How to Turn a Bent Soul

If anyone needs to pray, a momma needs to pray!  But the weary days.. the discouraging days.. the days when your brain is so fried trying to multitask 173 different things at once and answer the children’s incessant questions.  Kindly.

How to pray?  What to pray?  Often throughout the day, many of us shoot up our thoughts, our ramblings, our pleadings, our worries to the Lord, talking with Him over everything.  And we know He gladly hears + receives these prayers, as we know He tells us in Psalm 62:8 to pour out our hearts before Him because our God is a refuge for us.

Maybe like me, many of you struggle with prayer.  You can find time to fit other disciplines into your day, but taking time just to sit and do nothing but talk over specific needs and desires with the Father?  It feels like an unjustifiable luxury (especially in light of the dishes waiting to be washed, the laundry that needs folding).  It is hard to quiet our busy souls, our busy minds, and to feel allowed to sit before Him in stillness and pour out our hearts.

But sometimes we need help.  Sometimes we don’t know what to pray.  Sometimes we don’t have a lot of time to pray, just minutes squeezed in while we wait in the school pick-up line, or the line at the grocery store, for pete’s sake!  It’s times like these that we can learn to lean on the prayers of others, the words of others that may give expression to the groaning of our own souls.

This little book is a sweet companion for mothers.  It is small (and light) enough to fit easily in your purse and have with you or simply to keep it tucked in a spot where you can turn to it daily for help and encouragement.  There is a topical prayer for each day, ending with scripture, enabling you to journey through the prayers each day of the year.  Or you can flip through the topical index in the back to find words for the particular struggle or need, with topics such as fear, anger, conflict, comparison, marriage, money, guilt, regret, worship, etc.  I have found it to help me to pray more specifically for myself and for my children.  I am also finding myself turning to it at a particular time each day when my soul is most distracted, and turning my thoughts and words back onto the Lord.  Maybe I’m the only one, but I find my soul naturally bends away from God in the course of the day.  Prayer is such a mystery to me, how it works, even (dare I say it) if it works, or if “working” is even the goal of prayer.  But maybe “turning” is what prayer is about.  Turning again to the Lord.  Turning back to Him.  Turning over to Him what we are wringing our hands over.  Turning back what has bent away.  Re-turning.

“For thus says the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel: “In returning and rest you shall be saved; In quietness and confidence shall be your strength.” {Isaiah 30:15}

I would highly recommend it to all the mommas looking for a small and simple prayer help!  It would also make a lovely gift for a new momma.

“Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.”  {Hebrews 4:!6}

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*Tyndale House Publishers has provided me with a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.  I am not required to present a favorable review of the book and the opinions expressed are my own.