Although I mentioned in last week’s Faithful Friday post that faith is something that comes easy to me, there are certainly other areas in my spiritual life that don’t come easy.Praying is definitely one of those for me. I will fully admit that most days I forget to pray.I know, it sounds awful.
I have this idea in my head that prayers should be reserved for right before you close your eyes to go to sleep.Some silly misconception that I’ve fallen victim to.
As you can imagine, most days I’m so exhausted that I simply forget to say my prayers before I drift off to sleep (I’m one of those lucky souls that falls asleep as soon as I close my eyes).
This week in our church’s lent study group we talked a lot about prayer and its significance in our lives.There were several people talking about their long prayer sessions with candles burning, which of course made me feel guilty.
I’m proud of myself if I can remember to slip in a little, “Thanks God for keeping me and Mr. A safe today” prayer much less a long quiet prayer session.
While I don’t think that I will ever be a meditative pray-er (yoga relaxation is hard enough), I certainly can find other small moments in my life to be prayerful.The point of prayer is that I need to remember to look towards God in the good and bad moments, giving him thanks and asking for his guidance.Just because I’m not in my “typical” prayer position doesn’t mean that God doesn’t hear my pleadings.
So if it means that the only way that I will remember to look toward God in those moments is when they happen that’s exactly what I’m going to do.My focus for the next couple weeks is going to be to find small spaces to insert prayer into my everyday life.When I see that homeless man that we walk by everyday, I say a silent prayer to myself asking God to watch over him.
When I get frustrated at work, I ask God to help me see the blessings in what appears to be aggravation.
When I arrive home safe and sound from work relatively unscathed, I thank God for watching over me.
When I hear my Grandmother voice her anxieties about her upcoming move, I ask God to provide her comfort and love.
When I catch my husband stealing a glance at me, I thank God for allowing me to spend another day loving him.
When my nephew gives me a hug, I thank God for letting me be an Aunt and for giving me such a loving nephew.
When I feel myself getting sad about not having my great grandmother around anymore, I thank God for all those precious days that He did let me spend with her.
I’ve found that when I truly am trying to find these small moments to pray I am much more aware of what a wonderful life I’ve been blessed with.
It’s also a humbling experience to thoughtfully give thanks to God.It makes me realize how awesome His presence is and just how reliant I am on Him.Realizing your small space in His infinite love is a very relieving experience.All I can do is give everything up to God in prayer and he will take it from there.
What ways do try to include pray in your everyday life?
