Pray Before Need

Interesting.

I just said a prayer, asking for help in deciding what to blog about (a prayer that God, apparently, answered), and it occurred to me that, while I'm fairly good at praying when I need help, I usually wait until I realize I need help before I pray.

For example, when I vacuumed up a Sacrament cup into a vacuum that wasn't big enough to handle it, I'm pretty sure I tried one or two things before I prayed for guidance to help me out of that predicament, and I certainly didn't pray for help before I began vacuuming because I didn't think I'd need it.

I wonder if that's one of the reasons God lets us get ourselves into trouble so often: to remind us how much we need Him. Of course, if I was wiser, I might remember to pray for guidance and assistance before things go wrong. If I did, things might not go wrong as often. For instance, if my morning prayers included asking God to help me recognize blogworthy moments, and if I prayed periodically, asking God to help me see the messages in the daily events unfolding around me, perhaps I would less frequently end up in the situation where I have only an hour until midnight, and I still don't know what to blog about.

I already knew that I need to pray often, far more often than I do, and I already knew that I need to pray, even when I don't feel worthy to pray, but now I also know that I always need to pray, even when I don't think I need to. I know I can pray in times of trouble, and I sometimes remember to, but now I know that it's far better to pray before I get myself into trouble, and that, if I did, I might get myself into trouble less often.

It makes sense to pray for the help that I very well might need, and it makes all the more sense to pray for that help before the hour in which I need it.