Mark D. Roberts
My friend Katie Noah Gibson wrote a lovely piece in Art House America about the small prayer that she grew up saying before mealtimes with her family. It’s a beautiful little reflection on the words we use to talk to God, and our complicated feelings towards them.
We used many of the same phrases over and over, of course: Thank you, God, for this day. Please bless our family. Please heal ______ (inserting the name of whichever family member or friend was sick or hurting). But our parents and teachers urged us to put those phrases together in new and creative ways.
Over time, I picked up the notion that it was lazy, almost cheating, to pray the same prayer day in and day out. God gave us brains: weren’t we supposed to use them to create new and unique prayers? Wouldn’t God, like our friends, grow bored with us if we said the same things to Him over and over again?
Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed. Amen.
You can read Katie’s reflection here. What do you think? What repeated prayers have been means of grace over your life?
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