The Prayer Locket Story
Many many years ago my husband Jeff and I were shopping in Kohl’s department store. In the jewelry section, a prayer locket necklace caught my eye. At this point in my life I was a type A control freak who allowed worries to run the gambit of my mind. The idea of taking my worries, my prayers, and placing them in this locket close to my heart and “giving them up to God” appealed to me. I don’t recall how long it took before I noted that a pattern emerged. One day I would find my prayer locket open, the slip of prayer gone, and soon after I would discover that my prayer had been answered in one way or another. Soon I was sharing this mystery with close friends and family. What started as a way for me to offer my own prayers to God soon transformed into friends and family calling on me to pray for them through the prayer locket. I would let friends and family know when the locket had opened and soon they would let me know that their prayer had been answered.
One of the most concrete examples of this was with a close friend whose husband was interviewing for a job out of town. My friend asked me to put a prayer in the locket. I asked her what to pray for. She was torn knowing that her husband desperately wanted a new job, but not wanting the family to have to move. I placed the prayer that whatever was ultimately best for the family come to pass. My friend and I were talking and she pointed to my prayer locket noting that it was open. She asked what prayer had been inside. I told her “You know what prayer.” Within a minute the phone rang and she answered it. It was her husband, he had just gotten the call that he did not get the job. She immediately told him the story of the locket. A short while later a better local job became available and her husband was able to move into a better position.
This past year I went through the Called and Gifted program that helps us discover the unique gifts God gives to us to help bring his loving healing presence present to others. One of those charismatic gifts is intercessory prayer. Suddenly the light bulbs lit, and it all fell into place for me. This was one of my special callings, to pray for others. We are of course all called to this, but those of us that receive this gift are called in a more extraordinary way with many extraordinary results. I have titled this blog Prayer Locket Ministries in honor of the first unique gift that God gave to me. Please know that I will pray for all the people drawn to my posts. Prayer has become for me much more than a check box activity, it is part of a mission now.