New Year's Eve Prayer Box

I really thought that this was a beautiful idea! I am going to try to implement this with my family this year.

Jill Novak has many wonderful ideas. You can check out here blog here. I am going to include here what she shares about the Prayer Box:

We have some fun traditions that we celebrate on New Year's Eve. We usually buy all kinds of finger foods and make a holiday smorgasbord like my mother prepared every Christmas Eve when I was a child. After we eat, we gather in the living room to act out a play. This is really fun because we run around the house looking for the right props and costumes that we need. All of this is done at the last minute, but the memories of our spontaneous plays are precious.

Later in the evening, we roll up the living room rug and haul out the old Magnavox record player (it’s the only thing that plays 78’s). We dance to all kinds of celebratory music: square dances, John Philip Sousa marches, the Best of Dixieland Band, the original Sons of the Pioneers, and whatever else tickles our fancy.

Finally around 11:00p.m., I bring out a special prayer box wrapped in gold paper and tied with a simple bow. We all settle down with pen and paper and write out our prayers for the following year. After we’re done writing, we place our prayers in the box, to be left unopened until the following New Year’s Eve. Then we read the prayers that we wrote on the previous New Year’s Eve. It’s a very moving time as we see how faithfully God has answered our requests. It's amazing to see His hand and how He fulfils the desires of our hearts. No, He doesn't answer every prayer in the way we think He will, but we have seen Him answer the majority of them in ways that are always better.

Every year we stand in awe of how the Lord has arranged circumstances or delivered somebody from a habit they were trying to break. It’s also interesting to see how we parents have to work with The Lord to make some of our children’s prayers come true (I know what Anna’s are because I write her prayers down).

If you're looking for a way to teach your children about the power of prayer, and a way to impress upon them how personal and loving their heavenly Father is, I encourage you to start the New Year’s Eve prayer box tradition. It really takes the burden off of having expectations and goals that we have to fulfill for the New Year and puts them in the heavenly court where God can work miracles. It just takes a little faith to wait on Him. But remember, the prayers cannot be read for a whole year… and you’re not allowed to peek!