Flying with prayer

How do you pray? Do you get down on your knees at the foot of the bed? Do you make a dedicated time to pray? Do you pray consistently during the day or night? I ask this question because one time during an emotional upset someone asked me if I was praying for comfort. When I said I was, she remarked that I wasn't praying right.

I wasn't praying right. And of course she was the authority on praying right, wrong, or indifferent just because she was studying to be a preacher. Yeah, right. Anyway, it got me to thinking about how people pray.

An excellent book on the subject is called How Strong Women Pray by Bonnie St. John. She interviews some of America’s most notable women including Maya Angelou, Edie Falco, Barbara Bush, and Kathie Lee Gifford about their prayer life. She simply asks them how they pray. She weaves her personal story throughout the book of being an amputee, Olympic skier and silver medalist, and of course prayer.

Here is an excerpt from the Chapter about Maya Angelou:

In that instant in my life I knew that I was a child of God... and knowing it then, I know it all the time, fresh. Just saying it makes me thrill, in the classic sense. I mean, my body - Wheeew!
At that moment, I had to leave the room. I started weeping... with the knowledge of it. And I could do it again right now. That which made the seas and mountains, made stars and moons, and goldfish... That loves me?!!

It was a freedom... a relief... a license to try to do all the good in the world. If That loves me, then I can do anything good. You see?

Now I pray all the time. I pray when I'm walking from here over to the chair. I pray at any time... when something crosses my mind, I have a prayer. Mostly I'm thankful: Thanking God for God, thanking God for Jesus, and thanking Jesus for Jesus. I am thankful for the idea of love, the idea of forgiveness, and the offering of peace and joy two thousand years ago.

Read more about the book and Bonnie at http://www.bonniestjohn.com/AboutBonnie.aspx

I do make it a point to pray first thing in the morning. Then I pray throughout the day and then I try to dedicate time at night to reflect and thank God for whatever happened or did not happen during the day. I also keep a journal, not a separate prayer journal because I cannot separate my life from my praying.

The lesson I learned from my own experiences and Bonnie's book is that prayer is individual. However you pray is the right way.