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How do you pray

10.1.2018
|
Daily Grace

Our plane from Atlanta to Chicago was on its ascent when my seatmate crossed himself. A simple prayer. A prayer without words. I’m leaning toward that simple prayer in exchange for my unsophisticated prayers with words.

I don’t have the gift of prayer, which makes me thankful that God doesn’t need words anyway.
My mother asked her five children to download to our phones a special video text messaging app. We record ourselves saying nothing of significance. And she sees our faces, our expressions and hears our meaningless words.

But it makes her happy, her children staying in touch, thinking of her, saying hello. That’s probably all God wants. No significant conversation. Just a check in to acknowledge we remember God is there, loving us, understanding us, caring about us.

Still, no matter how many times I video text my mother, she expects her Sunday evening phone call. I imagine God wants the same. Even if I move toward “no-words, cross-myself prayers,” I suppose God, like my mother, would appreciate a live check in.

This message is an excerpt of a Women of the ELCA blog by Terri Lackey. 

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