I like color and design. I am not particularly good at it, but I like it. There is something pleasing about seeing a design come together and then adding in the color.
Growing up, I used to draw these random patterns and then color them. And for some reason I really liked colored pencils rather than crayons or markers. (Of course markers came later in life.)
Oddly, now I find doodling with words as you may have guessed with the blog’s title of ‘Susandoodles.’ Using words can sometimes be challenging as the idea just escapes capture. One can sit down with a pencil and doodle until something develops, but words do not always do that.
Maybe that is one of the reasons I used stream of conscience writing exercises in my classroom. I would have students just start writing whatever came into their mind and I would time them. They earned points based on how many words or lines they could fill in the time allowed.
So today, I am word doodling. My last two weeks have been overflowing with new ideas, continued Bible study, presentations and training.
I have covered Song of Solomon, finished the gospel of John, and now starting I and II Samuel and Ephesians.
And I was fortunate enough to attend a presentation by Sue Nilson Kibby on her specialty, breakthrough prayer. Inspiring.
The truth is that I feel like I am filled to the brim and overflowing with ideas about how God is alive in our lives each and every day, every hour, every moment. We literally doodle our thoughts into a prayer life with God and we may not even consciously realize how close he is.
The one hiccup in my conscious awareness of God’s presence in my life is hearing God speaking to me.
Really the hiccup is that I get so busy with my earthly life that I do not allow quiet time to listen to God. Why can’t I accept what I hear as God really talking to me?
I suspect the problem is trusting what I hear. Even though prayer can become a 24-hour, 7-days a week process, we forget that God is listening at all times. He knows our thoughts.
Does that mean that when we have bad thoughts, mean thoughts, or angry thoughts that those are prayers that God hears, too? Hmmm.
And that is what happens when my word doodling or stream of conscious style of writing takes me to a conundrum. Prayer is conversing with God. And I must now take all that I read, study and learn; and work consciously to develop my prayer life to be more effective.
See, word doodling/stream of consciousness sometimes is necessary to sort out what all is flooding the brain. The next few weeks I have much to do. We are beginning a new small group ministry, First Conversations, at church, I have my personal Bible study to complete, and more.
Prayer is essential, and I invite you to join me as I journey through the various readings and conversations as I work to improve my own prayer practices.
Please join me in prayer:
Lord, guide me with my words.
Lord, may my words be your words.
Lord, let others hear you through the words I doodle.
Susandoodles Weblog 