Checking In - How Are You?

Hello! Welcome back to BreeAshley!

I want to check in with you. How are you really? How is your overall wellness? How has your mental health been? How is your physical health? Life right now is hard. We all are dealing with life in different ways. I think it is very important to check on your friends and family. If I can ask for you to do something for me real fast; grab a pen and paper. Physically answer the questions I asked you. Take 2 minutes for yourself and answer them. 

Now that you did, how do you feel about your answers? To let you know how mine made me feel, it made me feel down and sad. We go through life running and pushing. We all have extremely busy schedules. We are in a world where there is no silence. Especially if you live in a city or town. You know when people come up to you and make small talk. It's the "how are you?' 'oh, I am good. How are you?' 'So am I,". We all say the the bare minimum to others in passing just to seem like we are interested in them. I wish this could change. I hate that we are so busy that we cannot even take 2 minutes to really care about others. 

One Sunday, I was at church and before we started the sermon, the pastor had us do something. It made me so uncomfortable but when I did it, it was such an amazing moment. Let me give you a back story. The pastor just got back from church camp with a bunch of people. He said they did this at church camp and wanted to show us what they did. The pastor got up on the stage and told us to look around the room. He told us to pick a random person in the room, even if you do not know their name. Take the image of the person and pray for them. We had a few minutes of silence while we all prayed. He said that, you do not need to know what is going on their life to pray for them. He wants us to be sincere with our prayer. Once those minutes were up, he had us stand up. (At this moment I knew what was about about to happen, I did not want him to say the words.) He told us to go and physically find that person and all you have to say is "I prayed for you" and then go sit back down. You do not have to introduce yourself or give them your life story. Just those 4 simple words. So I did, I went and told this person I prayed for them. 

Now imagine, this whole church got up and started to search for their prayer person. When I say, traffic jams and chaos that was it. I was sitting in the very back (we got to church late and that was the only seat left) I was able to see what was happening in church. Something was happening that no words could describe. The smiles, the hugs, and love in that room was bigger than I have ever seen. I am so thankful that I went to that church service. That made a difference in my life. I tell you all this story because I think all of us need to do this in our personal lives. It does not have to be that bold where you are in a crowd and you walk up to a random person. I am talking about a friend, family, coworker. It could be anyone and just pray for them. It does not need to be a long prayer but once you do that, I encourage you to go tell them. We all deserve to be prayed for and cared for. We all deserve to be checked on. 

Prayer can be scary or intimating to people, it was to me. Sometimes it can still be overwhelming. That is normal and it is okay to feel this way. Someone told me that prayer is just a conversation. It can be 5 words, it can be a full paragraph.  It can be what ever you feel like doing that day. It can be a song or a journal. Prayer can be a very powerful tool and resource. Prayer can give you peace when you most need it. Prayer can give you the extra strength. Prayer can help you feel protected. Prayer can be as simple as a smile. Prayer can be as simple as making a mental note. 

This next week, I encourage you to start with one person. Pray for them and then go and tell them. Who knows, maybe that person needed that extra strength or encouragement to move forward. This is my goal for this next week. I am right with you on the uncomfortable feeling. This is completely out of my comfort bubble. Take 2 minutes out of your busy schedule and do this. I think when you do this, you will notice something happening within yourself as well. 

Friends, I care for you. I know that life is hard. I know that this world is scary and overwhelming. I full heartedly believe that if we start taking time for ourselves by praying for others, you will start to feel and see a difference in your own life. I know that this is a different perspective than we normally see but try it. Please let me know if you have any prayer requests or just need to talk. 

    Just pray about it. Be real. Be honest. Be you.