Hello, friends! Tanner's prompt for today is Prayer.
I have never been great at prayer. I know it's not exactly something that you can be "good" at - God listens whether you're eloquent or not, and Jesus even tells us to do it humbly rather than drawing attention to it. But I often find it very difficult to pray, because I want to *hear* an answer, and that's not exactly how prayer works.
Do you know who is awesome at prayer? Kids.
Kids are the best at prayer. They pray about everything and anything that comes to mind. I used to take prayer requests during Midweek School. Here are some things we regularly prayed for:
Anyone they knew who was sick or hurt with anything, from a skinned knee to cancer.
Help with school or sports.
Comfort for the families of people who died.
People who needed food or shelter.
Animals who needed homes.
People who didn't know Jesus.
Families going through divorce.
People in the military.
I always remembered the kind of goofy prayer requests. One kid prayed every Wednesday for a year that when he fell down, he wouldn't get hurt. (Not that he wouldn't fall down, mind you, just that he wouldn't get hurt when he did.) One little girl always prayed for her dead kittens.
Then there were the serious prayer requests. We prayed for the families of the victims of the Parkland shooting. When a child who attended school with some of our kids passed away, we prayed for his family. When some police officers were shot in my hometown, we prayed for their families.
I love what the Bible tells us about prayer. 1st Thessalonians 5:17 says simply, "Pray without ceasing." We're not going to have deep and serious reasons to pray all the time. God cares about our "goofy" reasons to pray just as much as our deep and serious ones. Let's all try to be more like my old Midweek kids, and pray about everything. They trusted that God answers even when they don't hear it. We can, too.
Stay tuned for October 7th: For A Moment.
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