Coming to God in Prayer

I love writing for Getting Real Ministries. I wrote this post about prayer for the GRM blog. Enjoy and please hop over to Getting Real Ministries if you get a chance...I think you'll like what you see!

I was on the phone with a friend. She was asking me to pray for a family member who was seriously ill. Throughout the conversation, she began to reveal some insecurities over her prayers--one of them being the idea that my prayers would be heard by God much better than her prayers. In other words, my prayers for her relative would turn God's ears to her request more than her prayers because I was, in her eyes, the more 'spiritual one'.

Of course, I would pray, I assured her, but I had to let her know--her prayers were no less important and no less heard by God than my prayers. In fact, He wants her to come to Him, to seek Him out and pray to Him. I did what I hoped was my best to assure her of this. Eventually, the conversation went on to other topics and soon ended.

What hasn't ended for me is the idea many of us mistakenly believe--some people's prayers are better and somehow more spiritual than others, so therefore, God listens to those prayers more than He listens to others. Can I just tell you right now, that thought is wrong and please, if you are believing it, even if just a small part of you still hangs on to that lie, please let it go.

The prayers of your pastor, priest, Bible study leader or your 'super spiritual' friend are not better just because their words seem to flow with eloquence and yours seem to fumble along. Or because they seem to know more about the Bible. Or they seem to never mess up and you just know they always have their quiet time with God instead of hitting the snooze button five times each morning.

Don't stay away from entering into prayer because you think you or your prayers are not good enough. Can I tell you a little secret---I fumble through my prayers often. I start, stop and start them again and again. They are often a jumbled mess of requests and pleas and often they aren't even words as much as they are emotions and tears.

But God is so good.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13

God is full of such grace and mercy. When you seek him with all your heart, you will find him and He will hear you.

He wants you to come to Him in prayer. He wants to hear all your requests. Your perfectly phrased ones and your cries for help. Your hope-filled ones and the ones you doubt will even reach His ears or make a difference. He wants your prayers because He wants you.

"Oh my people, trust in Him at all times. Pour out your heart to Him, for God is our refuge." (Psalm 62:8 NLT)

Come with boldness. Start your prayers with the belief and trust that God hears you. He wants to hear you and He wants to become a shelter for you and all your prayers. Nowhere does He say only certain people can pour our their hearts and others can't. There are no lower-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. All are invited to come and pour out their hearts to God.

My friends, please come before God in prayer. Rest assured He delights in hearing all your prayers.

Just come.

It's Time to Enjoy the Watching

I took my son to basketball practice the other night. I needed to get out of the house so I didn't give my husband the chance to offer his services. I just declared I would take him to practice and then we left, leaving at home a sick child, one well child and my husband to be the caretaker. 

I'm so glad I went. I love watching him play basketball. He might be little and double dribble a whole lot but there's something about watching him develop into his personhood that does my heart good.

It was tempting to get other things done while he practiced. I brought my grocery list and, I admit, some cookbooks with--thought I'd get in some menu planning. But for the most part, I resisted the urge to plan ahead. 

Instead, I watched my son shoot some hoops and saw how his form was getting much better. I saw his coach give him high fives and offer advice. I watched my son listen and obey his coach (good boy) then in the next moment, pretend he was in a light saber duel with an imaginary storm trooper (well, waiting in line can be boring--at least he has a good imagination!).

I saw a lot of who he is and who he is becoming and I am so glad I didn't miss it because of some grocery list. Now, I am all about making the most of my time and I do not have any shame in using my kid's basketball practice to get things done.

But I know it is also just as important to sit and watch. Just watch. Nothing else. It's so important to let your heart grow more in love with your kids as they do their thing. Growing closer to each other can happen just by being there.

It's our job to watch them. Not helicopter style watching, more like noticing. It's important to notice them. It's important to let them know you saw them. Let them know you noticed what they did and how you enjoyed the time spent on the sidelines.

We all know time goes by fast and they'll be grown soon. But let's watch for more than that. Let's watch so we can fall in love, so we can show our love a little more.

Enjoy the watching, friends!

For Just The Afternoon

Yesterday I was home with a sick kiddo. Whenever I am home with a sick kid, I feel this need to clean and disinfect the entire house. From top to bottom. Every germ I want to be gone.

But this need to clean does not leave me room to be a good caregiver. Since I have learned this about myself, I made myself a list.

Moments are so much easier to make time for when I break my day down into parts and focus on the priorities of just that slice of time. Then I  actually accomplish what I set out to accomplish! As for today's main focus--extra snuggle time with my daughter. I knew my compulsion to clean could overshadow my snuggles so I had to make the list and I had to put it in writing.

Not only did we get in snuggle time, we managed the bubble bath, the extra chapters of Charlotte's Web and I got some laundry put away. Miracle!

The afternoon felt manageable. It felt calm. It felt right. My time was spent right and my most important priority was cared for.

