the lesson of the prayer board

For a few weeks I have had a thought rolling around in my head. I wanted a chalkboard in the living room for documenting our prayer needs. A place to remind our family that we are believing for great things from a great God.

Then my neighbor randomly told me she had a chalkboard for me, and I got really excited. I braced myself for a small hand held board, but hoped it would be big enough.

We got it about a week later and it looked like this:

It was a little beat up, but we like that around here. It takes all the pressure off of us to keep it pristine.

So I painted some words on it and hung it up and when we were done it looked like this:

The kids immediately started writing things on it. A huge fight broke out. They were writing one another's weaknesses and screw-ups on there. The prayer board had become an accusation board.

I explained that they could write their own struggles on the board, but to give others the chance to unload their own need when they were ready. But I said they could write kind things, thankful things about one another.

And I marveled at the uniqueness of the Christian relationship with God.

Our struggles and problems are ours alone before the holy God. If we hurt others we should apologize to them and make restitution when needed, but ultimately, we sin against Him. It's very personal.

We can't drag others before the throne and make them repent or love and honor God. But we can lift one another up once we have shared our need and exposed our own weakness to each other. That is what family means to me, and that is what I long for this board to be.

Our community prayer board has lots of things on it already. If you come by, you can write your own requests on it and our family will pray for you.

It would be an honor to do so.