Part 2: Prayer

When I became a Christian Prayer seemed to come very naturally for me. Not in that I prayed well or anything, but in the fact that I prayed. It wasn't hard for me to remember to pray. I didn't always remember to read my Bible, but I never forgot to pray.
It was the biggest way for me to stay connected to God. I also couldn't sleep at night unless I prayed. I think part of that was because sometimes I would have aweful, haunting nightmares and praying often kept the dreams away.
It's weird, but for a little less than a year, praying became hard, uncomfortable... It was like I just could not find that connection to God through prayer. (Dark night of the soul? Probably not, but not impossible.) It was also at that point that I had started praying less for myself and more for others, but it was hard to know how to pray for others.
Recently I've been taking Prayer Walks. I'm not completely free from distractions, actually, I think I might even be putting more distractions in front of me, but as I walk and pray, I talk to God about Valpo, I pray for Him to reveal to me opportunities to be light, and I believe that He has done that. I have met so many people when I walk. I have prayed with one, I have invited one to church. I feel good to say that for about a 4 block radius, I know who most of my neighbors are.

On Saturday, Lance gave us Scriptures about praying as well. When I sat down and read them by myself, 1 Thessalonians 5:17 was one that I spent some time thinking about. The verse says very simply "pray without ceasing". While I was in college I heard this verse over and over again. I've heard people talk about it and question what it means and offer theories on how that works, but I've never quite heard it put the way I now understand it. When I think about this verse, I think about something I've heard people say several times:
"Prayer is 1/4 talking and 3/4 listening."
When I thought about prayer in this perspective, it answers the question for me about how it is possible to pray without ceasing. We can praise God, we can make our requests known to God, we can talk about our day, we can talk about friends, we ask look for his guidance, but honestly, it is really hard to keep conversations going sometimes. But even in conversations there are natural pauses and moments of silence. It is listening and hearing the other party. God wants to speak to us, so a part of our prayer, a big part, needs to be us listening to God. So how does that work out so that we can pray without ceasing? It is definitely talking to God, it is definitely praising Him, it is definitely bringing our needs and others needs before Him, but moreso, it is having a constant awareness of God in your life, always looking for and expecting Him to speak, to teach, to comfort, to love. Praying without ceasing is to put yourself always in a state of being that you can hear His voice if He chooses to speak.

The Thessalonians verse is the only one I felt like really getting into tonight, but these were the other verses given to us Saturday morning:

Matthew 21:22
Philippians 4:6
Luke 18:1
Luke 18:10-14
1 Peter 4:7
James 4:3

Today I met Suzie. I walked past her house and she was outside tending her garden and I told her that everytime I walk past her house, I feel like I'm walking past an oasis. So she started talking with me and I found out that she is a Sunday School teacher at Immanuel Lutheran Church. I told her my grandma used to go there and she asked me my grandma's name. When I told her she said "wow, it's such a small world". She knows my grandma, and she knows who my mom and all of my aunts are. :-)

So my cousins daughter Shawna is developing a knack for bluntness. Today she walked in my room while I was changing my clothes so I could take her and Taylor to park. She looks at me and says "You're big Amanda". OMG. So when I finished getting dressed I said "Okay, let's go get Taylor and say bye to mom" so we went into the living room where Shawna points at my stomach and tells my cousin and my mom "theres a baby in Amanda's stomach". After getting a good laugh they explain to Shawna that I'm not pregnant, that some people are just big like that. Shawna is silent for a moment, then she says "I want to be big like Amanda" Haha, the joys of 3 year olds.

... I want a baby. Hmm... but I need a husband first. Darn those pesky details. LOL