See Installments One and Two.

I didn’t think twice about where to begin overhauling our life. I knew that if my prayer life was not thriving, the rest of me wouldn’t, either. If our family is not rooted first and foremost in the Lord and His will, nothing else we do will bear true fruit or be worth our while, even the overhaul itself. If I was going to create a peaceful and prosperous home, I had to first be re-created by the Creator Himself.

I began with prayer, the most vital yet most easily neglected area of my life. When life becomes too hectic, guess what I always let slide first?

Prayer.

And that is so stupid.

I don’t know how many times the poor Lord will have to teach me this lesson: that I will literally fall apart if I am not leaning on Him every second of the day. In my heart there is a void that can only be filled by communion with the Lord and, when I let my life get too full of other stuff to devote that time to Him, I foolishly search for other ways to be filled which, as we all know, gets me nowhere fast. And I begin to believe that I can “do it all” on my own, by my own power, and by the strength of my own will. Then, it just takes a few bad days with the baby or a few too many deadlines or a few too little moments with Dave and I reach the end of my rope. I puncture holes in the well of my heart instead of building up its walls. When I neglect my Lord and my God, I fall flat on my face.

To sum it up, I needed (and still do!) to improve my spiritual life dramatically, and I wanted to focus on four main areas:

1. Beginning and ending each day with prayer
2. Prayer journaling
3. More face to face time with Jesus
4. Giving stuff away

Beginning and ending each day with prayer

This is something that used to be so simple for me; and then I had a baby. I miss starting my morning by peacefully reading Scripture over a cup of coffee and praying morning prayers, and ending my evening with spiritual reading from the saints and quiet reflection time. Now, having something so structured is a hilarious thought to me. I’ve really been learning how fruitful work as prayer can be, and i’ve gotten really good at (desperate) heart prayers throughout my day (read: Lord, have mercy. Jesus, help me. Ew, Lord, this diaper is rank. God, you’ve gotta help me out here!, and so on). I don’t discount my prayer throughout the day and throughout my work, but I was craving some more set time for my prayer. Maybe once George is little bit older and sleeping better, I’ll be able to return to that glorious routine of more formal, structured prayer. But I’ll take what I can get for now, and here’s what I’ve been aiming for during the crazy days with a baby:

Morning Prayer (usually prayed while nursing George once he gets up):

• Morning offering
• St. Michael prayer
• Heart prayers
• Blessed is She readings and devotion

Afternoon Prayer:

• Noon – Angelus
• 3 p.m. – Ideally I will pray the full Divine Mercy Chaplet, but that rarely happens. So I typically just pray the ending (“Jesus I trust in You, Jesus I trust in You, Jesus I trust in You”).

Evening Prayer (usually prayed once George is down and I’m drifting off to sleep …):

• Examination of Conscience
• Decade of the rosary (if I’m a lucky duck)
• Heart prayers with Dave
• St. Rita prayer (more on this in the new year!)

Like I said, this hardly ever works out perfectly, but it’s what I shoot for and most days, some of it happens. But I still have a looooooong way to go!

Prayer journaling

I’ve chatted with you all before about my desire to be a good journal-er, especially when it comes to prayer, but how I majorly lack in this area. When I sit down with a big notebook, full of empty pages, I get overwhelmed by what I could, or what I should be writing. My mind goes blank, and I end up giving up and just chatting with the Lord in my head, but most of the time, I don’t really dig in deep enough in my heart, you know? Let me explain this way: I process prayer best when I write, but I run from it because it can be uncomfortable or awkward for me.

Enter the Humbled Hearts Daybook.

I’ve been following Jillian on Insta for a while, and when she started sharing the deets about her new project, I swooned, because it looked just like an answer to prayer (ha). She sweetly sent me a Humbled Hearts Daybook and let me tell you, friends, it’s made a journal-er out of me. It’s set up to cover four months, and is broken down into sections like prayer requests, intentional living, and places to actually free-journal. I’ll be bringing you along my walk through the four months as I go, and I’ll share more specifics about how this journal is convicting me big time and pulling me closer to the Heart of Christ, but I wanted to go ahead and share that it has already benefited my prayer life in big, big ways.

*Special Note – If you’re seeing this on December 1, 2014, then you’re in luck! Jillian is hosting a Cyber Monday sale and you can get your Humbled Hearts Daybook at a discounted price today!*

Face to face time with the Lord

Next, we needed more of Jesus in the flesh in our life. We added a weekly holy hour which has been immensely fruitful for our deeper mediation, and I’ve been trying to bring George to weekday Mass once a week (although, it’s admittedly getting harder as he gets squirmier!). This time spent in the Eucharistic presence of Our Lord helps me get through the week. During our time of adoration, I journal (above!), read the writings of the saints, and just sit and look at Him. It’s my favorite part of the week, hands down, and I get cranky if I miss. Oh! Speaking of cranky …. I’ve been aiming to get to confession once a month as well; another thing that used to be routine B.G. (before George – but you already figured that out 😉 ).

Giving stuff away

Finally, we wanted to stretch ourselves spiritually by giving much of our stuff away. Inspired by 7 and our desire to live more simply, we started purging our entire home (we are still in the process of the purge). We will be selling some of it but giving the majority of it away. Having so much excess in our life was crowding our hearts. Since it’s Advent, I suppose it’s appropriate to draw the similarity of the inn in Bethlehem. If the inns of our hearts are crowded with things and disordered priorities, then we leave no room for Jesus when He knocks. We needed to clean out our inn, and that includes our material possessions as well. I’ll keep you posted with this area, too!

Ok, now it’s your turn! How do you maintain a thriving prayer life, especially throughout changing seasons of life? What’s your favorite way to pray? Have you found a prayer routine that works for you? Tell me below, give me some advice!