Ida Bell

Today on Westside Stories, Westside member Ida Bell to discuss how prayer has completely permeated her life. From her head to her toes, from finger to finger of her petite five-foot-nothing wingspan, if you are sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, you want Ida Bell sitting next to you in the passenger seat. She oozes patience, gentleness, and kindness. And where does her sweet, lovely personality come from? Talking with God, minute by minute, hour by hour. If you want to smell like Jesus, take a page from Ida's book.

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Anne Henegar:

Hey, I'm Anne Henninger and I'm here with my husband, Walter.

Walter Henegar:

Hi.

Anne Henegar:

And our friend, Ida Bell.

Ida Bell:

Hello.

Anne Henegar:

Ida, how long have we known each other?

Ida Bell:

Oh my goodness. Probably over 20-

Walter Henegar:

30 years?

Ida Bell:

30? Ooh.

Anne Henegar:

Do you remember praying with my friend Hannah?

Ida Bell:

Hannah.

Anne Henegar:

I was in college with this friend Hannah and her mother, Judy would be in a prayer group with Ida. And I remember you told me that you were praying for me before you even met me because you were praying for Hannah to have a friend and I was that friend.

Ida Bell:

Yes.

Anne Henegar:

So today we're going to talk about prayer and I was just thinking we started our friendship over prayer.

Ida Bell:

We sure did.

Walter Henegar:

Wait, and we can't forget to mention that when we were in seminary and looking at jobs and we interviewed for me to be an assistant pastor at Christchurch here in Atlanta, Jim and Ida were our hosts, served there together for many years, and then now we're all here at Westside together.

Ida Bell:

Isn't that wonderful?

Walter Henegar:

What a gift.

Anne Henegar:

God writes great stories.

Ida Bell:

Yes, he does.

Anne Henegar:

Can you tell us a little bit about how this story about prayer got started with your family?

Ida Bell:

I have 11 grandchildren. I started asking myself, what can I do as a grandmother to be a valuable influence in their lives? And I think the Holy Spirit is the one that gives me ideas. I don't know where the idea for having prayer cards came from. I didn't hear about it at a talk. I didn't read about it in a book or a magazine. I wanted my grandchildren to know that there is a God who loves them, a personal God who loves them and cares about them, who hears their prayers and answers their prayers. So that's where the idea for the prayer cards came.

Anne Henegar:

Explain what a prayer card is.

Ida Bell:

When I get all my grandchildren together, this is how we started. I told them that I wanted them to learn about prayer and that God really cared what we thought and our thoughts and desires. And so would everybody please write down on a little card, three by five card, a prayer request that they had. And it didn't have to be a spiritual one. It could be about being on the soccer team or the baseball team or making good grades in school. I wanted it to be something that was honest and that was something that they would know if God answered the prayer or not. And they would also know how God answered the prayer. And if He said yes or no, or I have another idea, or whatever it might be.

We started 10 years ago and I gave everybody a 3 by 5 card to write down their prayer requests. And I put them all together on a piece of card stock so that the prayer requests were on the front and back and they could stick that in their Bible or devotion book. And I always printed it on a bright color so it wouldn't get lost and it would be easy to keep up with. So all the cousins started praying for each other. And in the beginning we even had the moms and dads on there, but that was just sort of to get started so that the kids would know that the parents were included in this. But after the first two years, we dropped the moms and dads because they know about prayer and just focused on the kids.

Walter Henegar:

Can you think of any particular prayer requests that you saw answered and how it affected the grandchild? When it was?

Ida Bell:

During COVID, one of them requested that soccer would not be canceled and that they would make it to the playoffs. And they did. They didn't win. He didn't pray that they would win. They didn't win, but they made it to the playoffs and I loved it because it was such an honest prayer. Another thing that I loved was when one child was praying that they would get in a certain school and they didn't get in and they ended up going to another school. And at Christmastime, we share how God has answered our prayer requests. And so the one that was praying for a certain school said, "I didn't get in the school I wanted to go to, but the school that I'm in, I love and it's even better than the one that I thought I wanted to be in."

And when we get together at Christmastime and share how God answers, I have found out I don't have to say anything. I'm the facilitator. I just get the group together and God does the rest. They teach each other. And I had never been in a situation like that when it was people that were a lot younger than I was. But by sharing their prayer requests and their honest feelings with each other, they learned from each other.

