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I’ve been getting asked about our Family Prayer Shield a lot lately, so I thought it only fitting to share about what it is, how it got started and how we’ve refined it over the years.
I first learned about having a prayer shield from one of my mentors and colleagues, Catherine Hickem. Though I know we are to called to cover each other in prayer, it was the first time I’d seen someone be so intentional about rallying others in protective prayer on a consistent basis. While she asked others to cover certain areas of her ministry in prayer, I thought it fitting to do something similar for our family.
Thus the Cone Prayer Shield was born! What we decided was to find someone (or a family we knew, loved and trusted) to commit to praying for our family on the same day of each month. In return, we would commit to pray for them and their family on that same day every month.
The Original Cone Prayer Shield
It’s as simple as that. We sent an email out (this was before Facebook) asking if friends, family, co-workers, etc would be interesting in committing to do what we described above for one year; that’s right, we asked for a 12 month commitment. I also promised to send out an update at the beginning of each month with what happened in our family in the prior month and what we coveted prayer for in the coming month.
We then filled out the names of the parties who agreed on a form and posted it in an easily visible, highly trafficked area (for us, that meant the fridge, as seen above). I also made smaller copies of the shield for me to carry in my purse organizer and put in the car (and since starting this years ago, I’ve added each family to my Google Calendar with a reminder so I have a digital version too).
I’ve also purposed to contact the people we’re praying for in some way on the day we pray. I’m not pretending to think I’ll be able to call them each time (since I’m a horrible phone person), but it may be a text message, Facebook wall post or a quick email.
Back in the day, I created a very basic (VERY basic) family prayer shield for you all to get started as well. It’s simply a Google doc, and some of you would have been able to create something much prettier on your own, but for those of you without computer software or know-how, I wanted you to have something you could simply and quickly print out.
However, now that I’ve written Raising Uncommon Kids, my publisher had designers create not only a more beautiful version, but one that’s completely customizable by you as well!
All you have to do to receive your own customizable copy of my Family Prayer Shield is to submit your email below and it will be delivered directly to your inbox:
And don’t forget to order your copy of Raising Uncommon Kids today!
You would be amazed at what can happen in your life when you know your family is covered in prayer each and every single day of the year. it doesn’t cost you anything: only faith and commitment. So what’s stopping you from starting today?
