Last night after we ate, Leigh and I took the kids into our neighborhood to do prayer-walking for our neighbors. Like clockwork, when we told the kids what we were all going to do, they asked, “What’s prayer-walking?” So, I simply told them, “It’s praying and walking at the same time!” That wasn’t good enough, and I did intend to explain more before we started.
As soon as we finished eating, we all put our jackets on and headed outside. I asked everybody to huddle up and listen to a description of what prayer-walking was all about. As soon as I opened my mouth, a large dog from the neighborhood came up. He was friendly….but too friendly. He wanted to be center of attention, and with three kids, that isn’t hard to do. So I kept trying to explain what prayer-walking is while telling the kids to ignore the dog. Well, that didn’t go over well. We just decided to start.
As soon as we left our driveway, another dog came up. Again, they stole the attention of the kids! Instead of helping us pray, the kids are watching these two dogs act goofy. I took Anna by the hand, and she and I specifically prayed out loud for specific neighbors to help keep her mind on prayer. Leigh took care of Caleb, while Nathan did well on his own. Our prayer-walking time lasted 10 minutes. By the time we were almost finished, another dog joined and all three were running, playing and barking. This was not in my prayer-walking guide!
We all got in the van to go to Wal-Mart and go get some ice cream at Baskin Robbins. Don’t you know that as soon as we got in the van, all three of those dogs were nowhere to be found! They vanished! Leigh and I had already told each other that our family’s first opportunity to prayer walk together was interrupted by a spiritual distraction. We could have had an easy and fun time together, walking, praying and enjoying the night air….but instead we had to intentionally focus every second on prayer and not on silly dogs. Even though we faced a spiritual distraction, the discipline of prayer-walking was made stronger because of what we had to overcome as well as what we knew we needed to do.
when i’ve taught prayer-walking, i’ve always said God uses the most unique things. instead of calling attention to your family (and possibly making neighbours nervous) God could have been using the dogs in your Prayer-walk.
your kids are young. prayer walking is as much “caught” as taught. i remember when William was in early elem. and i had been teaching a while. we were driving home from church and he and a friend heard an ambulance. they asked some questions and then asked if we could pray. they’ll get it. just “walk around the neighbourhood and pray” they will catch on.
thanks for your focus on Prayer. it’s an answer to my years of prayer.
By: Sherri Ingram on January 28, 2010
at 5:28 pm
We prayed walked our whole neighborhood, it was a real blessing from the houses to the apartments! Please pray for all of them, about 100 homes!
God bless you. Thank you!
By: Lisa Fresina on February 26, 2010
at 8:13 pm