Creating A Lent Prayer Station For Your Entire Family

Are you celebrating and embracing this season of Lent?

Lent is all about self-examination, reflection, spiritual awakening, and preparation. Does this sound familiar? {Advent wasn’t too long ago, was it?} Now, I don’t know about you, but I could use a little bit from all of the above. Couldn’t you?

Some days I feel like I’m in and out of the same ole’ ruts. We all know how that feels. I tend to beat myself up over silly little things, overly criticize myself, and let the Demon of Perfection creep in on me.  We can all fall prey to this sense of failure of ourselves. Every day, we face real struggles of self-doubt and insecurity. We get into the daily grind of our everyday routines and we begin to yearn for this fresh air and newness of life to just come.

While this season of Lent is all about reflection, let’s not forget that it’s also about reconciliation, forgiveness, and celebrating the gift of freedom to live in God’s forgiveness. Phew! Isn’t that freeing?

I love this time from now until Easter to resurrect the things that will draw us closer to Him and put to death the things that will push us away from our Creator. The resurrection of Jesus is the single most important event in history, right?  Doesn’t that require some serious personal reflection?

Confession and prayer run deep. It’s the way for you and I to jump out from the shadows of our own shame and doubt to form a path into the light of God’s freeing gift of forgiveness.

Let me add another reason why I love Lent. Confession and prayer. Coming clean before my heavenly Father who loves all of me allows the doors of freedom and forgiveness to open. There’s comfort when I’m able to humbly expose all of myself to Him without any fear of condemnation.

Confession and prayer run deep. It’s the way for you and I to jump out from the shadows of our own shame and doubt to form a path into the light of God’s freeing gift of forgiveness. Isn’t that what Easter is all about?

I want a life that is continually living in the freedom that comes with God’s gift of forgiveness for us. It’s cleansing time and we are out with the old and in with the new around here.

I know that Lent is not the only time that we are called to do this, but setting aside 40 intentional days to fully comprehend this ‘finale’ of a celebration is pretty mind-blowing.

We all know that our children build and establish healthy habits through repetition. I want my children to confidently bring all of their worries, fears, tears, trials, and triumphs to the throne of our Heavenly father who will gladly accept it all with love. I  cannot free myself from such things either without that prayer and fellowship with God.

So, to get my children into a healthy habit of prayer and confession, we set up a mini prayer station. I sort of ‘threw’ this idea together so it isn’t anything fancy.  If you have been tracking with us these past several months, you will remember our makeshift altar. {We made our advent tree for Christmas over here and our Valentine’s Day station over here.}

I made sure that there was a cross, some paper, writing utensils, and our Sparkle Eggs. I  searched my house high and low for my DIY marker board in order to write some resurrecting words that I wanted to add into the mix.

Throughout our days now, the kids have a place and opportunity to ‘spill their guts’. {They like that idea when I put it into those terms!} It’s up to them whether they share what they wrote down or not.  They can pass their prayers on to someone else or they can keep them in their Sparkle Egg. Peanut likes to write in her Mommy & Me journal. Since Ly-Guy is only three, he gets to share with daddy or I what he wants to write or draw. It may only be a simple request for a monster truck sticker or scribble, but repetition and grasping this habit is key here!

When you think about the idea of Lent, we are reminded to create a lifestyle around this way of thinking and not just for the 40 days leading up to Easter. We prepare each day waiting and anticipating His ultimate return.

God has redeeming power over our sin through our confessions and prayers. He gives me hope and reminds me of who I can continually turn towards. I hope that it will do the same for you.

{Are you familiar with the Sparkle Egg? We decorate these eggs as one of our Easter traditions and they go along with this book. Be sure to visit their site for more info.  I hope to do a review and share how we utilize it throughout the rest of our year.}