How I Pray

Everyday. 

Everyday I pray. 

I don't pray on bended knee or with folded hands.

I don't pray with my eyes closed and my head tilted slightly forward.

I don't pray by saying, "Our Father, who art in heaven..."

I don't pray by some formula of how to's.

I don't pray in perfectly orchestrated moments or in quiet times reserved just for me and God.

But I pray. Everyday.

I pray in the small still moments between clanking dishes in the sink.

I pray over and around and in between the tedious and mundane.

I pray with whispers and murmurs, while busily wrestling with crumbs on the stove.

I pray with gusto and passion, in echoes and vibrato during my morning shower.

I'm praying right now, with these words.

Your eyes, meeting my words, you've just prayed with me today.

Everyday I pray.

I was cleaning my kitchen recently, the house was busy. The kids were running around with friends and my husband was happily tinkering with his boat. I was hurled over the stove meeting my match with some spill on the stove. During mindless tasks, this is when my mind sort of wanders and I kept having these thoughts. What was on my heart was on auto repeat swirling around in my head. I told myself, oh, this is a repeating thought, you need to "pray" about that. All of a sudden I realized what a dumb statement that was. I was literally saying, Aubrey, you need to take that to God. There I was scrubbing the stove and telling myself that I had to create some special moment to pray these thoughts to God. What a silly thought! My silliness occurred to me and I actually said out loud to myself, "These thoughts that I'm having, these are my prayers to God. He's hearing me right now. I don't need some special moment for these to be real prayers." 

Can I get an Amen?! (Amen!).

It was coming from guilt, not spending enough quiet time, being too caught up in the business and chaos that life was at the moment, and wishing I would have made more space to tell God my heart. I'm so glad he reminded me that he was listening. 

Now I'm reminding you. That long drive to work, where you finally get a little peace and quiet, and you can listen to whatever you want on the radio, and those thoughts keep popping up about what you want out of life, or some issue you'd like peace with... He's listening. You don't need to have some carved out, reserved quiet time for God to hear your heart. You don't even need to end with an Amen. 

Doesn't that make your feel just a little bit more free? It lifts me in a thousand different ways. 

One of my favorite verses is Matthew 11:28-30. The Message version of this scripture just sings to my heart:

Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me--watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly. 

*Oh! Snaps! I was trying to get this finished and published before the clock struck midnight! My goal is to have at least one post a month. Oh well. :)