A Prayer In and Beyond My Four Walls - (Part 3 in the revival series)

Some time back in October, I came across a prayer on a website that I frequent just about on a daily basis.  It’s called Bless Every Home.  This awesome website allows you to pray a daily prayer for your neighbors. The ultimate goal for this ministry is not just that you are praying for your neighbors, but that you are also caring for them and witnessing to them as well.  I urge you to check it out and sign up.

This prayer is based loosely on a prayer from that website. 

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

_{Isaiah 40: 5}

“In all things and in every home in my neighborhood” especially those whose children attend  _{name(s) of your neighborhood schools}, “reveal Yourself, Jesus, as Savior, Healer, Reconciler, and Restorer.” Prepare the hearts in every home to receive You upon Your revelation. 

Truth Jesus.  Silence the adversary.  We speak a muting of his voice and his agents of darkness in music, television, social media, and movies. 

Truth Jesus. We release Your truth to be manifested and preached in Your churches – all of the churches in this city.

Truth Jesus. We release Your truth to be manifested and spoken over all of the policies, laws, and decision making for our city and schools. 

Lord send a revival for us all!  

Forgive us for our role in what causes you grief about our city, our community, our church, and even our own family. Shine Your light of truth on our hearts so that we may see where we need to repent completely. 

 “Shine Your healing light in broken families, marriages, loneliness, abuse, illness, anxiety, fear, and everything else that is robbing my neighbors”, my family, my schools, my city and all of the homes and families within it of Your truth, love, and peace.  May we see what needs to be healed and made whole and be willing to do the work to activate the change.

In Jesus’ name we pray,

Amen

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni

Photo retrieved from https://www.pinterest.com/pin/309552174358917479/

Forty Days of Prayer for Education: Day 30

Section 5: For Our Students

Join with us today and pray our prepared prayer on pages 51 and 52 from the FORTY DAYS OF PRAYER FOR EDUCATION free eBook or pray independently from our focus scripture, Psalm 78:4  and enjoy the accompanying song entitled, "The Latter Rain" by the Alvin Slaughter. 

Continue praying for the word of God to strengthen the family unit in this country. Pray for healing and restoration for the families of your students this school year.

A BETTER GENERATION

We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the LORD, about his power and his mighty wonders.

Psalm 78:4 NLT

Dear Lord and Precious Father,

We praise You for being timeless. We thank You for being omnipresent and omniscient. Bless Your holy name for creating the family unit and having a place in Your heart for the fatherless and the widow. It is with great purpose that You have created "family". Each family You have knitted together is fearfully and wonderfully made and all their ordained days have already been written in Your book of destiny.

We understand that in praying for an educational revival in this country, we must also lay the family structure of this country on the altar before You. Forgive this country's disregard for what You have ordained as the sacred family unit. Forgive this country for every tv show, book, political view, religious acceptance and blind eye turned away from the Truth that has altered this country's foundational principles of family which were built on the Word of God.

As You empower us to restore the family unit to reflect Your will, turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children. As parents and grandparents read the Word of God, may they begin to speak to their children and grandchildren about the wonders of Your hands. Release the truth of Your goodness from the tongues of parents throughout this country. Teach parents to bless their children.

We declare that one generation will praise Your name to the next. This current generation and those that are rising up will be greater than those before them. They will acknowledge where their help comes from. They will declare Your wonders. They will meditate on Your goodness and they will boldly proclaim  Your existence in the hallways, classrooms, fields, courts, lecture halls, playgrounds, school buses, dorm rooms, cafeterias, locker rooms...where ever their feet go, their mouths will proclaim, "Jesus is Lord and He is the Way, the Truth and the Light."

This generation and those to follow will lift You up and You will draw all men unto You.

In Your great and holy name Jesus,

-Amen

It's the Big Payback!

I just finished putting my seven month old grandson to sleep! 

Whew! 

Today was supposed to be the last day of his summer visit here in America but their flight back to St. Maarten got cancelled.  We didn't find that out until we had arrived all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at the airport at O'dark-thirty this morning.  No sweat off our backs. One more day was an unexpected blessing!  

