Hey’ y’all, let’s chat…Late last night, the beloved farmer and I watched an area weatherman announce positively giddy like that our humidity would be substantially lower today, which is why my weather app now says, “It’s 99 degrees but it feels like 102.”⁣

Only 102. Oh, joy. Perhaps I can explain the weatherman’s perspective with a cautionary tale about what Louisiana weather is like in August. ⁣

After a delicious combine lunch (sandwich on the go) with my darling yesterday, I headed home. Only, a story had come to mind (don’t they always), so I stopped to take a picture of what corn looks like when it’s ready to harvest— and a sweet reader who didn’t quite understand this life. The dear lady had driven through our area on vacation and wrote me the sweetest letter about her concern for all of our brown crops. She just knew the farmers were heartbroken.

Bless her. What the dear woman lacked in agricultural knowledge, she more than made up for in compassion and zeal.  I’ve lost touch with that woman over the years, but her story is retold around here most every harvest.

⁣I was driving off, having paused to take a few images, when my man called from the combine. “Get out and check under your car! We’ve had a grass fire.” And indeed, a glance in the rear view showed a plummet of gray smoke. The men had it under control, but Phil was concerned that it had originated under my vehicle. All was well. It had not. Seeing as how I had stayed on the turnroad the entire time, we’re thinking it was a spark from the combine. We remain grateful for what didn’t happen. We’ve seen what fire can do to a ready harvest and it’s not good. ⁣

⁣All that to say, these are our conditions, and it’s why weathermen around here celebrate humidity that would make my northern friends gasp. ⁣

⁣

 

Stay hydrated, folks! ⁣And seek the shade.  “The Lord watches over you, He is the shade at your right hand.” Psalm 121.5

And now, on to this week’s podcast episode. We’re on the third part of a series on Finding Margin for the Devotional Life. We’ve talked about finding margin in our days and we’ve discussed where to begin if you’re new to Bible Study– or, if you find yourself where I once was. You’ve tried to read the Bible but you just don’t enjoy it, and you wish you did. If you missed those episodes, I hope you’ll back up and catch them, but today we’ll be talking about How to Develop a Prayer Life from Scratch.

Honestly, it’s hard to know where to begin, but not for the reason you might think. I have plenty I can say on the subject! Prayer has become such a valuable way of life to me that I could easily go on and on—but therein lies the challenge. I don’t want to ramble. I want to be clear and concise so I can be of help to you instead of just one more voice in a world of non-stop noise.

In so many ways, I wish I could wrap up my prayer life and hand it to anyone who desires to walk with God. Hear me, I don’t believe it had to be as hard as it was or take as long as it did for me to learn how to enjoy prayer. But the fact remains, it was hard, and it didn’t happen overnight. And so, I pause to consider that journey, hoping to identify the obstacles that held me back, with the humble goal that I might make your road easier!

That said, I suddenly know just where to start! I just lowered my eyes and asked Holy Spirit to give me wisdom and help me get this right. And then, I almost giggled because this the most obvious prayer suggestion I could ever give you and yet, it’s a necessary step I was slow to recognize in my own prayer life, and one I could have forgotten to share. I’m so glad He nudged me to tell you. My first suggestion, when you go to prayer, is simply that.