Prayer Shawl

Prayer Shawl
Originally uploaded by lvg4him

My FIL got cancer over ten years ago now. It is amazing to think he was only given 6 months to live. He went through radiation, or chemo ... one of the two. And he was constantly cold. I wish I had know about prayer shawls back then. Of course, I did not even know how to crochet then! :D

A prayer shawl is a shawl that is either knitted or crocheted with a certain person in mind. With each stitch, every time you work on the shawl, you are praying for that person. It could be a recent widow, a mother whose child is dying in the hospital, a recent graduate off to college, or, as in this cute pink and white shawl, for a friend dying of cancer.

I will admit that I started out making this shawl for myself. I was so excited to finally have a shawl that I was going to keep. But as I was making this shawl (and the pattern is for a prayer shawl), God kept bringing a certain friend to mind.

And this shawl is SO HER! very pink and cream and Victorian all over. So as I continued to work, this shawl became hers. I cannot wait to present it to her. And it will all be done in secret! (Thankfully she does not read my blog!)

My daughters cannot understand that quite yet. That when we do something good, that we need to not tell our left hand what our right hand is doing. I am constantly reminding them that there are two types of rewards. One is instant and brings glory to ourselves. It is an earthly reward. The other takes much longer to receive. It brings glory only to God. It is a heavenly reward. I then ask them to consider which reward they want to work towards. Of course they also hang their hand and say "a heavenly one." I have to laugh and tell them that God wants a CHEERFUL giver. Better for them not to give at all if they are going to sulk about it.

But over time, they are learning. It is a hard lesson. And even harder to constantly do. Even Momma likes her earthly praise sometimes. :D

Lion Brand has Ready Made Cards that you can send with your shawl.

I will be including a bookmark (she is an avid reader), which explains what a prayer shawl is and let her know that she is being prayed for. I have included a link here to the bookmark.

All I ask is that you PLEASE do NOT sell the bookmark or distribute it. Please share the link that they can download it from this site. Thank you. You have permission to print it out for personal use (like attaching to prayer shawls).

Click here to goto the image, and for instructions on how to download it.