We threw the luggage back in the van, sped home and ate a hearty breakfast.  Unfortunately, as the eyelids of everyone over the age of thirteen around the table began to droop and every final slide of pancakes across puddles of syrup met slowing lips, the little tyke increased in energy. 

SOURCE:musicmookreview.com

My mother in-law and I chuckled at the exasperation on my daughter's face and traded stories of how our kids had defied the moral code of sleeping during decent hours...well my kids did, hers slept from 9-3.  I reminisced about how car rides didn't work for one, closing the door while they went to sleep on their own didn't work for another (she would climb out the crib and find me...creepy #shudders) and how my mom said I deserved everything I got since I happened to be part bat and secretly conspired to suck years from her youth when I was just a wee tot.  So I volunteered to take him with me to drop off his two young aunties at summer camp so everyone could catch forty winks without interruption.

I intended to have a white noise fest and knock him out cold. We headed off down the road, AC pumping and windows down; which didn't turn out as well as I anticipated. Today happened to be trash day and the sanitation truck drivers around here must have been told to leave a Hansel and Gretel trail of garbage juice on all of the roads so they could find their way back to the dump. 

SOURCE:lemurandbushbaby.wikia.com

"How's he doing?" I asked, wrinkling up my nose.   
"He's not sleep yet," my eleven year old said, curling her top lip in disgust.  
Ten minutes later, I dropped them off and headed over to the gas station....  blink, blink, kick, kick, grin, grin.

I looked at him and thought,  "You may be tough, but grandma is the original queen of "I'm up now and I ain't going down without a fight!"

I stared at him through the side window while I pumped gas... blink, blink, kick, kick, grin, grin.  

Hmmm, what's the best way to put down a third generation strong willed baby bat who believes the main objective of every adult is to put him to sleep?

Harps and guitars playing Baptist hymns!!! 

SOURCE:pastorjoe.me

All gassed up now, I look in the back and see the feet still kicking and press play on my iTunes playlist featuring a CD I got from Our Daily Bread.  Needless to say, after smelling the winding trails of lost trash trucks and cleaning plastered gnats off my glasses as I took the looooong way home through my county, the kicking wound down to an occasional head roll and soft snore.  Victory is mine...at least until he wakes up!

While this battle of the wills and quest for utter dominance of babies over mothers seems to be on repeat for my family, it's nothing I would wish as payback on my daughters when they have children of their own. Figuring out how to bribe the Sand Man to increase his dosage on your kids is not a Girl Scout patch that has to be earned by every mother. Just like having the class from H- E double hockey sticks during your first year teaching isn't a badge that new teachers should have to earn either.

As educators, we all know that class lists are either generated by computers or handpicked with fairness or devilish intentions.  Whatever the case may be, it often seems that new teachers get the pick of the liter that everyone is glad they don't have. Then, the seasoned teachers and administrators sit back and rip the new teacher to shreds for not having any classroom management. Really?

SOURCE:mosoulfood.wordpress.com

So, this is what I propose to you who have the heart of Jesus pumping His mercy and grace giving blood through your veins.  Remember Proverbs 11:25 NIV.

A generous person will prosper;

    whoever refreshes others will be refreshed.

If you're looking to have a good year, make sure to look for those who are not having one.  Take the lesser experienced teacher or administrator under your wings. You know with God all things are possible.  So, it could be possible that this year your job is to teach, but your assignment is the teacher down the hall.  1 Peter 4: 10 says that each of us is to use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 

As I quoted in a previous blog, you may be the only bible some people ever read.  Therefore, this school year, make it a point to fill your pages with love and truth.

SOURCE: faithgateway.com

The Lord is with you and you are loved,

Toni

P.S.  Don't forget to join me on www.educatordominion.com by clicking on the Home link at the top of this page starting July 27th for our Forty Days of Prayer for Education campaign.  Get a copy of the ebook today! 

P.S.S.     He's up!!!