About two years later, one of the younger kids repeated that situation and said, "I remember when so-and-so wanted to get in another school than the one he got into. And it turned out to be the better place for him to be."

Anne Henegar:

How else have you seen it affect your grandchildren?

Ida Bell:

All these first cousins really care about each other. When we get together as a big group, they have fun together. They laugh, they play games together and I am amazed. There's no animosity. There's no teasing or taunting. I'm totally amazed. It's the Lord.

Anne Henegar:

Yeah.

Ida Bell:

And that's the only way that I can explain it. We forget how God, wonderful God works in every day ways, and this is exactly what I wanted them to learn. And that prayer is something that is so natural and normal. And a lot of times if they have something coming up in their life, they'll give me a call and say, "Gran-Gran, I'm trying out for a team. Would you pray that I make the team?" And that's it. No long deep theological discussion. It's just every day like breathing.

Anne Henegar:

Isn't there one of your grandchildren that has modeled this with their community of friends?

Ida Bell:

Well, this is amazing. Drew Malden, when he went off to Auburn, went through Fraternity Rush, and then about a year later, he called me and said, "I was meeting with my small group and was telling them about the prayer cards." And said, "Would you like for us to do that? Would you all like to give me your prayer requests and I'll type them up?" I mean, he followed an example that his grandmother did and I was blown away. And then he called me back to tell me how much they all liked it.

Anne Henegar:

Can you set the scene for when you are sharing these prayer card times together at Christmas?

Ida Bell:

A lot of times we will go do volunteer work at a charity like Buckhead Ministries. We sit around and talk about the way that God has answered the prayers, and then I pass out the three by five cards and they write the prayer requests and I take the prayer requests and type them up and have them printed off and hand them out.

Anne Henegar:

It feels like a beautiful legacy too, that you're pouring into them, that just prayerful posture to the Lord. And ultimately, I know that that's what you care most about.

Ida Bell:

And you know what's so nice? It's normal to talk about spiritual things and to talk about prayer. It's not stilted or it's like just talking about how was the soccer game, how was the baseball game? Oh, by the way, did you get an answer to your prayer?

Walter Henegar:

Do you find yourself praying throughout the day or when you're lying in bed at night or that kind of thing as well?

Ida Bell:

I do. Lying in bed at night, I'm sleeping. I don't have the problem that you have with sleeping. I go right to sleep and I would sleep late in the morning every morning if I could.

Walter Henegar:

Happy to hear it.

Anne Henegar:

It's because you pray a lot.

Do you all have a prayer? And if it's too sensitive, you obviously don't have to share but that is just perpetually unanswered?

Ida Bell:

I'd say Lauren Bell, who was born with a birth defect called sacral agenesis, it's similar to spina bifida. She has to walk with arm crutches. She always has special things that she wants me to pray for, which she will call and ask me to do. But it's always trusting the Lord that He is taking care of her. It's not something I worry about. It's something I pray about. She has grown so much spiritually, and she is out of college now and has a wonderful job as a graphic designer in Birmingham, and she is telling her story. She loves ministering to other people that have handicaps. And that isn't something that you teach somebody or that you want encourage somebody to do that just comes from her heart.

I do have a group of 3 other women that I have been meeting with for 20 years. I got involved with this group right after Lauren was born, and that definitely was the hand of the Lord. A friend that I hardly even knew called and said, "I'm putting a prayer group together with a group of ladies. Would you like to be in it?" And it was like, "Yes, I need a prayer group right now. I really need friends that I can pray with about Lauren," because we went through some surgeries with her and some really difficult times over the years dealing with this handicap that she has.

Walter Henegar:

And "The prayer of a righteous woman availeth much" as the old King James used to say.

Ida Bell:

Yes. Yes. But you know what? When I hear that, it's like that applies a long time ago to people that talk like that.

Walter Henegar:

Right. Right.

Ida Bell:

Availeth much. But I agree with it and it's wonderful.

Anne Henegar:

But you can still pray in a fraternity house?

Ida Bell:

That's right.

Anne Henegar:

Like breathing.

Ida Bell:

Yes. Yes.

Anne Henegar:

Well, Ida this has been such a joy to be with you, and I hope that everybody that's listening is wanting to turn off this and start praying right now and get their family to pray. It's very inspiring. So thank you for sharing this time and your heart with us.

Ida Bell:

Well, thank you for having me, and I've loved just having the time to sit down with both of you and chat and be together.

Walter Henegar:

Me too.