I’m taking it.

The funeral for Mrs. Couch on Wednesday was beautiful. Thank you for your prayers for the family- please don’t stop.

I absolutely loved getting to hug Mr. Couch, Josh and Kate, Jason and Candace, and Justin. I didn’t have good words to say. I said dumb things. But I hugged. I kept thinking about this post from Andy and how maybe it was okay that I said dumb things.

Just being there. That was enough.

My heart is sad in some new and different ways. I don’t wanna say more about that.

I’m tired. I’ve been getting up early for many-a-morning and today I’m sleeping in.

So thank you for giving me a day to breathe.

Y’all have a good Friday. Hug the ones your love. Call the ones you haven’t called in a while. Email, facebook, snail mail, whatever. Maybe today is a good day to tell people how much you love them.

Here’s another installment of YouBlog- where I introduce you to one of your fellow blogmies. Remember the goal is to get to know each other! Many of you readers/commenters were born to be friends- I just know it. And I’m out to prove it!

Ok. Elora won me over. Quick. Just look at the picture! I saw it and thought, “she could totally be one of my friends, sitting in Nashville, meeting me for coffee.” So pretty much, without Elora’s permission, I decided we are friends.

Elora and I are fairly similar. Based on what I’ve read, we kinda grew up the same and kinda get each other. I mean, obviously. We’re friends and all.

Elora has started a series on her blog about how she and her husband met. I love the simplicity of her heart and the commitment to the convictions laid on her heart. I think this is a great post. And it is just pretty cute, their love story looks like it’s gonna get all gushy and stuff.

So why don’t you take some time on this fine fall Thursday and go check out Elora? I don’t think you’ll regret it. She’s a darn good writer. And she’s a friend of mine.

Do you wanna be featured one week as the YouBlog-ger? Cause I would love it!! Just email me at annieblogs [at] gmail [dot] com and put “YouBlog” in the subject line. Or leave a comment. I don’t know… just get in touch with me.

You may remember my sweet friends Jason and Candace. They got married about a year ago and it was an amazingly awesome day.

I got a call Saturday afternoon. Jason’s mom had been killed in a car accident.

Shock. Heartache. Loss. Sadness. All in one swirl of minutes and conversations.

And suddenly my life is full of old numbers. After talking to Candace, I found myself running through the rolodex in my mind of friends from college that love the Couch family and would want to know.

So strange to realized that the same numbers on my speed dial in college couldn’t even be found on Anita the iPhone.

The numbers I had dialed on a daily basis were now having to be located and called for the first time in, oh I don’t know, years maybe. Months for sure.

The friends that I needed to speak to, I couldn’t find. We don’t live next door anymore. We don’t attend the same church. Work at the same campus ministry. Carpool on the same vacations. Sit in the same bleachers. Pray in the same chapel. Eat at the same restaurant.

In some cases, we don’t even live in the same country anymore. [Shout out to the Griffiths, whom we all wish were here this week.]

We aren’t the group we used to be. Until moments like these.

Moments that bring those old numbers back. That get fingers typing and emails flying through the internet postal system. Moments that remind us that maybe we aren’t so far apart after all. That though we’ve seen each other at weddings and parties over the years, this is different; this time, we need each other.

Moments when we are broken. Not for ourselves, but for them. For the boys who lost their mama too soon. For the husband who lost his wife. For the current, and future, grandkids and spouses who will never know the woman who built this family. She was wonderful. I’m glad I got to know her. Really glad.

Ye old Toyota Camry points south again today. Headed to the lowest parts of Georgia to sit on a row with the leading characters from “Annie’s Life: 1998-2002.” To stand by the best friend who has lost her mother-in-law. To hug Jason and Justin, my dear friends, who have lost their mom. To weep with those who weep. To mourn with those who mourn. To pray without ceasing for the spirit of God to be the Comforter that Jesus promised. Just to all be together. For them.

I saved all those lost and old numbers

in hopes of not needing them

for moments like this

ever again.

Last week, my friend Lauren left the Mocha Club to run some errands. When she mentioned a swing by The Perch, I got real happy. Cause it was raining. And fall-like outside. And I’m addicted to soy chai lattes.

I thought it would be cool to mention on twitter that I was preparing my mouth and my life for the chai to come.

Then my friend Troy, the dude at The Perch who makes some killer drinks, tweeted this back. And you can ignore the time stamps- they are off for some reason.

And with three tweets, I had placed my order at The Perch. Boom. Roasted. Mere minutes later the drink was in transit.

I was glad for that. And I said so.

When Lauren arrived, with a medium cup full of my sanity salvation, I was ecstatic. It was delicious. Tied for best chai in town. And being that communication had already begun on twitter, I continued it there.

To which The Perch replied-

I’m tellin’ ya. A new page has been turned in my twitter life. No longer will I use twitter to simply tell you too much about my own life and nurture my selfishness. I will now use it to order my soy chai lattes.

It’s like I’ve opened Pandora’s box. Or Pandora’s twitter page. And now I can think of tons of unconventional ways to use twitter most effectively, i.e.- to make my life easier.

I wish that I could use twitter to order my burrito at Baja and check with the library to see if my books had arrived from other branches.

Just for starters. The list is constantly growing in my mind….

Which makes me want to know how you would answer the following question.

I wish that I could use twitter to _____________.

Ready? Go.

Last week, I sat and chatted with my dear friend Annie Parsons. While I ate sushi and she had a seaweed salad [ewww], we discussed some articles I had worked on that week.

I said, “I can’t really believe I even wrote the article; I mean, I don’t EEEH-VER blog about being single.” [Because extending a word dramatically reminds us all how true the statement is. Yeah right.]

To which Annie looked up from her pile of ocean bottom and said, “Actually, that’s not really true.”

And I wanted to argue, mainly because I think I’m always usually right.

In this particular situation, we were both right. It used to be true, but it isn’t anymore.

I used to hate. Hate. HATE. talking about being single.

But apparently I got over it a little bit with this four part series for Denise Hildreth.

Then again last week at (in)courage.

And now, this.

A raw, not funny, this-is-how-it-really-feels piece about being 29 and single.

CLICK HERE to read the article.

I don’t want to become that girl that gets labeled “the older single writer” or “the expert on being alone” or “that girl who writes about being single” or “that blogger with lots of cats.”

So don’t call me any of those things. Please and thank you.

But I’m learning to be okay with the label “that writer that is honest about her today.”

Because God doesn’t promise me tomorrow, I’m choosing to embrace my today.

First of all, I’m not really offering a chicken dinner.

The shipping on that would be fairly high. And the greasy mess that the mailman would have to deal with is unfair.

Come rain, sleet, snow, or ….. fried chicken legs?

Don’t think so.

Anyways, the purpose of this post [which I have yet to reach until now] is that there is a winner over at the GIVEAWAYS page! Someone is gonna have a little package of awesome including Mary DeMuth’s novel Daisy Chain.

I love a good giveaway. This has been a pleasure.

Now that the fancy announcement has come and gone, I wish you a great weekend.

I mean that. That’s not just the right thing to say. Sincerely.

Have a great weekend.

Amen.