I discovered this book online a while ago and put it in my Amazon wish list. It's called Praying in Color. I was immediately fascinated by the idea of it, but I never physically saw a copy of it.
When I was in the office of one of my editors last week, however, I saw the book on her desk and got really excited. The author Sybil MacBeth had written for their magazine, so my editor had just finished looking at the book and was willing to let me borrow it. So I began diving into my childish ways and let coloring be a major part of my prayer life this past weekend.
It's been such a neat practice. Basically you doodle around someone's name like I mastered in middle school science class. But you doodle after reading scripture, lighting a candle and preparing your heart for prayer. When you finish a doodle for that one person, you write another name and begin doodling around theirs on the same piece of paper (or journal page, as is the case with me). Eventually, your doodles create one image, which serves as your prayer icon for the day. Then during the day, I remember this image, I remember the people and their prayer needs, and I'm faithfully offering intercessory prayers for my family and friends (and even for my own prayer needs). I love it. You don't have to know how to draw, and your icon doesn't have to be a coherent picture, though some of mine have been.
Sunday I colored a prayer that was kind of a coherent drawing when I decided to doodle flowers around people's names. I'm having a hard time with one of my housemates and her boyfriend. We were addressing some house issues on Sunday, so I decided to add his name to my doodled prayer. While it didn't fix the problem, it definitely calmed me tremendously to enter into conversation about him after I had prayed his name on a page filled with flowers.
Sunday's colorful prayer
Experiencing that with my prayer for him reminded me about one of my favorite quotes from Dawson's Creek (Hey! No snickering . . .) that said that prayer isn't about changing God's mind, it's about changing me. Even though the situation still stinks, my attitude about it became a bit more flowery--even if only for that day.
Praying in color . . . there's much joy to it.
6 comments:
Lovely!!!! I need to find that book for sure. I think it would definitely help me through this era of life. And I'm actually impressed by the allusion to Dawson's Creek--who knew the show could be so profound?
It was me! I posted about this book. Isn't it awesome??? I still doodle/color prayers.
Heather, you're right! I think I did find out about this through your blog. THANKS! Love, love it!
I want to read the book :) I think I will love it being an artist!!!
What a beautiful way to love.
Thanks for this idea.
It is wonderful.
I will use it and spread it.
Can't wait to see the book.
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