January 2021 – Creative Prayer Coach

In 2020, I started a new hobby, collecting pictures of signs designed to change pet/owner behavior. It all started in March, which was a strange and terrible time. Everything in our community was shutdown. Our city looked like a ghost town. How do I know? My husband and I drove around every day for an hour or more, praying over our community. It was depressing and scary. I pleaded with God to lighten the mood and give us hope.

He answered me through a tiny sign planted in the gravel of someone’s yard. We drove by before I realized what I was seeing. I started laughing and told my husband to back-up so I could take a picture.

I honestly didn’t stage the picture – what you see is exactly what I saw. It probably appealed to me because I love fourth-grade toilet humor. My dad was a plumbing wholesale manufacturer’s representative, who kept me laughing with tall tales regarding bodily functions and the various items we use for disposal. Anyway, the picture of that little four-inch sign still makes me chuckle, but it also started me on a quest to find as many of that type of signage as possible.

I’ve assembled an impressive collection in the past ten months. Some are scary or angry, and some spout legalese, which doesn’t seem to be factual, according to my research. Others are cute or funny. God has been using these signs like a flashing light to get me to pray for the people’s hearts on both sides of those signs. They remind me to be civil and respectful and to have respect for others. The signs also remind me to ask for God’s help to be loving and kind when I feel disrespected.

The humor in my latest finds found five feet from each other, point out the absurdity of our expectations sometimes, and reminds us to laugh at ourselves.

I appreciate that God uses my quirky hobby to remind me of bigger concepts. I’m curious. Do you have any odd hobbies that God uses in your life? Do you ever think God has a strange sense of humor? What makes you smile when you are feeling blue? Where are you finding God-smiles in the middle of the physical and mental drama going on around us?

If you can’t answer any of those questions, ask God to lighten your mood and give you hope. Then let me know how He answers.

I’m praying for wide-open eyes for you to see the small things that will make you smile.

Andrea Sanger

On Christmas Day, I met a goal I’ve been working toward for a long time. I finished the first draft of my memoir. The 486 double-spaced pages with wide margins mean I have a lot of revising and editing ahead of me.

The point of telling you this isn’t so you’ll be impressed with the number of words or pages, but to celebrate a step in a long-term dream of being a published author.

Along the way, I’ve learned a lot.

First, I’m thankful for all the teachers who encouraged my love of the written word. I’m terribly sorry I didn’t listen more closely when they were trying to teach me the grammar rules.

Second, I’m glad I’ve kept a journal, calendars with notes, photo albums with captions, and other tidbits. I couldn’t have gotten this far without all the junk stashed in boxes.

Third, although writing looks like a solitary endeavor, it never is.

Imagine my husband having to deal with me being angry over the past. He never knew if it was something he did today or an incident from twenty years ago, as I processed those moments to write them with genuine feeling.

I also have a fantastic friend who reads all my junky writing and cleans it up, so I can share it with my writing group that pushes me to be the writer I dream I will be someday.

Fourth, and I think the most important – none of this would have happened without God’s intervention. I’m still not sure anyone will want to read what I’ve written, but that doesn’t matter. The process has been a study in following the leading of God. Over the past twenty-five years, God has prompted people to tell me to write a book. I kept demurring, but God kept nudging me with the idea that I needed to write, write, write. It was quite annoying.

Then on November 16^th, 2020, I felt God challenge me to 40-days of sacrificial writing. The concept was to write every day no matter what I felt like or what excuse I could conger up. I wrote fifty-two scenes amounting to a little over 50,000 words. The challenge proved to me I can do anything that God wants me to do, even if I think it’s impossible or I’m not feeling it. I sensed Him sitting in the room with me, cheering me on at 11:30 pm when I wanted to be in bed. “Just a little more, you can do it!”

So, whatever dream or heart’s desire you’ve put on a shelf for another day, I want to say God is waiting for you. He wants to come alongside you with encouragement and vision for that completed project. Please let Him help you. It’s worth it. The sense of accomplishment is fantastic – even if nobody else will appreciate what you’ve done, you’ll know, and your connection with God will grow.

I’m praying that many dreams and visions will come into the light through you!

Andrea Sanger