by Carol Vicary
I want to approach prayer like my granddaughter, Ellie, did when she was two. As we sat around the table preparing to share a meal and mentioned praying, Ellie was ready. She clasped her two little hands together and declared, with much enthusiasm, “PRAY”! She was so excited to pray. She sat quietly while someone thanked God for the food and the blessings of the day. What happened next is what makes me want to be like her. As soon as “amen” was uttered, Ellie again shouted out with joy, “PRAY”. In her childlike way, she wanted to keep praying and praying and praying. She loved to pray. She had to be distracted in order to stop praying.
What a lesson for me.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 encourages us to “pray continually”, but what does that really mean? How can I approach prayer with the joy of a two-year-old?
It might mean that I need to do what Ellie did – fall in love with praying. Maybe I need to free myself from the expectation that I have to pray long, laborious prayers and instead focus more on the simple prayers from my heart.
As believers, we understand the importance of building our relationship with God through prayer, but sometimes we give up when we fail at finding one large block of time to pray each day. Maybe we should be looking for daily prayer moments instead—those holy moments throughout the day when we put our phones away, turn off Netflix, or close our emails. They can be moments when we hear the voice of God speak into our fears, doubts, and longings. We can pray for those we love. We can use simple words or no words at all.
Time in prayer throughout the day may give us the hope that we need to answer the next call, dry the next tear, or speak the next word of encouragement. Persistent prayer produces other-centeredness that is a reflection of Jesus.
Ellie only wanted to stop praying when we tried to distract her with something else. Isn’t this so true for us?
We stop praying because we are distracted. It is so hard to focus sometimes – our eyes and ears are captured by the sights and sounds around us and we can easily sink into despair and worry. Or we can be deceived by the sin that easily trips us up. We can even be distracted by good things.
What keeps you from praying? Rather than be distracted by what is going on around me, I want to do what Ellie did.
We tried to divert her focus on praying by changing the subject, but with stubbornness that can only come from a two-year-old, she was determined to continue to pray. That’s who I want to be. Stubborn and determined to pray, waiting expectantly for the response of a loving father. Praying like a child.
Carol lives outside of Nashville with her husband, John. Their vacation spot is the beach where their favorite pastime is deciding where to eat next. The mountains of Colorado will always call their names too since that’s where they met. Their 3 sons are married and starting families. Carol loves to spend time with family, walk, hike, read, decorate her home, and study the Bible with other women.