This morning, I was taught a lesson on prayer by someone less than half my age, which, in itself, is a lesson. We're never so experienced that there's nothing we can learn from another person, even if that person is much less experienced than we are. The specific lesson I learned this morning is that our prayers are much more meaningful if we pray specifically. Instead of saying "we're thankful for this food," he said "we're thankful for this delicious oatmeal." Also, he had faith that the oatmeal was going to be delicious, which it was. And instead of saying "we're thankful we had fun," he said "we're thankful we had fun..." and then listed a lot of the activities we had done up to that point. It was a good prayer.
Sometimes, when I hear that we should pray specifically, I think "But God already knows all that stuff." But do we? Do we realize that God has, fairly miraculously, provided the many blessings we enjoy? Do we really appreciate that the instant oatmeal we take for granted is a blessing that's unavailable to many? Do we know how blessed we are? By thanking God specifically for the food we have and for the energy and opportunities we have to do things, we're reminding ourselves of something that we frequently forget - those blessings come from Him.
We should strive to be grateful and express gratitude for all our blessings. Only then can we realize and appreciate just how blessed we are. I'm going to practice praying specifically and being grateful for everything. It'll take much longer than my prayers usually do, but time spent thanking God for our blessings is time well-spent, especially if it draws us closer to Him.
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