Mommas, usually I come to you with stories of what God is teaching me through the chaotic, humbling, beautifully messy days of raising arrows. Today, I come to you with more of a practical post in an area in which I’ve been growing: prayer.

I still have much to learn and I have a stack of books on prayer yet to read next to my Bible. My grandmother was an incredible prayer warrior, and though my mom has always been very faithful and faith-filled in prayer, recently, she has become a very mighty intercessory prayer warrior. I come from women of prayer, and I feel I am just getting my feet wet in the glorious rushing river of prayer.

But, I imagine many of you mommas are like me–you don’t have hours of quiet to pray; but, you desire to be a faithful prayer warrior especially for your people. So, today, I share with you a few practical ways to become a more faithful woman of prayer–they won’t all be new to you, but I hope you find at least something in this list that equips you this morning to pray for your people–because, mommas, prayer changes everything.

1. Snag moments: During the week, I wake up early to take advantage of the dark & quiet before my people are awake; I spend time in the Bible and in prayer.  But, prayer doesn’t have to be contained to my time sitting with my Bible in my lap while everyone in the house is sleeping.  I am becoming more intentional about snagging moments to talk to Papa God–pray while you chop veggies, pray while you drive and listen to that Veggietales CD again, pray for your people as you fold their laundry.
2. Ease up: Accept that something is better than nothing.  If you cannot give 20 minutes in prayer, don’t write off the five minutes you can give.  Give what you can, and give it entirely and watch God’s presence invade your five minutes.
3. Pray smarter not longer: Mark always tells me to work smarter not harder; I’d like to argue we can apply this to prayer.  I do not deny there are times when we need to spend long chunks of time in prayer; however, sometimes I have 15-20 minutes and because of my wandering mind I only get out 4 minutes of prayer. I have found a few tools which really help me to focus my mind and my prayers.
   1. The Secret Power of Speaking God’s Word by Joyce Meyer has scriptural prayers on a variety of subjects.
   2. The Power of  a Praying Parent by Stormie Omartian is an excellent book filled with scriptural prayers on specific subjects that apply to your children; I promise you will love this one and find it gives you new ways to pray for your kids.
   3. The Power of  Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian is the same format as the one mentioned above, but it is for praying for your man — don’t forget to cover your man in prayer; blessing flows from the head down!

Let’s snag those moments knowing that something is better than nothing, and become women who cover our people in prayer.