Family Prayer Time

"For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:20 

It was a challenge for my family to come together and pray. Although we go to church every Sunday and we haven't missed a single Sunday mass, my husband and I weren't able to introduce a daily night time prayer tradition. Probably because my work schedule before was so erratic that we couldn't find a regular time to huddle for a prayer. But as they say, if there's a will, there's a way. I guess there wasn't enough motivation to do it and we didn't try hard enough.

But a family prayer time was always a part of my own prayer. I have religiously, prayed for it. That by His grace, this tradition would be introduced organically and fluidly, without debate and fuss, in our family.

The blessing came one night. When I visited the girls' room to say my good night. My eldest was already asleep while my youngest daughter was still awake. I asked her if she's done with her night time prayer. She told me, "not yet". I asked if she wanted to pray with me. She said, "yes". It was my golden opportunity. We prayed together. She even mentioned that she would like to pray for her former adviser who was on a two-month leave because of an operation. It was the first time I heard her worry about someone's health outside our family. After we're done, I felt really good. And I knew she felt good too. I saw relief in her eyes. I took advantage of this. I told her that I am putting her in-charge of our family's prayer time. 

The next night my youngest daughter took her new responsibility to heart. She called everyone to drop everything for our family prayer time. I suggested to use the girls' devotional book as a starting point. Everybody agreed. My youngest was the first one who read the devotional for the day. Eventually, it became a shared responsibility. Everyone had their turn.

This is our guide for our family prayer time

Our family prayer time was really a desire of my heart. And I'm very grateful that we are now doing it. I find it comforting that we're praying as a family. That family agenda are being lifted to God, together.  I hope that we can keep this up forever. That we wouldn't take it for granted. And we would always see the goodness and the blessings of spending time together to pray for each other, with each other.

Here's praying that all families, would be able to come together to offer their worries and praise to God.