I woke up Sunday morning exhausted and mad. I found myself lying in bed arguing with my husband and he wasn’t even awake yet. We had spent all day Saturday out at the soccer fields with our 3 children . Beat by the sun I had collapsed into bed after haphazardly dumping some clothes into the washer and making a lame attempt to cook dinner. Still tired when I woke up the first thing that crossed my mind was I needed more help. I fumbled through making the coffee, glaring angrily at the dinner dishes that were still sitting in the sink and gleefully took the last clean coffee cup, thinking ’serves him right’. Walking outside I quickly sidestepped one of the kittens that had perched itself in front of the door demanding to be fed. You’re just going to have to wait, I told him, I can’t do everything. I sat there sipping my coffee watching the day dawn, getting angrier and angrier the more I thought of all the things that needed to be done. None of the kids had probably had a bath. I was sure the clothes were still sitting in the washer right where I left them. We still didn’t have anything to cook for the church pot luck picnic and it was highly unlikely we were going to make it to Sunday School…again. I heard my husband searching for a coffee cup in the kitchen and the guilt hit me. I looked back at the rising sun and started to pray. Dear Lord, I know there’s something wrong with me this morning – - I don’t want to take it out on my family. Please help me, I can’t do this alone, not today.

I peeked inside the window just in time to see my husband grabbing one of my collectible cat china cups then I fed the kittens so he didn’t blindly trip over them and break my china on the way out. With a smile on his face, he came out, gave me a kiss and asked if I was feeling better. All of the hostility I had felt for him all morning vanished. I sat there stunned for a minute – I have always believed in the power of prayer, but even so, I never stop being amazed when He answers them so efficiently.

My grandmother taught me when I was little to pray about everything, big and small. When I got a little older, I felt silly praying because none of them were ever answered. The boy I wanted to ask me out never did, the stylish clothes that would make me popular never appeared, my parents divorced, even though I prayed constantly that my family would stay together. My grandmother had fed me hogwash and I ate it up because I was a little girl stuck in a fantasy world where happily ever after still existed. As I continued to age, my prayer life became non-existent, and I got increasingly lost in a world that would never make sense. Bad things started to happen to me; drugs, alcohol, bad friends then eventually homelessness. That was the point that I decided to try the prayer thing again, after all it couldn’t hurt right? But these prayers were different than the prayers said by the little girl I had once been. They were angry prayers; I hate this, change this and give me, give me, give me. Did He answer? I didn’t think so at the time, but looking back after 15 + years, I can say absolutely, without a doubt. He took the hate and showed me how to love, He changed me, but not the things, and He gave and gave and gave, to this day He is still giving but I have learned now the importance of asking.

I come across so many people in today’s world that say religion makes no sense, Christianity is too hard and they are too busy to pray. These same people are also the first to complain about their lives, their circumstances and what they have in life. How is prayer hard? How can you be too busy to pray? You can lie in bed and mentally justify your actions because of what people have done to you. You can list all the ways you’ve been neglected, ignored and mistreated. You can have imaginary conversations where you put these evildoers in their place and plan ways to exact your revenge, but you don’t have time to pray?

You hear it over and over that there is power in prayer but have you ever truly allowed it to sink in. When you pray, the Lord gives you the power to accomplish the things that you can’t. When YOU pray, the Lord GIVES YOU THE POWER, but you must pray in order to be given that power. It doesn’t matter what you are praying about or what you are praying for, what matters is that you are praying. The Lord said, draw near to me and I will draw near to you. How much more simple can you get?

Philippians 4:13 I can do everything through him who gives me strength