Hello my name is Mommy and I ....am.....a...prayer mess. See, I am a VERY organized person. For the most part, my house is organized, my thoughts are organized, even my car is organized. However, my prayer life always just seems to be a mess. I hate this. I love the idea of lighting candles in a calm space, taking the nicely clipped article from the Sunday church bulletin with the prayer list and then prayerfully lifting each to God. Here is my problem. I have no calm space for such things. I have spoken to several others about this and most simply agree that they don't have much time for such things either. Honestly, I am saddened as I believe that our generation is apathetically falling farther from God. Less prayer time, Bible-reading, etc. are evidenced by the sharp increase in divorce, lack of ability to quickly turn to scripture during class, fewer willing to jump in and volunteer, and so on. I see evidence of less walking with God and more "talking AT God" if even involving Him at all. All it seems to have taken to shed light on this problem is a down economy!
So, after talking with several other women of varying ages over the years here are the solutions that I received.
1) Pray beside the bed at night on your knees so as not to fall asleep. & 2) Pray with your "bottom" sticking up in the air to be as uncomfortable as possible so not to fall asleep. I hate to pray before bed because I always seem to get, "Father, thank you so much for...." and then I wake up the next morning! My head hits the pillow and I am DONE! I tried both of these but my knees hurt or I couldn't breathe. That makes a distraction from the task at hand. I don't want to be distracted. 3) Pray when you first wake in the morning to be fresh and give your first to God. Now this seems ideal. But in reality I would need to wake sometime before the ice age to actually accomplish this. I get up around 5 or 5:30 each morning in order to have N at school before 7:15. I need to shower, dress, eat my own breakfast, get a lunch, get three kids fed, get three kids dressed, check a backpack and folder for completion, load everyone up and get out before 7:00 to make that happen. First thing in the morning just doesn't seem possible either.
I have spent a lot of time thinking on this over the past few years, but even more so recently. So my confession is this. I pray all day. AND I'M OK WITH THAT! 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says, "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." I have taken this verse to heart and I now pray short prayers about whatever is on my heart right then, when it crosses my mind. "Dear Lord, please watch over N today as he has a test." "Father, please help me control my temper as K has emptied a third roll of toilet paper and I don't know where there actual paper has gone!!!" "Lord, watch over A as she is sick. Please help her to heal and feel better." Now, each prayer is a little longer than this but you get the point. This makes me feel less alone, like God is with me in everything that I do (which He is!). Now, I know that Jesus set an example of how to pray with "The Lord's Prayer". In a rather concise prayer, He covered all the bases and prayed with sincerity. I know that my short little prayers don't cover all the bases in one prayer, but throughout the day, I know that I cover them all. Some of you might disagree with me and I would love to hear your point of view. I just feel that after much searching, this works for me and I don't THINK that I'm misunderstanding God's word. (Thats why your input could persuade me and make me look at this again.) For now, I like praying throughout the day. It puts a smile on my face to thank God for the beautiful dew on a spider web, or the sweet smell of my baby, or the milk grin on my K. I like to know that I can turn to Him for patience, for endurance, for ....whatever it is that I want to bring to Him at that moment. And just as importantly, I can involve the kids in these quick prayers. They can hear me pray and they often chime in too. There is NOTHING better in this world than hearing your child's sweet voice talking to their Heavenly Father and the innocence with which they ask things.
Maybe one day I will be able to sit down with my neat and tidy prayer list with candles all around, but for now this is my reality and I'm trying to make it work. How do you make it work? You just might have a better solution which I will quickly want to adopt (and share with the others reading this if you would permit). Can't wait to hear from you!
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