Rejoice evermore.
Pray without ceasing.
In every thing give thanks:
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.
1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Today, May 2, is the National Day of Prayer. I love
that we have this day. It’s a great reminder to stop and prayer – or keep going
and pray. Pray all the time.
When I was a child, my church would kneel in silent
prayer. Only I didn’t know it was a time of prayer. By the time I was old
enough to ask questions, age seven, I sat away from my parents and with my
peers during services. We kneeled like the adults, but the girls I sat next to
didn’t seem to know any more than I did. We would make finger drawings on the
oak benches and watch each other. For some reasons (maybe I was sick), I sat
with my parents once during church and proceeded to play during the silent
prayer, when my mother leaned over and whispered that I was supposed to be
praying.
I didn’t know how to pray, other than repeating the
words my dad (and sometimes one of my brothers) would recite before meals. It
went something like this: “Dear Lord, thank you for our food and raiment. Forgive
our sins. In Jesus’ name. Amen.” The same prayer, word-for-word. That’s all I
knew.
And I had never heard a woman pray aloud. It took quite a bit of coaxing and encouragement from other believers before I could
pray aloud. I still don’t prefer to do it in front of others, with the
exception of my children or female friends. But, I have learned a lot in the
past two decades about how to talk to God, through prayer.
I’m still learning and I sometimes forget to pray
for a couple of days. And then I get a reminder when things start spinning out
of control. God’s calling.
How is your prayer life? How did you learn to pray?
Do you struggle with talking to God or are you a “prayer warrior”?
