Talking to Jesus

Many people do not know how to pray to God. Most people in the world believe that there is some kind of higher being "out there," and many people even believe that that higher being created the world.....but it stops there. Unfortunately, those people are wrong. God yearns to be a part of our lives.....to build a relationship with us! How do we build relationships with people? We spend time with them. We talk to them. We listen to them. We share with them, cry with them, laugh with them. That is what God yearns to do with us, His creation, the people that He loved so much that He sent his son to die for us so that we do not have to live an eternity apart from Him.

Many of us learned to pray when we were quite young. We have the picture of kneeling by our beds saying blessings upon people and thanking God for the things in our lives that we loved. For many people prayer began and ended in childhood.....except for the occasional tragedy in our lives when suddenly we are calling on a God that we chose to ignore for the most of our lives.

I want prayer to become part of my children's lives in an intimate and personal way. When they talk to Jesus, I want it to be more than "Lord I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep....." I want them to WANT to talk to the Lord and their prayers to come from their hearts. Do I always model prayer correctly? No. But, I hope that in their education on prayer that they will truly learn what it is to commune with the Most High God.....who cares about them so much He care for the little things that are on their hearts!

When Ellie was 2 years old (she was a very early talker), her first prayer was "Dear Jesus. Thank you for chicken nuggets. Amen." I think I will never forget that as long as I live. She desired to talk to Jesus about something that she loved.

My middle son, Tyler is now 3 years old and is just now beginning to talk. When we sit down to a meal, he NEVER lets us forget to "pay, pay!" He always volunteers to pray with his little hand reaching high. Up until now, he has folded his hands, bowed his head and said "doo.....dooo.....doooo.....amen." Though we could not understand "Tyler language" we know that God can. But last night he amazed us.

"Dear....daddy home.....mommy home.....Ellie......Ten-ten.....men."

Translation: "Dear Jesus, thank you that Daddy is home and Mommy is home and thank You for Ellie and Trenton. In Jesus name, Amen."

Lesson: God loves the little children and wants to hear their honest heart-cries.

Coming home from church on Sunday, Tyler's seatbelt was hopelessly locked. I began to sweat trying to get it un-stuck and began to stress. Ellie laid her hand on my hand and said "I think we need to stop and pray about this right now." Immediately, my heart was softened, I calmed down, God heard her prayer and the seat belt was un-stuck.

Lesson: God even cares about little things like seat-belts. Before stressing, we need to stop and pray and trust that He will deliver us.

Today we celebrate the anniversary of my miracle-preemie coming home from the NICU. This past year has been THE HARDEST year of my life. There is nothing like nearly losing a child to teach you about yourself, humanity, God and His will and life in general. When you go through tragedy, you either run away from God, or into His arms. I chose the latter.

So MUCH prayer went into this child....people from around the world prayed for a tiny 3 pound baby that they did not even know. I prayed one thing and one thing only: that my child would survive. God chose to restore my child to fullness and went beyond my feeble prayers....and sometimes they were simply groanings (But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words....Rom. 8:26)

Lesson: God still works miracles.

Don't forget about the God who made you. Learn to pray.....just start talking to the God who made you, who loves you, who died for you and who now lives for you. Teach your kids to pray. I am not perfect and goodness knows, neither are my kids. I do not pray as much as I should.......but I can not forget about this discipline. I simply can not. It is too very important.