Over the past few years, I have pondered what to “give up” for the season of Lent.  There was one year in college where I tried to give up chocolate for 4o days.  I didn’t want to tell people about it, so when a St. Patrick’s Day care package arrived from my mom with the cutest chocolate leprechaun, all bets were off.  Then, I felt extremely guilty I “failed.”  Now, I take a more flexible approach to Lent.  I want to make an effort to sacrifice and reflect and meditate as the days lead up to Easter.  This year, Lent begins on February 14th.  (There’s a great article on the Dayspring website here that talks about Lent and Valentine’s day.)

Why?

Have you heard of Powersheets before?  They were created by Lara Casey and her team at Cultivate What Matters.  It’s a goal setting planner.  On one of my favorite pages, we are called to list what we need to say “no” to in life, and what we need to say “yes” to more often.

Lately, I find myself sucked into the world of social media.  Partly, I use it for Creative Faith and to connect with wonderful women in the Bible journaling community, but I also get in this crazy habit of just scrolling.  When I’m bored or procrastinating, I begin to scroll.  It sucks time away from more life-giving activities I could be doing, like journaling, reading, exercising, creating, etc.

In 2016, my word of the year was pray.  God brought me so much closer to Him through prayer journaling and dedicating time to conversing with Him.  Although I pray throughout my day, I don’t often pause to begin my day and fall on my knees in conversation with the Lord.  I want to spend the next 40 days sacrificing a bit of sleep/scrolling on Instagram time cultivating a habit of hanging out with God more.

The Prayer Calendar

Sometimes we can be at a loss of what to pray about daily, so I thought making a prayer calendar with different topic ideas might help.

I created two different prayer calendars.  They have the same topics for each day, but one is floral and the other is plain.  The plain one you could add your own background to using watercolors, or colored pencils.  I plan on printing them two to a page, and then coloring in each box after I pray for that topic of the day.

Click the links below to download a copy to use!

Creative Faith Lent Freebie 2018 – topical prayer calendar plain

Creative Faith Lent Freebie 2018 – topical prayer calendar floral

Cuaresma 2018 – calendario de oracion con flores

Cuaresma 2018 – calendario de oracion

Join Me!

As an incentive, I will have a giveaway for those who complete the task.  If you print off your calendar, and pray for the daily topics, and send me a picture or post a picture on Instagram and tag me (@creativefaithco) at the end of Lent, on Thursday, March 29th of your completed calendar, you’ll be entered to win!  What’s the prize?  I’m still praying about that, but I do know it will be epic.  Yes, I am sure people could just print off the calendar and color in the spaces and enter last minute, but that guilt and conviction is between you and the Lord. 

Be sure to pick up a Creative Faith prayer journal from the Etsy store here.  And stay tuned for an article on this blog about how prayer journaling changed my life.

I would love to know in the comments below, have you tried prayer journaling before?  What questions do you have about prayer journaling?  Are you joining us in the challenge?

The post Freebie: Prayer Calendar for Lent appeared first on Creative Faith and Co.

Each page has an image with an inspirational phrase.  Its compact size (8.5 x 5.25 inches) is perfect for traveling.  The pages are thick, and it comes with a cardstock cover.  The backside of each page is blank, perfect for journaling or decorating how you please.

Check out the Etsy page here to see more pictures and information.

Let us know in the comments below if you would like to see more products like this one!

The post Cactus Coloring Book! appeared first on Creative Faith and Co.