Each morning I stand at my kitchen window, coffee cup in hand, looking out at this view. This picture is a blurry but please notice the cross. It is in the upstairs window of my neighbor's house. They haven't taken down all their Christmas decorations--thank goodness I'm not the only one---and this cross has been part of their decorations all season long.

Everyone else up and down the street has taken their decorations down by now. Trees are sitting by the curb waiting to be trash and twinkle lights are packed away for next year.

But this cross is still there.

This cross is still shining brightly.

This cross serves as my morning reminder--when the decorations and the fancy have been stripped away, the cross still stands.

I keep my gaze outside a little bit longer in the morning now. I don't rush into the to-do's and have-to's quite as fast because I have a cross to notice. I have a cross to linger with and a cross to set my day straight.

May we linger with the cross a little bit longer today. Let it keep your day straight and let it shine on your path a little bit brighter today.

Ringing in a Small New Years

I don't hold high expectations for New Year's Eve. It's never been my favorite holiday so it has never mattered much what I did. Frozen pizza and bed at nine? Sounds good! A party with family and friends? Perfect. This is the one holiday where it doesn't really matter to me what goes down.

That's one reason this New Year's Eve turned out so special.  The other reason is we changed it up this year. Instead of starting off the new year doing something for ourselves, my family and I decided to start it off by doing something for someone else.

We headed over to our local Feed My Starving Children. If you have never heard of or ever volunteered at this fabulous non-profit, please go. You won't be sorry. You will spend two hours packing food for children around the world who need the nutrition and love you send over. It's simple. It's fun. It makes a difference. And, you get to wear these stylish hair nets!

It was the simplicity that was so inviting, the smallness of it all. We didn't do much--just scoop the food, bag it, box it and send it off. Our part felt small but we knew it wasn't. 

Nothing done in small ways for the least of these is ever really small.

The time together was refreshing. It showed us that ending a year and starting a new one with service is the best way to go. 

It showed us that you don't have to go big all the time to make a difference. You can do small things. You can do small things all year and it doesn't make your service any less important or meaningful. 

It also showed us that after working hard and staring at all that food, we are one hungry family! We headed off to our favorite stir-fry place.

And rang in the new year. In a small way. Together.

A New Year And A New Word

It’s New Years and that means it is time for some resolutions and goals. I dig the changing of the calendar, the crafting of goals and the dreaming of all the ways I just might be able to change that bad habit once and for all in this new year. Maybe.

Although I am common sense enough to realize not all my goals will even make it past January 31st, I do like the One Word for the New Year trend. All you have to do is pick one word that will guide you and be significant to you during the entire year. It is not quite as overwhelming as a long of resolutions. It is focused and easy to remember. It’s just one word. I can do that!

I decided on my One Word for 2016: Sit

It’s not very profound or deep but I have noticed a disturbing trend in myself I do not like — I do not sit much. I eat my breakfast over the kitchen counter, I constantly sweep up crumbs like nobody’s business and when I do have a spare moment to sit, I always, always find another chore or task to do.

I’m never fully present.

I can tell myself I am listening to my family as I wash the dishes but in reality, I am not. I can feel like I have accomplished a lot in my day because of all my busyness but I have not accomplished being fully in the moment.

If I want to start a life of noticing, of truly making time for moments and making openings for God to work within those moments, then I need to sit. 

Because it is in the sitting where I make connections. It is in the sitting where I hear and learn who someone really is and what they are really saying. It is in the sitting where I give God the space to move and work and be made known.

I can’t do any of those things when I fill my every minute with tasks and to-dos. And I certainly cannot sense God’s presence and His movement when I don’t slow down.

Certainly God can move and work whether I sit down or not but our teamwork is greatly one sided when I don’t even notice His movement. Or when I move so rapidly through my day I don’t even allow Him room.

Sitting sounds good to me right now. A year full of sitting sounds really good. I know it will be tougher than it sounds. Choosing presence over busyness always is. But if sitting means getting to know my people and my God more fully, then in those moments where I feel the pull of busyness, I’ll need to remember the rewards of being still, of sitting with intention, are far greater.

So, here’s to a New Year full of sitting. First, I think I’ll try sitting down at my own kitchen table. I can’t wait to find out what I will discover there!

If you’re interested in learning more about the One Word movement, here is a website to give you more information: oneword365.com

You can also read this post over at Getting Real Ministries. 

When Wednesday Seems So Far From Sunday ~ A Prayer For Today

For today, let's bend low, down to the trough to see the newborn king.

For today, let's strain to hear the quiet birth of a newborn King over the noise.

May our expectations of others and our expectations of how the holiday season should look and feel and act be low. 

But may our anticipation of the coming King be lifted high.

And may we continue to lean into the promise of a Savior child born to us. Born as us. Born for us. 

"Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; He is the Messiah, the Lord" Luke 2:11