Sunday, April 26, 2009

I Need a Prayer to Help Me Remember to Pray

Why do I find it so hard to remember to pray at the end of the day? You would think that after 44 years, it would be as natural as brushing my teeth. I pray with my kids every night, so I guess that counts. But there are other things that I need to say to God. I need to look back on the day and realize what I did well and what I could have done better.

Something often seems to get in the way. Either I fall asleep with one of the children, or I fall asleep reading, or who knows what. Ideally, I should be praying before I cuddle with the kids or pick up a book, but the thought sadly doesn't usually cross my mind.

Why is prayer at night so important, anyway? If I pray in the morning, asking for help and for the well being of those around me, do I really need to pray again? Certainly I could pray for strength in areas where I failed on a particular day, for good health for someone who got sick or for forgiveness for a misdeed. How long could it take, and wouldn't I feel better afterward?

Think about how many times holy people pray--five, six, maybe ten times a day? Imagine if I carved out that many time slots to talk to God and read the Bible. That would be something!

My goal is much more modest: twice a day. Is that too much for God to ask? Certainly not. So I'm praying that I'll remember to pray tonight and every night. Is there a special prayer for that?

2 comments:

cristinabk said...

I know what you mean by remembering to pray and then falling asleep.
It is remembering to be grateful when you wake up, which I am too sleepy to do. So if the day is nice, I do remember to say thank you to God. If I remember to say thank you when it is cloudy--which is rare--I then add it is good for the grass...
Thinking of what we have is the key to being grateful. Always thinking of how good we have it. Even if we have less, being grateful of what we have, never thinking of what we lack because that makes us look at life in a negative way.
It would be nice to sit for at least 5 minutes and pray/meditate. My fidgety mind is too restless & it it a challenge for me to do so. I prefer to write in my morning pages and let my thoughts flow and write about the good things that we have...that is, whenever I remember to do so.
Amen

Diane said...

Isn't it funny how we're immediately thankful for a sunny day, and not so much for a cloudy day? It's all in our perception, I guess.

I definitely believe that writing counts as prayer! That's part of the reason why I started this blog: to be a type of prayer.