Praying For Our Neighbors

I shared the article 30 Days of Praying Through Your Neighborhood on Facebook today because I thought it went well with the first BLESS app practice of praying for your neighbors and starting with prayer to build community. I also thought this was a good Advent challenge for me to do with my three-year-old as I try to instill the importance of giving and thinking of others during this holiday season. This 30-day challenge encourages us to be mindful in a practical way by walking through our neighborhood which is something some of us might already be doing so adding prayer to our daily ritual might be an easy thing to do.

Grandma is in town this week so last night we baked and decorated a bunch of Christmas cookies for our immediate neighbors to hand out today. Of course, cooking with small children is always interesting and challenging but for the most part, he did a much better job listening this year than he did last year when we made Christmas cookies for the family. Some of them look like a bit of a mess, but I’m blaming the tube the frosting came in and not just user age or user error.

I forgot how much work it is to mix, bake, and decorate a few batches of cookies and what a labor of love it is, and was so grateful my mother-in-law was on board with this activity. While I love cooking and enjoy the process as well as the giving I was tired at midnight and had to stop after the 3 batches of cookies. While I would like to give more and reach out to our larger neighborhood the three houses right next door will have to do this year. Maybe next year we will be able to make the rounds to the houses surrounding us or maybe another night I will be inspired to make more.

If you haven’t already at least check out the BLESS app it only takes about 5 minutes a day to go through the prayer and allows you to track who you have prayed for and where you are in building a relationship with your neighbors. So far only one other person has signed up from the congregation besides the staff.

Let me know how you plan to put praying for your neighbors into practice. Do you do anything special to reach out to your neighbors during this time of year? If you have kids, how do you encourage them to pray for others and instill the practice of giving?