On Prayer ... by Staci

If you remember our guest speaker, Dan Harms, from several weeks ago, you might remember that he had several very interesting stories to tell. When I listened to him talk to the junior high students, he told us a story about a girl that he had met the summer before 9th grade - his first love. Every day, they would go to the pool and hang out. His family and her family would invite each other over for dinner, and everything was sunshine and rainbows. Who is this girl to him now? Nobody! That’s right! He doesn’t even know who she is, where she lives, or anything else about her. You might ask “Why?” Well, he never had any way of communicating with her after that summer. The relationship between the two died because you can’t really know someone if you never talk with them. It is the same with our relationship with God. We can’t know God if we never talk to Him. We communicate with God through prayer.

This past Sunday, we had an awesome opportunity to spend dedicated time praying. Whether you decided to journal, pick up a Bible, pray the rosary, or do something else that you felt most natural with, you had some time to take a break from the world around you and focus on further developing your relationship with God. The whole point of prayer is strengthening this relationship.

There are many different ways to pray, and there isn’t really a way to do it incorrectly. I usually just close my eyes and talk to God about whatever is on my heart like a conversation with a friend, but when I don’t know what words to use, I find it most helpful to look through scripture or to sing along to praise and worship music. The most important thing is doing whatever is most natural for you because that is what will make you feel most connected with God.

Challenge yourself every day this week to set aside time to pray. Being busy with school makes it seem hard to take time to do this, so maybe consider praying first thing in the morning or right before you go to bed. Hopefully, you’ll find that this quiet time with God will help to bring you closer to Him and to generally be happier every day.

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