Prayer

As they lined their blocks up spelling the word "pray" on the floor we began to talk about things that make noise. Shane and I teach the 3 and 4 year old boys Sunday School class and most Sundays they teach me more than we teach them. One boy piped up and said "tractors make noise" and then he made the sound of a tractor. Another one yelled "airplanes are loud!" and then he took his little hand and zoomed it through the air while he made the sound of an airplane scraping across the sky. Another boy tapped my arm saying "Miss Lori...Miss Lori...cars make noise" and he vroomed vroomed his hand through the air.

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Once everyone arrived we sat down at the table and started working on a collage of pictures of things that make noise and with every snip of the scissors all the boys were discussing noises. I said "point your finger" and they all followed just pointing away and I said "I can't hear you!" Then I instructed "snap your fingers" and all of a sudden there was noise! The boys got a real kick out of this and then we tried all sorts of things. They waved their hands and guess what? I couldn't hear them waving but as soon as they put their hands together and started clapping there was NOISE!

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As our lesson went on and we laughed and giggled we learned that although we "think" about prayer God doesn't "hear" us until we actually pray! It is so easy to get caught up in daily life and think to ourselves I need to pray but at the end of the day; do we actually do it? I can sit here and point, wave my hands, tap my foot, swish back and forth but until I actually get on my knees, look up and pray...He won't hear me!

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I'm good at "talking" about things that have me concerned and worried. I stress about this, that and the other. I spend alot of time saying "I'll pray for you" and I even think to myself "I need to stop and pray" but then I get sidetracked and I realize that all I really do is spend alot of time yapping about it but never doing it.

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"Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life." Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG).