Prayer

The person you talk with the most, and share your most intimate thoughts with is, well, yourself. It seems that everyone has an “inner me”.

Our “inner me” is our friend that never gets tired of listening to us. Some of us also have a music channel in our heads. That, too, is continually playing. In fact, we may become ticked off when someone sings a commercial jingle because that knocks our music track off line.

Now, there is a subset of humanity where whatever goes through their mind comes out of their mouth. I am blessed (?) with two of these people, my wife and my daughter.

An Experiment

As an experiment, when my daughter was pre-teen, I invited her to go with me to another town which was about ninety minutes from where we lived. I knew she’d go because she was my traveling companion. Anytime she heard my keys rattle she knew I was going somewhere, and she wanted to go. She had a lot of “go” in her; she still does.

Anyway, secretly, I mapped out my experiment. I would let her talk, without interruption, until she ran out of things to say. Then I would know how long it took for her to stop talking.

Yes, I was naive. Anyway, we got in the family car, and we prayed that we would have a safe journey. Then I waited. Right on cue, my daughter started talking to me. She talked and she talked and she talked. Finally, we were at the parts store. I asked her to wait until I was finished before “we” started talking.

A Travelog

I finished in about 5 or 10 minutes, and before we had left the store she was back in full swing. And, she talked all the way back home. Only when I pulled into our driveway, got out of our car, and started walking to our backdoor did my daughter stop talking to me. She immediately shifted gears and began providing her mom with a travelog of our adventure.

The lesson I learned was that for my wife and daughter there was no end to talking because everything triggered thoughts which generated words and words were meant to be spoken. It’s been a wild ride.

Pray Without Ceasing

Anyway, my wife and daughter showed me what the Holy Spirit led the Apostle Paul to write in these following instructions to the church at Thessaloniki:

1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, and to esteem them very highly in love because of their work. Be at peace among yourselves. And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all. See that no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies, but test everything; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.

God packed so much guidance for a satisfying and purposeful Christian life in these few sentences. It would do us all well if we took the time to meditate upon this gift God gave us.

Through my wife and daughter I have learned that it is not only possible to “pray without ceasing” but there is great comfort and strength to be gained through continual prayer. I suppose women have a prayer track in addition to a music track and a “me” track. I’m too afraid to ask. I thank God I’m a man.

Photo by Kawtar CHERKAOUI on Unsplash

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