Seeking Relationship

A good prayer life has to be about more than an endless list of requests.

A few weeks ago, a little boy in first grade, came into our office to see the nurse. She was with another student, so I asked him to sit in the chair outside of the clinic and wait until she was available. When he was seated, I turned back around and went back to work on my computer. I had a ton of stuff to catch up on that day and I was busy.

But, a couple of minutes later, the little boy said, “Ma’am, excuse me, ma’am,” I stopped typing and turned around to see what he needed. He said, “Do you know why I missed Thursday and Friday last week?”

I, of course, had no idea, but figured this was about to get interesting, so I asked him why he had been absent?

He grinned and excitedly told me he had been on an airplane for the first time and he had gotten to meet the pilot and see the cockpit. I asked him where he flew and he told me it was a country that started with a C. I later learned that he had been in the air for two hours and I asked him if it was possible he visited a state instead of country.

At this point, my coworker got involved. We pulled up a map of the United States and called out all of the states beginning with the letter C. We were having a ball with this kiddo. When the nurse called him in, he was reluctant to go. I’m not sure why he came in to begin with, bu he was enjoying the attention and we were enjoying talking with him.

He went on back to class, but I wondered for days afterward, where he went and I thought about how he didn’t think twice about interrupting me to tell me about his adventure. The confidence of young children always inspires me.

They seem to naturally believe in their hearts, that their stories matter.

The Bible tells us, “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16

Our stories matter to God, our adventures, our successes, our failures all matter. When we get it right it matters and when we get it wrong it matters too. That’s where grace comes in. But, we so often treat prayer as a laundry list of asking God for what we want.

What if we were more like that little boy, and just wanted to talk? What if we regularly shared our lives with the One who gave them to us to begin with? How much stronger would our faith lives be?

A little boy with an exciting tale reminded me that a good prayer life is about relationship, not about constant requests. Perhaps you needed reminding too.

Have an awesome day!
Wendy 🙂