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Coloring/Doodling as Spiritual AND Religious Practice

July 23, 2015 by Sybil Macbeth 2 Comments Leave a Comment

With all of the excitement and hype about coloring books, I wanted to remind people about coloring, doodling, drawing, and PRAYER. Many of the reasons people like coloring books are the same reasons I started praying in color. Coloring relaxes, stills the monkey mind, and gives people time away from daily work and social media.

I started doodling my prayers by accident. In a summer doodling session on my screened-in porch, names started appearing in my doodles. They were the names of the people on my prayer list. My doodling had become my prayer. My take on the coloring/doodling process is that it gives my body something to do while I enter into prayer. My normal fidgety, restless body has something to do while I wait for prayer words to come or I wait for stillness. My prayers used to be a flurry of words, a few sentences shot with a bow toward God. Now I don’t insist on words. If they come, I’m grateful. If not, I know I have prayed because I have carved out a time to sit with God and given God the opportunity to enter my mind and my heart. Each line, each swirl, each stroke of color is a non-verbal prayer.

Collage Coloring Prayer 2015 resized

Coloring and doodling can be a spiritual practice, but I also think of it as a religious practice. It is a ritual I observe to worship God, offer my intercessions for others, name my gratitudes, and confess my sins/character defects. I do this on paper, in black and white and in color. With and without words. It is not just in my head but becomes a visual record of the things on my heart and a visual reminder for me to continue to pray. It is my prompt to “pray unceasingly.”

So while you are ordering your coloring books on Amazon or wherever, think about ordering one of these books to help you create your own prayer coloring books. The Portable Edition is a 2013 update of the original Praying in Color. It is about 1/4 new material.

praying-in-color-drawing-a-new-path-to-god-portable-edition-300dpi

PrayingInColorKidsEdition resized

 

 

 

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Coloring book Prayers, Coloring Books, Doodling and Prayer, Praying in Color:Drawing A New Path to God (Portable Edition), Praying in Color:Drawing A New Path to God--Kids' Edition, Visual Prayer

Heart Templates Coloring Page

July 20, 2015 by Sybil Macbeth 1 Comment Leave a Comment

I am not a hearts, flowers, or butterfly kind of woman. So I am surprised to notice how many times I have started my prayers with a large heart in the center of the page. Here are some ways I have used the heart templates:
1) For couples getting married
2) For friends struggling in their marriages or relationships
3) For celebration of anniversaries
4) For praying about my hardness of heart or the need for a change of heart
5) For friends with heart disease or friends having heart surgery
6) For resentments that threaten to damage my heart
7) For just about any issue in which loving or not loving takes center stage

These are prayers for two men with open heart surgery. Sometimes I write words like hope, recovery, release, healing…in the spaces. OR I might even write my concerns or fears.

Heart Collage Cropped
Here are two heart templates to download. Click on the jpg or pdf below the desired template. (Download before you print for best results.)

Heart Template Collage Cropped

                      jpg  OR    pdf                                                          jpg   OR   pdf

In the heart I’ll write the name of a person or a name for God. Then I’ll start to doodle or color. The coloring and doodling invite my body into the prayer and give the rest of me a time to settle. I don’t chase words away when I pray this way, I just don’t force words. Dumping everything on my mind into God’s ear is a good starting place. However, instead of just ending the prayer when the words run out, I keep drawing and coloring. This creates a prayer time and a prayer space. It gives me a way to stay with the prayer and not run as soon as I’ve had my say or am bored. It is often in the quiet, no-effort times that my real prayers come or that real listening happens.

Feel free to say words or write words while you color. Use the template in any way that enhances your prayer.

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Filed Under: Praying in Color Tagged With: Coloring book Prayers, Doodling and Prayer, Heart Template, Heart Template Prayer, Praying in Color

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