A friend of mine asked me that question not too long ago and I thought, "Well, I just do." That isn't really much of an answer, so I had to find a way to articulate to her my Nike- Just Do It mentality on prayer. So here's a typical prayer day in the life of yours truly.
When my alarm goes off in the morning, I reach under my pillow and hit snooze and think to myself "Thank you Lord for giving me another day." This thought isn't because I'm sickeningly morbid, it's because of my history with cancer. So, while this may be done out of habit, I genuinely am thankful for another day. Some days I'm so tired I am thankful for the same day several times before I realize I've already said it.
Then throughout the day I do what I call mini prayers or texting with God, where I will spout little one liners as the day goes on. For instance, on my drive in to work as a deer runs in front of me on the highway I'll say "Dear Lord, thank you for letting me not hit that deer." And then I will continue singing along with whatever I happen to be listening to on the radio. Later in my morning when things begin to become stressful at work I will say "Father, today is already becoming a challenge. Please help me make it through today with class." Yes, I said with class. I have a real understanding of God's sense of humor, and would prefer not to make it through the day feeling mortified and humiliated, but still having the knowledge that I did, in fact make it through the day. At lunch I will say a silent thanks for the food and add something about giving me the opportunity and the means to help feed the homeless at the Day Center last Friday. When I see a deer outside the window at work I will wonder if it is the same deer that I didn't hit, and I will say a prayer for this deer and thank God again that my car didn't french kiss deer butt.
I will say mini prayers in thanks all day for a random email or a chat with a friend, people at work, the woman who is having a rough day out front, Janine who makes my coffee at Starbucks, the guy who is yelling into his cell phone behind me, the kids when they've done their chores, the kids when they've slacked on their chores, the dogs for being so happy to see me, the cat for not tripping me... just little prayers all day. Mini- bite size prayers. I think this helps eliminate the back up to the call center during high volume time. You know, at night when everyone is saying their prayers? It seems to me that there would be a small delay in getting the message to God. So I feel like, if I've said the things all day that I wanted God to know I was thankful for or needed help with, then I don't have to hold up the cue long with my bedtime prayer. I know you are smirking at that thought, because maybe somewhere in your brain you're thinking I am bat-guano crazy, but you can see the logic.
I don't know that anything I have to say is particularly important, or why I feel I have God's ear, but there you have it. I pray a lot. I just do. Sometimes I don't have words and I just ask God to know what's in my heart. Sometimes I have too many words and I bore myself by circling around and around. I certainly don't have fancy, convincing words, and mostly I communicate on an inarticulate, elementary school level. But God seems to hear me. He listens and answers my prayers. Over the years I have learned when I thought maybe he wasn't listening, the truth was I just didn't like the answer. Sometimes the answer is no. And more importantly, sometimes the answer is wait... not yet. The time will always come. The prayer is always answered.
The answer to how I pray is a juxtaposition of being complicatedly simple. I guess, as far as I'm concerned, the important thing is that I do pray; that God knows I'm here.
