I recently found some prayer notes tucked away in a Bible commentary I used in my 20s and 30s.  It was an excellent reminder of things I had prayed for during the early years of my marriage and as my child went through her teen years.  There were also notes about children I had taught in Sunday School, a young boy who sat with me during church service (his parents didn’t attend), and names and prayers for others I only vaguely remembered.

There were many pages of these notes.  Some were detailed and others not, but through the re-reading of them, I recalled many blessings of God I had long ago forgotten.  It caused me to wish I had been more deliberate in keeping these prayer memories.  I have always been one to store prayer notes here and there rather than in an orderly fashion.   And while a nice surprise to come across them, how nicer still it would be had I kept books of prayers throughout the years, collecting more of my conversations with God.

I would encourage a young parent today to teach their children the benefit of keeping prayer journals or some means of prayer file throughout their life.  Guide them to record their prayers of petition and how they saw those prayers answered.  Date the petitions and answers.  As they grow, they might add how they matured spiritually by giving a concern over to God, or what they learned through the experience of long seasons of prayer.  It will serve them joyfully through the years and be a record of faith for themselves and their children.

Father, thank You for leading me to these prayer notes; they are records of Your faithfulness.  This was an unexpected blessing and I thank You for it.  May I be more mindful of writing down my petitions and Your answers, and the things You taught me.   It is an affirmation of our relationship.

“Go now, write it on a tablet for them, inscribe it on a scroll, that for the days to come it may be an everlasting witness.”  Isaiah 30:8 (NIV)