Oops, again. I had no intention of going so long without a blog post.
A couple things happened. First, I was concerned that my posts about my prayer dis-ease were quickly becoming Eeyore-esque. You know, the sad-eyed donkey with a ribbon on his tail who followed Pooh around? While I love his character I didn’t want to become whiney about prayer. Sure, prayer is a challenge for most of us, but it’s not THAT bad. I didn’t want to give that impression, and took some time out to figure out a new direction.
Also, the prayer bead business is now in full swing and is off to a great start. In the time since I started making them in August I have sold 41 sets! I am really encouraged by that response and have been busy creating new designs and using them to talk with people about prayer.
So while it’s a crazy busy time as we prepare for the coming of Christ this season I am recommiting myself to this blog and have created a new direction for it. It will continue to be about prayer, specifically, my journey towards a richer, and more regular, prayer life. It will also continue to be about prayer beads – how I’m learning to make them and introduce them to my community and how they can be used to enrich one’s prayer life.
But to keep the blog from becoming too much about just me and my prayer life I am planning to organize the blog around the following topics:
1. prayer dis-ease: the challenge – and possibility – of creating a richer prayer life
2. the basics of prayer beads: how to use them to strengthen and enhance your prayer life
3. prayer bead devotions: various prayers and devotions to use with your prayer beads
4. icons: a reflection on a particular icon and its use in prayer
5. the prayer bead adventure: an update on my efforts to create prayer beads and use them to talk about prayer
These topics will be in no particular order, but hopefully they will help to offer variety and a deeper perspective on prayer, prayer tools, and the relevance of prayer in our lives.
Also, given that this blog is about prayer I think it is critical that we begin to use it to form a prayer community, one in which we pray for others and encourage each other in our prayer lives, both individual and communal. As such, if there is something that you need us to pray about I encourage you to post your prayer concern in the comment section of this blog. I will then share them in my postings.
Together, we will all learn to overcome our dis-ease with prayer and experience a wonderful connection with our Lord and Savior.
Peace, Kristen
