Praying Together

     My roommate and I have been friends for a long time. We met in the summer of 2003 at a christian girl's summer camp. We were counselors together and made instant friends. We shared a love for that place, the spiritual lessons we'd learned there as kids and the excitment of getting to be the "leaders" as other young girls shared the experience we'd grown to love.

     The next summer we were not in the same cabin, but we remained good friends encouraging each other all summer long. That fall semester she moved to Stillwater to go to OSU while I finished my Sr. year in high school and we've been the best of friends ever since. We usually have attended the same church, served on a church staff together for about 2 years, and often go to the same bible studies/retreats/spiritual things of that nature.

     We've often talked about spiritual things together. We've seen each other in good times, bad times and just down right ugly moments of our own lives. As this school year began we decided to take some time each night to pray together.

     I'm not gonna lie, at first it was WAY awkward. Prayers were short and well thought-out, almost mechanical. I feel like we both dreaded it a little bit so we mentally prepared, "Ok, tonight I'm gonna pray for this, this and that." Spit it out and say amen so it's over. But as we are coming up on a month of spending some time praying together, we are much more comfortable praying out loud in front of each other.

     Last night we had one of the most sweet times in prayer I've ever experienced. We've both been reading/thinking/hoping/wanting/asking about a specific area of our life. And last night it was almost like we weren't even aware of the other one being in the room as we poured our hearts out to God. There were both chuckles and tears last night as we prayer for one another and even confessed our own secret shortfallings infront of one another.

     I was so encouraged to hear her heart as she talked with her saivor, and humbled to hear her pray over me so specifically. I'm so thankful God has given me a friend who will both lift me up and hold me accountable!