Evening Review

I’m a practical sort of person. Perhaps that’s why I had such a difficult time with student teaching. While my advisory teachers were content to have me just present a lesson for their review, I felt compelled to really teach the students something.

So as a follow-up to my previous post, God With Us, I felt compelled to share how God is helping me put this into practice.

Lately I’ve started looking back over my day before I go to sleep, and ask God to help me be aware of his presence throughout that day. It’s not always easy to be aware of his presence when I’m in the midst of things, but when I think about it after the fact, it becomes very clear to me. It’s kind of like reminiscing about an evening with a friend – while you’re with them, you’re not thinking about how much you appreciate them. But later on you start thinking about what a good friend they are.

This is not an original idea – it’s something I’ve come across in my reading recently, and there are many ways of doing this. There are whole books on the subject, I'm sure, but I'm a "keep it simple" kind of girl. I don’t write anything down, and it’s not necessarily meant to be a time of thanksgiving or praise – just seeking to be aware of God’s presence. But I always end up thanking him and praising him!

I find it not only helps me be a little more aware of his presence and working in my life the next day, it helps form my prayers, both for myself and for others. It’s making my relationship with God more of a reality than a formality. When I think about it – perhaps this equates to the “listening” part of prayer. You know, that conversation we’re supposed to be having with God that usually ends up being pretty one-sided!

I only share this because many of you left comments on my previous post indicating that you were also challenged to become more aware of God’s presence throughout this Christmas season. If you’re finding other ways to do that, I’d love for you to share them in the comments!