Dear Daughters,

On Sunday my friend Shari, who spells her name the same as I, gave a children’s message at church.  The subject for the day was prayer.  Being a teacher for decades, she obviously knows and loves children well and is able to speak simply yet profoundly.  Shari taught the children there are basically three kinds of prayers. 

To be honest, I am amazed that God hears every person, knows every heart – all the emotions in every life – and actually cares about every single one.  And in a world containing over 7 billion people, that in itself blows my mind – but it is true.  And since He’s the one who created us in the first place, it makes sense that he would know us intimately and love us compassionately.

Borrowing some wise words from Ann Lamott, Shari taught the children about these three types of prayer:

Help

Thanks

Wow

Unfortunately, the prayer Help is probably the most common prayer of all.  It’s the basic cry of our heart.  Many of us try to live our lives on our own, thinking we are wise and knowing the best way to go about relationships, business decisions, and any other details we happen to come across.  Then, inevitably, our world takes a hit here or there or everywhere and we cry out Help. You have heard the proverbial fox-hole prayer, a prayer commonly heard from the trenches of war,

Lord, if you get me out of this mess, I’ll do what you want me to do.

So He does, but often we don’t. 

…Until the next problem comes up and we cry Help again.  And again, in His astonishing patience and faithfulness, he listens and helps again.  It reminds me of those Israelites in the wilderness, wandering around for 40 years, trying to do life on their own, grumbling when things aren’t to their liking, messing up in their words and deeds, asking for mercy, and amazingly receiving mercy from their and our Creator God. Yeah, it’s completely astounding.

I am not unlike the Israelites, having soul amnesia when it comes to God’s goodness, so I continue to cry Help in my times of need – which is typically every day, every hour, and often moment by moment.

Then there’s the second category of prayer,

Thanks

This type of prayer has become my favorite mainly because of reading Ann Voskamp’s book One Thousand Gifts about ten years ago.  Ann found joy out of despair, peace from fear, and learned to see life through a whole new lens – a lens of thanksgiving.  She learned that simply giving thanks for everything changed her whole perspective on life.

The act of giving thanks to God for the many gifts He has given us enlarges our life, creates joy in living, and bolsters the trust and faith we have in Him. 

Once, while in my own pit of anguish, I started a gratitude journal and began a search for beauty.  As a matter of survival, I started listing the gifts from God that were all around me, everywhere I looked – when I took time to look. Monarch butterflies, raging red sunsets, softly drizzling rain, sunshine yellow daffodils, brilliant red leaves, spotted ladybugs , the extraordinary variety of mushrooms, reading glasses, the veins in my hands, the ripples on our lake.  Eventually, I learned to give thanks for the hard times in life – gray hair, a move to another state, hot humid days, illness, watching my mother die.  When we give thanks, we begin to see circumstances as God sees them – little steps in developing our character, knowing and trusting that He does indeed work all things together for good.  Not that those things are good in themselves, but He uses them all for good. 

Giving thanks brings peace. 

Giving thanks brings joy… even in heartache.

The third type of prayer is Wow.

Wow prayers are when you see something in the world which is absolutely amazing.  Of course these could also fall into the category of Thanks, but the Wow prayers are even more astounding, spectacular and incredible.  They are the breathtaking sights and living creatures which take us by surprise, the unexpected beauty as we turn round the bend in a road, the exquisite, the gorgeous. 

Jesus loves it when we talk to him, make Him our best friend, surrender our lives to Him.  The best thing of all is that He’s available night and day, in bad weather and good, during our snarky times and during our joy-filled moments.

Help

Thanks

Wow

Those three simple words aptly summarize all of our conversations with God and I am grateful they are available all the time, eternally and forever.

Love, Mom