Split Up the People You Pray for

Think of creative strategies for praying for people that will make it more manageable.

I have a lot of extended relatives. This is because both sets of grandparents in my family had numerous children. My dad has eight siblings. My mom has five. That's a lot of uncles and aunts. And most of them have children. This means I have a lot of cousins too. And yes, I received plenty of Christmas gifts as a kid.

I don't get to see these family members often because I live quite far away. But although I may not see them often, I've committed myself to praying for each of them by name. With me living so far away, prayer is one of the simplest but most meaningful gifts that I can give to them. I pray for each of these extended family members on a regular basis.

This could seem like a lot of people to pray for (and it is!). And so, I've come up with a simple strategy to help make praying for each of them more manageable for me and my time. Here's what I do: I simply assign each family to a particular day of the week. I pray for them when that day of the week arrives. For example, I pray for my dad's eldest brother on Mondays, including his wife, his children, and his children's families. I pray for my mom's youngest sister on Fridays. Each family gets a day of the week (some share a particular day since there are more families to pray for than days of the week). This allows me to get around to praying for each extended family member at least once a week. And it makes things a lot more manageable as I'm not having to pray for the entire clan in one sitting (that could take a while!).

If you have plenty of people to pray for, you might want to consider using some creative strategies to help make things more manageable for you. The last thing you want to do is burn yourself out because you did too much at one time. You don't want your times of prayer to be a stressful and dreadful experience. Instead, you want them to be enjoyable and meaningful. And so, it might be better to consider doing less at one time and spread it out over a number of days rather than trying to do it all in one sitting. Think of creative strategies for how to go about praying for people that will make things more manageable and enjoyable for you.

Barnabas the Monastic

Servant of Christ. Husband. Dad. Modern Monastic. I have a wild ambition in life: get as close to the Lord Jesus Christ as I can while on earth. I explore and integrate ancient Christian monk wisdom in modern everyday life. Lives in Canada.