The Saturday Six

One.

Listen to the Interview.

This week I talked with Kelly O'Dell Stanley (a fellow Hoosier!!), who just released a new book called Designed to Pray. It's a study/workbook/prayer guide to help you creatively find new ways to approach prayer. Prayer seems to be a theme that keeps popping up for me, and I'm learning a whole lot about it right now, so I'm happy to be able to pass that on to you! This book is different from the one on prayer I featured last month, and both have great ideas. But if you have a few art-loving genes in your soul, you'll especially want to take a listen to Kelly's interview. BONUS! Learn more about this book at the end of this post, and I even have a copy to give away! :)

Two.

 Some of you might have heard this story and some of you probably didn't - and I only bring it up because I'm so impressed with the way it's been handled. Several weeks ago, a high school student posted a photo of himself and a friend with a couple of Colts cheerleaders, who had come to the high school for an event, and he made a racial slur about one of them. Not the best press for the high school, but I have to say, every single article I've read about the cheerleader and how she handled it has really impressed me. Read this, and pay particular attention to what she says about how all of us who are adults have a responsibility to teach kids good values and forgiveness by participating ourselves. Convicting stuff - at least for me.

Three.

So apparently, two years ago, right about this time, we were knee {waist?} deep in snow and Polar Vortexy goodness. I. Do. Not. Miss. That. I remember that winter and allllllllllllllll the tears I shed getting back and forth to work every day. Oh, those two hour drives! BLECH! Anyway. In my Facebook timehop this week, I found an article someone sent me back then of these lighthouses covered in snow and ice. Still fascinates me to no end. Check it out!

Four.

Speaking of snow, I loved this post by a blogger named Elizabeth Lang Thompson. She lives in the south and writes about how southerners do snow days instead of foraging ahead in the peril of snow. I feel I would make a good southerner. Bring me some sweet tea and let me have my snow day, thankyouverymuch.

Five.

I cannot imagine putting the amount of time and work into a project that is described in this post by Thistlewood Farm's KariAnne, but oh. my. goodness. Coolest keepsake ever. All of it. The book, the family tree, the memorabilia. It's amazing. Read up and enjoy.

Six.

Source

As I promised at the beginning of the post, I will tell you more about Kelly O'Dell Stanley's book, Designed to Pray, and then stick around, because I have a giveaway of this book to share with one of you!

Kelly O'Dell Stanley is a graphic designer and writer, and her two loves collided in this book. She had previously written a book on prayer called Praying Upside Down, and after completing that book, she began to have ideas for an interactive workbook type project on prayer that she hoped would help people become closer to the Lord through creative approaches to prayer.

This book isn't really a "read from cover to cover" kind of book, although I read it that way so I could tell you about it! It's a book you'll want to approach in a slow, daily kind of pace until you've worked your way through every single page. It's designed as an 8 week study on prayer, with new activities to try every single day.

She talks about everything from trying actual new postures of prayer to learning new ways to remember (consistently) to pray for requests that come your way to suiting up in the full armor of God as you pray, and over 50 additional ideas in between.

There might be some exercises that don't zing you, and that's okay. Her goal isn't for every single activity to resonate with every single reader. Her goal is to help you uncover new ideas you might not have considered and to unlock some prayerful creativity in you.

And if you're nervous about trying a book like this because you don't really have creative genes within you, NEVER FEAR! She already thought of that and designed each exercise to be a door-opener for the creative and well-equipped for the creatively challenged. You'll find enough tools on each page to be able to do some version of the exercise, even if you can't draw or think outside the box very well.

(OH! And if you are into the coloring craze, you'll find more than one opportunity to use that outlet in this book!)

You'll want to hear Kelly's interview above to learn more about her heart behind this book, but one thing she mentioned as she talked to me is that God is THE CREATOR, so to approach Him with reverent creativity is to approach one of the core pieces of who He is!

Though this book is geared for women (and is actually one of the resources on the new Belong tour), I think it would work well for teens, too, so if you're mentoring a young woman or have a daughter you're trying to find some common ground with on the topic of teaching prayer, this might be the ticket!

GIVEAWAY: I have one copy of this book to give away to one of YOU! To enter, just leave a comment telling me your biggest obstacle in your prayer life. (And if you comment anonymously, make sure you leave your contact info so I can reach you if I draw your name!) I'll leave this contest open until next Friday night, January 20th, at midnight, and then I'll post the winner's name on next week's Saturday 6!

** I received two copies of Designed to Pray at no cost to me from Tyndale Momentum and the Blythe Daniel Agency. All opinions on the book in this written review and in the podcast are my own. *