The Neatest New Year's Eve Ever

We had the neatest experience to usher in 2009. The Young Adult group from church hosted a
Prayer in the New Year" at Robert and Rachel's house. After church services we took the boys home and put them to bed. Then Jason and I left them with GPop and Granna and headed over to the party. We snacked on delicious sweet and savory snacks and played cards until about 11. It was so fun to laugh and play games with our friends...it's been too long! About 11 we put away the games and got out the song books. We sang and sang and it was wonderful. Robert had prepared a prayer schedule based on the book The Hour That Changed the World by Dick Eastman. The premise of the book is that over the course of an hour, you pray 12 different topics. Each guy took a topic or two and the ladies wrote our requests on index cards for the men to pray. Here are the 12 topics and an accompanying verse.

1. Praise - recognize God's nature - Psalm 63:3
2. Waiting - Silent Soul Surrender - Psalm 46:10
3. Confession - Temple Cleansing Time - Psalm 139:23
4. Scripture Praying - Word Enriched Prayer - Jeremiah 23:29
5. Watching - Develop Holy Awareness - Colossians 4:2
6. Intercession - Remember the World - 1 Timothy 2:1-2
7. Petition - Share Personal Needs - Matthew 7:7
8. Thanksgiving - Confess my Blessings - 1 Thessalonians 5:18
9. Singing - Worship in Song - Psalm 100:2
10. Mediation - Ponder Spiritual Themes - Joshua 1:8
11. Listening - Receive Spiritual Instruction - Ecc. 5:2
12. Praise - Recognize God's Nature - Psalm 52:9

It was such a wonderful way to focus our attention on God and Him as we began a new year. New Year's is always a time of new... new commitments, new ideas, fresh outlook. And we are so glad that we spent the first 2 hours of 2009 on our knees before the Lord. May we all continue to focus on HIM in 2009.