As you got up this morning, I watched you, and hoped you would talk to me, even if it was just a few words, asking my opinion or thanking me for something good that happened in your life yesterday. But I noticed you were too busy, trying to find the right outfit to wear.
When you ran around the house getting ready, I knew there would be a few minutes for you to stop and say hello, but you were to busy. At one point you had to wait, fifteen minutes with nothing to do except sit in a chair. Then I saw you spring to your feet. I thought you wanted to talk to me but you ran to the phone and called a friend to get the latest gossip instead. I watched patiently all day long.
With all your activities I guess you were too busy to say anything to me. I noticed that before lunch you looked around, maybe you felt embarrassed to talk to me, that is why you didn’t bow your head. You glanced three or four tables over and you noticed some of your friends talking to me briefly before they ate, but you didn’t. That’s okay.
There is still more time left, and I hope that you will talk to me yet. You went home and it seems as if you had lots of things to do. After a few of them were done, you turned on the TV. I don’t know if you like TV or not, just about anything goes there and you spend a lot of time each day in front of it not thinking about anything, just enjoying the show. I waited patiently again as you watched the TV and ate your meal, but again you didn’t talk to me.
Bedtime – I guess you felt too tired. After you said goodnight to your family you plopped into bed and fell asleep in no time. That’s okay because you may not realize that I am always there for you. I’ve got patience, more than you will ever know. I even want to teach you how to be patient with others as well.
I love you so much that I wait everyday for a nod, prayer or thought or a thankful part of your heart. It is hard to have a one-sided conversation.
Well, you are getting up once again. And once again I will wait, with nothing but love for you. Hoping that today you will give me some time.
Have a nice day! Your friend, GOD

Rubenstein, the great musician, once said, “If I omit practice one day, I notice it; if two days, my friends notice it’ if three days, the public notice it.” It is the old doctrine, “Practice makes perfect.” We must continue believing, continue praying, continue doing His will. Suppose along any line of art, one should cease practicing, we know what the result will be. If we would only use the same quality of common sense in our religion that we use in our everyday life, we should go on to perfection.

Jake, the rancher, went one day to fix a distant fence.
The wind was cold and gusty and the clouds rolled gray and dense.
As he pounded the last staples in and gathered tools to go,
the temperature had fallen and the snow began to blow.

When he finally reached his pickup, he felt a heavy heart.
From the sound of that ignition, he knew it wouldn’t start.
So Jake did what most of us do if we’d have been there.
He humbly bowed his balding head and sent aloft a prayer.

As he turned the key for the last time, he softly cursed his luck.
They found him three days later, frozen stiff in that old truck.
Now Jake had been around in life and done his share of roamin.
But when he saw Heaven, he was shocked – it looked just like Wyomin.

Of all the saints in Heaven, his favorite was St. Peter.
Now, this line, it ain’t needed but it helps with rhyme and meter.
So they set and talked a minute or two, or maybe it was three.
Nobody was keepin’ score – in Heaven time is free.

“I’ve always heard,” Jake said to Pete, “that God will answer prayers. But
one time I asked for help, well, He, just plain wasn’t there. Does God
answer prayers of some, and ignore the prayers of others? That don’t seem
exactly square – I know all men are brothers.

Or does he randomly reply, without good rhyme or reason?
Maybe, it’s the time of day, the weather or the season.
Now I ain’t trying to act smart, it’s just the way I feel.
And I was wonderin’, could you tell me what the heck’s the deal?”

Peter listened very patiently and when Jake was done,
There were smiles of recognition, and he said, “So, you’re the one!
That day your truck, it wouldn’t start, and you sent your prayer a flying.
You gave us all a real bad time, with hundreds of us a trying.

A thousand angels rushed to check the status of your file.’
But you know, Jake, we hadn’t heard from you in quite a while.
And though all prayers are answered, and God ain’t got no quota.
He didn’t recognize your voice, and started a truck in North Dakota.

I knelt to pray when day was done
And prayed, “O Lord, bless everyone,
Lift from each saddened heart the pain
And let the sick be well again.”

And then I woke another day
And carelessly went on my way,
The whole day long I did not try
To wipe a tear from any eye.

I did not try to share the load
Of any brother on the road.
I did not even go to see
The sick man just next door to me.

Yet once again when day was done
I prayed, “O Lord, bless everyone.”
But as I prayed, into my ear
there came a voice that whispered clear,

“Pause now, my son, before you pray.
Whom have you tried to bless today?
Gods sweetest blessing always go
by hands that serve him here below.”

And then I hid my face and cried,
“Forgive me, God, I have not tried,
But let me live another day
and I will live the way I pray.”

– Author unknown

“The proper way for man to pray,”
Said Deacon Lemuel Keyes,
“And the only proper attitude,
Is down upon his knees.”

“No, I should say the way to pray,”
Said Reverend Dr. Wise,
“Is standing straight with outstretched arms,
And rapt and upturned eyes.”

“Oh, no, no, no!” said Elder Slow,
“Such posture is too proud;
A man should pray with eyes fast closed,
And head contritely bowed.”

“It seems to me his hands should be
Austerely clasped in front.
With both thumbs pointing toward the ground,”
Said Reverend Dr. Blunt.

“Las’ year I fell in Hodgkin’s well
Head first,” said Cyrus Brown.
“With both my heels a-stickin’ up,
My head a-pointin’ down;

“An’ I made a prayer right then and there;
best prayer I ever said.
The prayin’est prayer I ever prayed,
a standin’ on my head.”

“Cyrus Brown’s Prayer” by Sam Walter Foss

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

God bless Mummy. I know that’s right.
Wasn’t it fun in the bath tonight?
The cold’s so cold, and the hot’s so hot.
Oh! God bless Daddy – I quite forgot.

If I open my fingers a little bit more,
I can see Nanny’s dressing-gown on the door.
It’s a beautiful blue, but it hasn’t a hood.
Oh! God bless Nanny and make her good.

Mine has a hood, and I lie in bed,
And pull the hood right over my head,
And I shut my eyes and I curl up small,
And nobody knows that I’m there at all.

Oh! Thank you, God, for a lovely day.
And what was the other I had to say?
I said ‘Bless Daddy,’ so what can it be?
Oh! Now I remember it. God bless me.

Little Boy kneels at the foot of the bed,
Droops on the little hands little gold head.
Hush! Hush! Whisper who dares!
Christopher Robin is saying his prayers.

(‘Vespers’ by A.A. Milne, written around 1923)

A group of ministers had met together to study Ephesians 6, and they had just come to the verse “Pray at all times.” A maid brought in coffee for the men, and one of them turned to her. He asked her what she thought this verse meant.

She said, “Why, that’s exactly what I do each day. When I wash, I think of my sins being washed away. When I light the fire, I think of the bright light that I should be for the Lord Jesus. When I wash the dishes, I think of the kind of utensil I should be for the Lord.”

No amount of academic knowledge or theological training could have taught those ministers the beautiful truth they learned from her that day.

From The Sermon Fodder Internet List

A grandfather was walking past his young granddaughter’s room one night when he saw her kneeling beside her bed, with head bowed and hands folded, repeating the alphabet.
“What are you doing?” he asked her.
She explained, “I’m saying my prayers, but I couldn’t think of just what I wanted to say. So I’m just saying all the letters of the alphabet, and God can put them together however he thinks best.”
Maybe some of the rest of us should have that kind of faith.
As “His Prayer” puts it, “THY will be done.”
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