A Prayer for My Camper

I promised Macy I would pray for her every single day while she was gone. And so, I hope to utter this prayer and many others like it throughout the week. Please join me in praying this prayer (or a better one of your own) for my camper or your camper or any other campers throughout the world who need our prayer support.

Lord, thank you from the bottom of my heart for the gift of a Christian camp for my daughter. In continuing to read about Tapawingo this morning, and specifically some of the staff there, I am overwhelmed with joy to think of the experience Macy will have there this week. What a blessing and privilege to be surrounded by so many people whose primary purpose in life is to know you, serve you, and love others as you commanded!

I pray this morning for each and every staff member, volunteer, and worker of any kind associated with this camp this summer. Lord, infuse them through and through with your strength and grace. Give them supernatural amounts of energy and patience. Surround them with love and encouragement, and prepare them well for whatever interactions they might have with the young ladies in their care. By your grace, may the fruits of the spirit spill out of them all day every day as they seek to represent Christ well. BUT, oh Lord, may they cling tightly to you in full understanding that the ability to do any of these things comes only from you. Help them not to find themselves exhausted and striving under their own strength, but to continue to rush to you for refreshment and uplifting.

For Macy--I don't think my heart has stopped praying since we first started packing. Scattered thoughts throughout each day of all the ways we need you, Father, to be close to both of our hearts while we are away from each other. Mainly, it seems like I keep coming back to these 6 overarching ideas:

SAFETY and HEALTH: Father, please put a hedge of protection around Macy all week long. Keep her safe as she tries all kinds of new adventures. Keep her healthy and hydrated and feeling energetic as her days will be filled with activity, and help her to rest well every night.

COMFORT and SECURITY: Lord, I know that I don't have to ask you to *be* near, because you already are, so instead, I am asking that you will help us to *feel* you near. Help Macy to sense your presence in a way that she has never before experienced. Bring her such a sweet comfort and such a solid security in your embrace that she will not have a single moment of homesickness. Lord, may she believe with all of her heart (maybe even in a way that she doesn't fully understand just yet) that she is right where she belongs and that you are holding her firmly in your arms all week long.

FUN and JOY: Father, boldly and without hesitation, I ask you to make this one of the most fun weeks of Macy's entire life. Help her heart to overflow with joy throughout each day, and help me to somehow feel her sweet giggle in my heart across the miles. Surround her with people who make her laugh enthusiastically and often, and enter her into experiences that flood her heart with sheer delight. And as she bounces through each day with joy and then grins and giggles herself to sleep each night, remind her, Lord, that these gifts come straight from you.

RELATIONSHIPS: Thank you so much, Lord, that Macy has one of her dearest friends (sweet Miss Rebekah) right there by her side this week. My heart worries so much less than if she were there "alone" for her very first camp experience. But I do pray, Father, for an abundance of new relationships, many of which will develop into lifelong friendships. What a brilliant and special grace to have friends across the globe who feel just like sisters because of our bond in Christ. I pray that you will begin to build many of those relationships for Macy and her fellow campers this week. May they find in each other great fun, companionship and encouragement immediately, but may these relationships blossom into sisterhoods of honesty and accountability--young ladies who will pray for each other and sharpen each other across miles and throughout their lives no matter how they might scatter geographically. Lord, build a support system that will last a lifetime.

A GRATEFUL HEART: Father, I ask that even as Macy's days are filled with activity, you would give her moments of stillness in her heart to embrace gratitude. Help her to see the grandeur of the mountains and the lake surrounding her and recognize you as Creator and Mighty El-Shaddai. Help her to sense your presence embracing her and recognize you as Comforter and tender Jehovah-Rohi. Help her to enjoy treats and activities throughout the week and recognize you as lavish Jehovah-Jireh. She may not know the terms, but certainly she can understand the concepts. Speak these truths directly to her heart, and help her to recognize them as your voice. Help all temptations toward selfishness or entitlement to fall away so that she might linger in a state of constant praise and thanksgiving for all that you have done, are doing, and will continue to do in her life.

A CLOSER WALK WITH YOU: More than anything else, I pray that this week will decidedly impact Macy's walk with you, Lord. Strengthen and deepen her commitment to you. Refresh her in ways a 12-year-old doesn't yet realize she needs refreshment. Help her to understand more clearly her utter need for you due to her brokenness and sinful nature, but engrave onto her heart deeply and permanently a striking confidence in your finished work on the cross, which repairs and re-creates to better than new. Father, may she learn to cling to you in ways she's never before experienced. Help her to understand the weight of her sin, but never to live under condemnation. Help her to know that Romans 7 applies to every single one of us, but help her to bask in the glow of Romans 8, knowing that we are free from the law because of Christ. Give her fresh understanding and new appreciation for her justification, and may all that she learns throughout the week stimulate her sanctification. Quicken her heart toward your truth several times each day, and help this week to inspire a love of Christ and the Gospel that will impact her for the rest of her life.

I pray all of these things with a confident and grateful heart. Thank you for the grace to do so. Amen.