I’ve been thinking about prayer walking, especially since the first post on it. And because it is something Dan and I are going to begin teaching our kids this week on Spring Break.
These are not our kids
There are so many reasons prayer walking is close to my heart. There’s the time my friend and I walked by a blind man in Asia and he asked, “Who just walked by?” to the man next to him. Many people had been walking by him that day. What was it that was different when my friend and I walked by, praying to the God Who created Him? Was it just that he sensed people around him reacting differently to foreigners walking by? Or was it something more?
Or the time I got to meet a friend at her workplace and we covered her building and coworkers in prayer.
Or when we watched a campus that was previously closed open up to workers after prayer walking on it.
Or the feeling of worshiping He Who is worthy in a place where He is not.
But mostly? I love watching people. Making eye contact, even briefly. Wondering what challenges and fears and wounds they have. Making that human connection. Then lifting them up to the One Who knows.
And that is one of the ways Dan and I fell in love so long ago; looking into the eyes of others and praying for them. It’s the reason I want to teach my children how to prayer walk. Because first it will be super awkward. They won’t know what to do or how to stay focused. It will feel forced.
But just like anything else, it will become easier. Soon it will be natural. They won’t even think about it. As they walk in school or the mall or down the street, it will be more and more their instinct to talk to God and lift up others.
I’d love to hear any prayer walking stories you have! Or I’m-afraid-this-will-be-awkward comments.