Prayer
My mother has been praying for me and my friends for as long as I can remember. In the mornings on the way to school, she would pray for my day and if we saw a friend walking from the bus or train, we'd pick them up, and she would take their prayer request and pray for them in the car ride to school. As I prepared to get out of the car each morning, we had a call and response that started with her saying to me, "Walk with the King and be a blessing." And then I would reply, "Salt and light," which meant that I was committing to being salt to the earth and light to the world.
I arranged to have my mom' take some new headshots and I snuck into some of them.
My mother is 73 now. While nowhere near ready for retirement, she's not doing the same work she did when I was younger. She stays busy teaching communications classes for DC government employees, volunteering at her church, and working on any number of projects that either allow her to use her talent for broadcast journalism or spreading Jesus' word. No matter what she's up to, she has never stopped praying.
Everyone calls my mom Ms. Doris, even at my big ole' age. And, all of my friends know that if they have a need for prayer, they can always call Ms. Doris. My mother prays in the morning with different prayer partners throughout the week. When she's not praying with them, she's praying with her pen by way of journaling. She also writes the praise reports that people call to share with her after God has answered one of their prayers.
Just a month ago, I was speaking with a friend who knows my mom but doesn't have the same faith as her. She was telling me that my mom prayed for a physical ailment she was having last year that she was miraculously healed from. She said she was calling my mom back for prayer about a new physical issue that she was dealing with
…and that's when the light went off in my head.
If people who don't believe in Jesus the way my mother does go to her for prayer, she has a gift that needs to be shared with more people.
In her restlessness to always be working on something, my aha moment was to start a podcast for her that allows her to do what she has been doing my whole life…pray. Given her career as a television journalist and her passion for prayer, I really felt like I struck gold with this idea.
The podcast is called Let's Pray with Ms. Doris and I can't wait for it to launch.
Once it's live, you'll be hearing Ms. Doris share a short inspirational message with listeners and then she'll be praying for people who send in their prayer requests. As the show progresses, she'll also be sharing their praise reports. This is what she has been doing my whole life and now she gets to bring her expertise as a radio and television talent to the airwaves doing something that she does every day.
A snuck a picture of us recording her first episode with our producer Isa of IsaMedia.
I've always wanted to do a podcast with my mother…like since I worked at Brooklyn Children's Museum and I was pregnant with Zadie. But, I lacked the knowhow, wherewithal, and project clarity to get something going. When this idea hit me, I ran with it even though I have zero bandwidth for yet another thing. It has already brought my mom so much joy working on it and we're just getting started.
Yesterday in church, the sermon was about prayer and about how our answered prayers are better than our requests. Often our requests are material or transactional and miss the bigger plan God has for us. When Ms. Doris prays, she prays for God's will to be done and the result is often more amazing than we could have imagined.
If you have a prayer request, I hope you'll send it to letspray8810[at]gmail.com so that she can pray for you, too. Nothing would give her more joy than to be able to intercede on your behalf.
Petrushka
Your Local Ice Cream Lady & Life/Business Coach