Prayers

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I was having a conversation with my son about praying. We generally pray together and often I will lead the prayer and he will add to it but sometimes he will just say "ditto to what Mom said" (not literally but I think you get the idea). That started happening a little bit more ... I felt a bit of a pressing from God on this so it prompted a conversation between us.

My 2 step-daughters, Taren and Madison, do not live with us full time. Madison is in college and Taren is in her last year of high school in CA living with her mom. Getting phone calls from them are pretty special and appreciated moments ... it is a way of touching base and feeling a sense of connection with them. Kaden always loves talking to and hearing from his sisters. So we talked about what it might be like if only Madison called and we talked with her and she just relayed information to us about Taren. She might say "Taren says to say Hi and she loves you and that everything is good". Would you feel like you really got to talk to Taren? Well it did not talk a bolt of lightening to come to the conclusion that the answer was a resounding "No". We would much rather talk to Taren personally than hear second hand from her through her sister.

So this naturally led to how we pray and talk with God. Do you think that God maybe wants to hear from us personally? Family prayers and asking for prayers are very important and praying together is a powerful thing, but we have to be careful not to do the "ditto" and tell God I say Hi and I love him thing. That really is not connecting with him and sharing with him in any personable way.

And we don't care about how talented our children are in their speech and how they speak to us ... we just like to hear from them , for them to take the time to share their lives with us.

God is about relationship. Not rituals and performances. If we want to know God we must give Him time and simply talk with Him. I told my son, Imagine Him as your closest and dearest friend who you can trust with anything ... it does not need to be anything complicated ... keep it simple, natural, and authentic ... just as you would talk to your best friend.

Just like a parent that loves to get a phone call from their child .... God is there all the time and loves to hear from us ... what an awesome thought it is that there is a God in heaven who adores us and loves to hear us just talk to Him. We will never annoy him, irritate him, or bore him with our conversation - He is all ears and all heart and no one understands us the way He does.

To contact me please do so at my email [email protected]

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