Why do we make prayer so hard?

I have been in many different meetings, conferences, etc. where when adults are asked to pray they all look down and say a silent prayer that they will become invisible. 

I have also been in a Sunday morning Small Group with our elementary age children and when I ask a child to pray five hands go up. We pray for birthday parties, football games, grandparents, new shoes, sleepovers…we pray for everything we can.

What happens between the age of 8 and 38?

I think we make prayer bigger than it is.  Prayer is simply a time to connect to God, who wants to be in a relationship with us.

Prayer does not have to be silent reverence with candles and music.  But, it can be.

Prayer does not have to be liturgy that comes from tradition. But, it can be.

Prayer does not have to be bowing of head and folding of hands.  But, it can be.

Prayer can be what you want it to be.  Simple or scripted.

 This year our family started a new tradition with prayer.  We began the year by pulling out a Christmas card that was sent to us and putting it on the fridge.  I counted our cards and we had about one for every week of the year.  Perfect! When we walked by the fridge we would pray for the family, a simple prayer of joy and thanksgiving for each family.  Sometimes we would pray together as a family, sometimes we would just walk by the card a say a simple prayer.  Then at the end of the week we would write a card to the family letting them know we prayed for them.  We really had not talked to the families asking if they received our cards or if they felt our prayers.  Sadly, as the year kept moving along at a faster pace each month we slowly forgot to pull out a Christmas card and put it on our fridge. 

Then, this past week I was stopped by one of the families that we prayed for.  A simple card that was sent to their family several months ago was sent at a time that they needed prayers.

This reminded me of two things:

1.     Prayer is simple and powerful.  It connects us to God and to each other.

2.     Our family needs to get back to our new tradition.  We will be pulling out two cards this week to make up for our lost time.

P.S. If you are looking for a simple way to add prayer into your life I recommend the prayer app Echo.  It is free and it reminds us to stop and pray in our very busy lives.