So, what do I mean by the "Alarm Method?" A few months ago I read an article written by Doug Apple about setting your cell phone alarm to remind you to pray for a specific purpose. Apparently, many folks in his church and around Tallahassee have set their alarms for 8:08 pm to remind them to pray for the lost. That sounded like a great idea, so being the joiner that I am I decided to join them.
Now every evening (usually during Dancing with the Stars or Survivor), my cell phone starts ringing. I even set it for a special ring so I would know it wasn't a phone call--it says "Hello Moto", then plays a little ditty, then says "Hello Moto" again, plays a little ditty, etc. I quickly found out the difference between an alarm and a normal call. With a regular call, the phone rings a few times then goes to voicemail. With an alarm this is not the case -- at least not on my dear phone. The alarm goes on and on and on...I haven't timed the exact length. (Please note: This can get VERY annoying!)
Last night I was in the middle of making meatloaf when the alarm started. My hands were covered with slimy meatloaf (I'm a firm believer in the hand mixing method for meatloaf) when I heard someone say "Hello Moto" from the pocket of my shorts. At first it startled me...not because someone was in my shorts...but because it just surprised me. At first it wasn't too bad...but then it kept going and going and going. Of course, with all the folks that 'could' have been there to help turn it off-- no one was available. So I listened to 'Hello Moto' quite a few times before I could get my hands clean and dry enough to turn it off!
Okay...talking about the actual 'sound' of the alarm was not my purpose for this post...but just another rabbit trail in my life!
Back to the purpose... Praying for the Lost. What does that mean to you? At first I found myself praying for all those lost souls K.P. Yohannon talks about in Asia. Then one night I thought about all those politicians I'm SURE couldn't possibly be saved. More recently, the Lord brought to my attention {again} that my neighbors aren't saved. There are even those from my own family yet to be saved...of course, I should be doing more than just 'praying' for them! My point is that 'the lost' are all around us and we all should be about the business of the Lord! But are we about that business, or hung up in our own little world letting missionaries handle all that? I certainly fall short in this area...but God is working on me!
After a few days of using the alarm to pray for the lost, I got the brilliant idea of setting an alarm to remember to pray specifically for my dd. I do pray other times for her...but I felt this was a great way to be proactive and specific.
Since she was born on 12/12 at 12:12 am I decided to set my alarm for 12:12 PM. Using the alarm to pray for the lost is effective, I know. But, I haven't really seen the fruit of that prayer (YET!). But I can tell you setting the alarm to pray for my dd started showing fruit(?) immediately! Seemed as soon as I started taking that time to pray specifically for her--she started jumping on every nerve in my body!!! She started being disrespectful, disobedient, lazy, etc. I felt like I was CONSTANTLY correcting her and I was getting tired of it! I kept praying and a funny thing happened. I found myself praying more for ME than SHE!
Turns out it wasn't really dd that needed a changed heart as much as it was the MOM that needed the changed heart --which in the scheme of things --affects the dd's heart! I was very close to this enlightenment when it was very clearly pointed out to me by a friend (who blasted me all over her blog!!! LOL!)
I'm happy to report, God is blessing this 'light bulb' moment. SHE seems to be behaving much better since the Lord is working much more efficiently in MY heart! I highly recommend the 'alarm' method -- but be warned -- it may start touching you much closer to home than you expected!
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Wow, that sure was wise advise you got from that blog. She must be Some Friend. I'm also glad to see that you're seeing improvement in your dd (not to be confused with dear dog.)
This was a sweet post. I didn't know my phone had an alarm. I'll have to check that out.
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