Susan from Indiana wrote to me with some creative Praying in Color ideas and gave me permission to share them. Here are Susan’s ideas. Thank you!

1. As I read scripture, I either search online for a passage that is of a specific topic, or I just start reading until something goes “aha!”  I copy and paste scripture, choose a suitable font/color and print it out.  I then cut it out and paste it to my PIC page.  I pray that scripture and as the spirit brings thoughts to my mind, I start doodling.  I usually start with a specific need or person, but many times it is more of a worship/learning exercise.  I’ve noticed two things:  I am memorizing more scripture and I”m digging deeper into translations and word studies.

Also I’ve always loved geometric designs and they appear often in my prayers.  I’ve started using some tools that really work for me–a t-square, a triangle and a nifty little template.

This is an idea my husband Andy and I mention in our upcoming book Praying in Black & White: A Hands-On Practice for Men (or anyone who is afraid of color and artsy stuff). The new book comes out in the late fall.

Here is Susan’s cool geometric drawing/prayer and her tools:

2. I take a lot of photos and I’d thought about using some with my prayer pages. I selected several of the people I pray for regularly and printed out a contact sheet.  These are about the size of postage stamps.  I then cut them out and the first one I experimented with was for my sister who had knee surgery. I had taken a picture of her leg and then I searched my folders for a picture of her and one of her and her husband.

Here is Susan’s picture prayer. Combining a picture with doodling is a great way to pray with children, especially when the children are too young to write names or words on their own.