All right. I intend to pray. I’m ready to pay attention to God. I’ve got the time picked out. So how do I pray? In my opinion it’s a good question. How does a person pray? I am sure some people who are experienced at prayer would say that it’s a really dumb question. “Why all this falderal about how to pray? You just open your mouth and let the words come out.” That’s an answer, but one of many possible answers about how to pray. A Roman Catholic priest told me he had been taught that prayer had to involve lips and tongue, but then he learned about mental prayer in which not a sound is uttered. People can pray with whatever words come to them or they can use a book of prayers or they can recite memorized prayers. People can pray aloud or they can pray silently or they can sing. People can pray by themselves or with another person or with a group or with a thousand people together. People can pray sitting without moving or they can pray while moving about. I could go on and on.

Too often people have a narrow view that only permits one method of prayer to the exclusion of all others. They even want to tell others, “You aren’t really praying unless you do it my way.” That’s a mistake. It reminds me of the line from Auntie Mame, “Life is a banquet, and most poor fools are starving to death.” There is a banquet of prayer, but many people live as if they are on a prayer-diet. In the weeks ahead I hope to spread out, if not a banquet, at least a decent meal’s worth of ways to pray that you can choose from. But, first I’ll have to warn you about prayer potluck.

Read Colossians 4:2-5, and remember: God loves YOU unconditionally.

Wayne