How do you start your prayers? Do you stand/knee/sit before God and use the same words to tell Him you are ready to give Him your wish list?
I heard a phrase used by a man to a woman and when I heard it a bell rang inside of this head sitting on my shoulders, I had heard that same line more than once myself. Then I started thinking, there are really no fresh “lines” and I wondered if guys get together in their youth and hammer out certain phrases that they think will impress the women. If every woman would be honest she would agree with me, we have all heard it all! I am laughing to myself and wondering if God ever gets tired of the same old lines that we use in our every day prayers. So I realize that I am guilty of that very thing! I always start my prayers with “gratitude” saying, “Lord I come before your throne and thank you for the light of a new day…” then I proceed thanking Him for each family member and all that He has given to us and for giving the angels charge over us to watch and keep us, and then I give him the requests of the day like reading a menu at times I fear. There are people that I have promised to call their name in prayer and I do remember to do that, then I always close my prayers by saying, “And now Lord we pray the prayer that Jesus taught His disciples” and then I pray the Lord’s Prayer. Let me insert a parenthetical sentence here telling you two things about that, first my grandson said to me when we had finished the prayer on the way to school, “Mammy I am so glad you pray the Lord’s Prayer with me every morning…” my heart swelled a little and I felt proud, that is until he finished his statement, “because I had a test on it and I knew it all by heart!” OK, whatever, at least he knows it, right? The other thing is that when we get to the part, “Forgive us our debts as we forget our debtors”, we all know that when you say that prayer in a group some say “debtors” and some say “trespasses” and I always think “sins”, so when saying it with Gabe I say, “Forgive us our debts, our trespasses and our sins that we have committed the way we forgive those who have debt, trespasses and sins against us”.
Back to the point, there is nothing wrong with the prayers that I pray and actually I have a running conversation with God all day because He is a personal friend of mine. There is one thing I like and that is to read the Psalms and study how the writers there approached the Throne of God. One I particularly like is Psalm 100, which starts by saying, loudly I think, “Make a joyful noise unto the Lord all you lands…” I like to make a joyful noise!
I do wonder if when I start in with my thanks for the light of a new day, if God yawns a little at hearing the same old lines, I know I do.
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