I'm just gonna close my eyes while I talk to you...

I woke up this morning at 5:30 am, and I was so pleased that I managed to wake up at the right time, that I closed my eyes again to thank God; I hadn’t set my alarm, and I had been out at Star Lake until 11 pm last night, so my body wasn’t exactly rested, so to wake up on time, it could only have been divine intervention!

Unfortunately, when I closed my eyes to do this, I had this urge to sit up and raise my hands while I prayed, and I resisted – shame on me! I got out of bed at 7.40 am! I fell asleep again! Oh, I’m a muppet!

When I was about 15 my friend Julie lovingly made fun of me when she found out that in my quest to stay away during my prayers, I would lie on my bed with my bottom against the wall and my legs parallel the wall so that I could pray; this didn’t work! I’d roll over and fall asleep. I have knocked that off my “ways to pray” list. (I knew someone who used to think that falling asleep during prayer was a sign that God was blessing you and that you could take it as a sign to know that it would all be ok! I don’t think I agree with that.)

It’s crazy to think, that with all the time we have in the day, we can struggle to find time to talk! I remember my mammie telling me that she prayed walking home from work – that is my picture of someone praying; my mammie walking up Silvertonhill Avenue with shopping bags, (hopefully from Marks & Spencer’s cream cakes inside,) speaking her prayers to God. So, sometimes, while I am driving, I’ll turn the radio off – and being that I am an extreme extrovert and silence kills me, I have to talk, and the only one in my car is God, so I make use of that time. (I talk with my hands, many strange looks!)

Other times, I write; I never thought myself a writer, I was horrible at English in school; (I was so bad, that the head of English taught me himself; even he couldn’t raise my grades.) I started writing my prayers when I was 17 – I loved being able to go back and look at my questions and being able to see the prayers that God had answered; encouraging on my crappy, my life sucks kind of days! (There is a really good journal out there, it’s marketed for women, but I know a bloke who uses it. It just helps you organize your prayers.) My friend Carole Jeanne gave it to me, it’s been very helpful – well worth the cash!

In the “Complete Idiot’s guide to Understanding Islam,” they discuss the prayer life of a Muslim. Ritual prayer for worship is required by anyone over the age of nine; personal prayer requests are not considered prayer, but supplications. “Sincerity is the key to having requests granted.” Prayer is separated between ritual prayer and requests. I felt like I had found a flaw in their way of prayer, it was that to separate prayer into these two labels, left a huge gap – when do they get to know God? When do they let God get to know them? GUILT! That was a very self-righteous thing to say. How many times does our prayer life go any further than ritual and request? I’ve recently learned of the “Listening Prayer.” The girl that is teaching me has started me off by having me ask God what He thinks of me; I’d never thought of doing that! What does God think of you? Strange question it seemed…

I did read something that got my back up; (rightly?) it was that God gets angry when they don’t call on Him regularly. Anyone got any thoughts?

One thing I do like and I’ve seen part of this done; is that when they supplicate, they hold their hands out, palms up to receive God’s blessing. When they are finished, they move their hands over their face to accept the grace of God. I like that.

Peace y’all