A Person of Prayer

I remember it like it was yesterday even though 1990 was over 30 years ago. A group of young InterVarsity students hopped off the plane in Illinois with our suitcases ready for the Christmas break tradition of Urbana.  We wheeled our suitcases through 3 inches of snow to our dorm rooms and prepared for the opening session.  The next day I signed up for a session about prayer and it sparked in me a passion for prayer that has followed me through many different seasons of life.  I made a commitment to pray through my notecard list of people in my life, to pray for the world, the government, missions, and more.  A small group of us met daily during college to lift up our friends, family and missionaries we knew.  

Jump forward a few years and I found myself boarding a plane that was headed a lot farther away than Illinois.  On my first missionary journey to Ukraine, I met many men and women of prayer who influenced my daily prayer life.  One lovely lady who had been a missionary for most of her life shared a book with me from Concerned Women for America that had daily prayers in it from Scripture.  It led me through a prayer time with worship, confession, intercession and thanksgiving as I prayed through the Word.  This practice followed me for many years and that little book is falling apart now but it still brings inspiration to my prayer life when I need it.  

When I entered into my days as a stay-at-home mom, I missed the quiet moments I had as a single adult and struggled to find a way to keep prayer as a priority.  I read a book during this time about contemplative prayer which catapulted me into a deeper relationship with Jesus in a quest to fill the longing I had for connection with Him.  

And through the years, I prayed over my marriage with the power of a praying wife and over my children with the power of a praying parent.  I prayed through the psalms and I prayed with 31 days of praise.  I prayed with others in children's ministries and with women in Bible studies and retreats.  I began a practice of gratitude in prayers by counting my 1000 gifts, continuously turning my eyes to the Giver.  

In my career as an educator, I prayed over my students, carrying home their hurts, mistakes and worries.  I prayed for those who needed to know love, for those who had addictions, those who were terribly lost and didn't even realize it.  I met each year with students at the flagpole to pray and encouraged them to make prayer a part of their daily lives.  

In 2015, after much personal prayer, I accepted a position as a middle/high school principal and in those first years of administration I was overwhelmed by the needs of 40 staff and over 300 students.  I became the person who knew and carried around the hurts, anxieties, trauma, losses, and dysfunction of all those children and adults.  The only way I knew to deal with all of that heavy burden was to lay it at Jesus' feet.  I came morning after morning and petitioned God to care for each of these precious people with greater compassion and mercy than even I could imagine.  

So, that's how I became a praying principal.