If there is one thing we as believers in Christ must remember, it’s this: prayer is the greatest weapon God’s given us to use when it comes to fighting the challenges we experience in life. But most of us, if we’re being honest, never take that truth and actually apply it.

The movie, The War Room, releases this weekend in theaters everywhere, and I am SO excited about this film! My husband and I have walked through the Bible study the last four weeks with our life group at church, and we’ll see the movie with some of our group on Saturday. Produced and directed by the Kendrick brothers (Courageous, FireProof, Facing the Giants), The War Room is POWERFUL. Just the brief scenes we’ve watched through the Bible study have been touching and convicting, and if you ever needed encouragement to get back to a consistent powerful prayer life, you need to see this movie!

Take a look at the trailer: 

Priscilla Shirer plays the main role of Elizabeth. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Priscilla in the past, and most of you will know from her popular Bible studies and conferences (and there’s a fun cameo by Beth Moore in there as well!).  Elizabeth and her husband Tony seem to have it all – great jobs, a beautiful daughter, and a gorgeous home. But their marriage is hanging on by a thread and threatening to break completely. That’s when Elizabeth, a realtor, meets Miss Clara, her newest client, who is a prayer warrior in every sense of the word. She challenges Elizabeth to create a “war room” and a battle plan of prayer for her family. As Elizabeth begins to fight for her family the only way she feels she has left – on her knees before her holy God – Tony’s own personal struggles are revealed and he must decide if he will come back to his family.

(Fun movie trivia fact: The actress who plays Miss Clara does an amazing job – and is nowhere near the age of Miss Clara in the movie! Watch Karen Abercrombie’s interview with His Radio, and comments from all of the cast in the video below.

Alena Pitts plays Priscilla’s 11-year-old daughter, and in real life, is also her cousin. Her mom, Wynter Pitts, and I met a few years ago at a dotMom conference and have stayed in touch. It’s been fun to see all of Wynter’s Facebook updates about the movie and her daughter’s opportunities to help promote this powerful and special film.

In addition to being mom to Alena and her three younger sisters, Wynter is the founder of the magazine, For Girls Like You, an incredible faith-based resource for young girls and their parents, as well as the new devotional by the same name, which just released earlier this year. (If you’re the mom of a young or pre-teen girl, you need this resource!) She answered a few questions for me about Alena’s experience and what it was like as a family to be involved in the making of a movie.

How did it come about for Alena to be part of the movie? Can you give a quick summary of the character Alena plays? 

Priscilla plays the role Elizabeth Jordan, the leading character in the film. During her audition process she was asked if she knew of any young female actresses that would be interested in auditioning for the role of Danielle Jordan, her daughter.

Priscilla thought of Alena, although Alena has never done any acting before! Alena is always up for an adventure and we thought it would be a fun experience to audition. They sent over a piece of the script, and we sent in a video of her doing the lines. They asked for more and we sent more. Then we didn’t hear anything for weeks! We were pretty sure she didn’t get the part considering she had no experience. Well, it turns out they were holding auditions during the weeks we didn’t hear from them and they actually chose her after seeing tons of other very talented girls!

Did you have any concerns as her mom about letting her take this role at such a young age (she’s 10, right?) or were you excited, or some of both? How did you and your husband come to the decision? How did you discuss it with Alena? 

She is 11 now. She was 10 at the time. Yes, we had very mixed emotions! We have seen all of the Kendrick Brother’s films and we completely trust their work. We also trust Priscilla and knew the project would honor God. Really, if she were going to do a movie, this would be the perfect set up! Mostly we were concerned because we have 3 other daughters and we could not figure out how this would work for our family. The movie was filmed in Charlotte and we live in Dallas. We discussed it, but ultimately we knew this was an opportunity God had given her and we needed to trust Him with the details!

God worked everything out. It was special time for every member of our family!

What’s the experience been like? When did filming happen, what’s it been like during the in-between, how has Alena enjoyed and handled the weeks leading up to the release this weekend? 

 It really has been a great experience. The filming took place in Charlotte last summer. They filmed for about 8 weeks and it was very much a family affair. The directors, producers and families involved in the film all have multiple children and they were usually on set or very close by! Alena would finish a long day of filming and then ask for a sleepover or playdate with her friends! It was great and just what she needed as a 10-year-old in this new environment.

It was also fun for me as a mom to watch God work in her life. During the filming process, I was on set but very much hands off. She was working and she did it with such integrity and determination. It was amazing to get a glimpse of her character as an outsider for a change. God made it very clear to me that I am here to steward her, but ultimately she is His!

She is excited about the film and the opportunity but even at this age she realizes this experience is a gift from God. The friendships she has made have been one of her favorite parts and I have to say it has been the same for my husband and I. God has placed so many special people in our lives as a result of this experience!

Has she been bitten by the movie bug after this experience? Does she want to do more? 

Yes, she loved it and definitely wants to do more! We have decided not to “chase” anything but to continue to trust God and follow His lead. I know she is praying for more opportunities!

What’s your own personal takeaway from the movie? What are you and everyone else involved in the film praying for God to do with this? 

This film has impacted me greatly. I am positive everyone will relate to the real life scenarios in this film… I certainly do. Like the key characters, Elizabeth and Tony, I think we often spend so much time fighting symptoms. We fight people and we fight circumstances, however those things are not the problem. God’s Word tells us there is a real enemy and he is working to destroy us.

This film brings to the forefront the reality of our enemy and the importance of using prayer as our weapon. Prayer is not to be treated like an after-thought –  it is the most powerful tool God has given us! I was reminded, challenged and encouraged to take prayer seriously in my own life.

We are praying that people leave the theaters with a new understanding and desire to seek God in prayer. That we would stop wasting time and energy fighting things that don’t matter but we would learn to strategically fight the enemy with God’s Word.

As women, we always seem to be busy –  sometimes too busy for prayer (until we really, really need it!) As a busy wife and mom yourself, have you found anything that’s helped you or reminded you to make time for prayer that might help another wife/mom as well?

Writing my prayers down has been extremely helpful. I write prayers in the notes on my phone, on notecards in my Bible, and on stickies on my mirror! We have also started making prayer time a part of our family devotions. We take time and everyone writes their prayers down and tapes it somewhere special. Teaching the kids to make prayer personal and purposeful has helped us all be more intentional and strategic about our prayers!

I hope you’ll make time to go see the War Room and invite your friends and family. I’ll try and share more thoughts about the movie itself next week. In the meantime, let me know if you see it! I’d love to hear what you thought!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, read my full disclosure policy.

The post The War Room and an interview with the mom of one of its youngest stars appeared first on Sara Horn.