My #OneWord2025 is PRAY

How many of you make lists? How many of you check off the items on your to-do lists?  Over the past few years I have kept daily checklists in my bullet journal that include reading my Bible, doing a 2 minute plank, praying, reading, walking, and writing. I would like to say that I have been consistent without fail over the last year in all of these areas, but I have not. Along the way I have missed one or another item on my list by day's end. 

The one area that I have struggled with more than the others has been prayer. The majority of the time I have been able to check it off my list by the end of the day. But I have not been satisfied with the depth or quality of my prayers. Many nights I spend a minute or two talking to God right before I fall asleep, just to say I got it done. That shouldn't be the motivation for my prayers. 

While Christmas shopping for books for my family, I came across a couple of books that I picked up for myself. Pocket Prayers: 40 Simple Prayers That Bring Peace and Rest by Max Lucado and 10 Minutes to Powerful Prayer by Stormie OMartian. I also have a few other books by OMartian on the topic of prayer that I plan to revisit throughout the year to come. So with these books in hand for support, I am choosing PRAY as my #OneWord2025 . 

I just finished reading One Word that will Change Your Life by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page. I have chosen #oneword for the past several years, but this is the first time I have read the book. I went through the process of asking myself three questions. What do I need?  What's in my way? What needs to go?

I realize I need a closer relationship with God.  I also realize I need a closer relationship with my husband. Out of all the things I need, these two are the most important. Both can be accomplished through prayer.

The things that are in my way are merely excuses, but I considered them anyway.  I live in a world where I allow myself to be distracted by my television, my computer, social media and my phone. I allow these things to become the noise in my life that keeps me from noticing or spending time with my husband and my God. Not setting a limit on these time wasters enables me to get lost down a rabbit hole of distractions that steals time away from the two most important relationships of my life.

What needs to go is my unregulated time spent on things that steal time away from these important relationships.  I need to be more disciplined in how I spend my time throughout the day. Many years ago I heard a song called "Love is Spelled Time". I believe that we make time for those things that are important to us. How I spend my time needs to demonstrate who is important to me.

Pray verb

1  to ask earnestly: beg

2  to address God with adoration, confession, pleading, or thanksgiving

The acronym PRAY is a prayer framework that can guide anyone through prayer:

P - Pause, Praise

R - Repent, Recite, Rejoice

A - Ask

Y - Yield

My plan is to:     1. Spend daily, dedicated time in prayer to God.

                           2. Pray for my husband.

                           3.  Spend daily, dedicated time with my husband.

                           4.  Read about prayer in the Bible, and other books 

                                on the subject of Prayer.

"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." ~Max Lucado

Falling in Love with Books

"Mrs. Isham! I just fell in love with one of your books!"  Nothing sounds sweeter to a Reading Teacher's ears!

I would love more than anything to create the perfect parameters to repeat that scenario over and over again on a daily basis.  What was present in this instance that was the catalyst that brought about this type of reaction in my student?

Lots of books. A wide variety of genres, authors, and reading levels.

Free choice.  Students allowed to self-select the books they wanted to read.

Time to read.  Time during school for students to get lost in a book.

Model reader.  A teacher that models an active reading life.  This year, as I have every year, I read aloud to my students.  When students are reading in my class, I am also reading.  I have also started posting the covers of the books I am currently reading outside my classroom door. 

When I finish a book, the cover is moved to the cabinet door inside my classroom, which is a running list of books that I have read this year.  I have also posted a reading goal of how many books I want to read this year.

I will continue to provide my students with large library of books, free book choice, time to read, and a model reader in myself.

My goal for my students is for them to become life-long readers.  What better way to do that than to fall in love with books? 

Making the Most of My Time

This is one of the busiest times of the year for me, and despite that, I am participating in two book studies on Voxer this month.  We make time for those things that we want to do most.  But what if we want to do #allthethings?  

I am constantly looking for time to squeeze in #allthethings.  I listen to Voxer chats and messages in the morning before my family gets up, on my ride to and from school, and during my lunchtime when I eat in my room.  With my book studies, I will read during class when my students are reading, and in the evening at home when my family is busy with other things.  I try to pick a few Twitter chats to participate in that don't take too much time away from my family.  Blogging is another thing I want to make time for on a regular basis.  "Finding the time" is happenstance, "making the time" is intentional.  I want to be intentional.

"Time is what we want most, but what we use worst."  ~William Penn

My most unstructured time is in the evening after dinner and on the weekends.  I will not deny that I find time for TV and movies.  What I need to do when I find myself flipping channels, is to turn off the TV or walk away and use my time more productively. That is time that can be redeemed.

Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, 
     making the most of your time,   Ephesians 5:15-16a

Redeeming that time won't necessarily make it easier to get started putting words on the page.  I have a journal that I intended to write in at the end of each day, while the day's events were fresh in my mind.  As I have not been successful at making that a habit, I need to rework that idea.  I think that I will start opening my blog page at the beginning of each school day, leaving it easily accessible to quickly jot down ideas and thoughts as they come my way.  Even if I have not written anything by the time I am ready to shut down my computer, my page will be open to write a quick thought before I log out.  I can save those thoughts as drafts, or a starting point to use when I make time to blog on the weekend.

I now have a plan to "make time" for blogging this week!  What will you "make time" for this week?