Prayer Triggers

I first heard of this concept in a magazine article. The author said she prayed for her brother every day when she was brushing her teeth. This made sense to me-- using everyday things in life to remind me to pray for those I care about. I need help remembering to do stuff, so I started incorporating these prayer triggers right away.

One of the funnier ones was a shared love of Howard Jones with my friend Mary. I made a promise to her that I would pray for her whenever I heard a HoJo song. (With my love of 80's music, this is more often than you might think.) Yesterday one came on the radio and, as I listened to the words of "Things Can Only Get Better" I was struck by how poignant this particular prayer trigger was. Mary's daughter has been in the hospital with something going on that is eluding the doctors. Mary has just returned from Haiti and was exhausted before her daughter got sick. And Mary has a new book debuting. Yeah, things need to only get better for my friend.

So I prayed for Mary-- thanks to HoJo, who will never know that he reminds me to pray for a long-distance friend via his 80's pop songs. I am glad to have reminders to pray for others woven into my daily life. Maybe you'd like to incorporate some silly and serious reminders in your own day-to-day activities, things that trigger a prayer in response, the best kind of reflex.