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{"id":5317,"date":"2013-06-17T17:00:04","date_gmt":"2013-06-17T22:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/?p=5317"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:29:44","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T20:29:44","slug":"praying-the-same","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdroberts\/2013\/06\/17\/praying-the-same\/","title":{"rendered":"Praying The Same"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We used many of the same phrases over and over, of course:\u00a0Thank you, God, for this day. Please bless our family. Please heal<\/em>\u00a0______ (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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019t we supposed to use them to create new and unique prayers? Wouldn\u2019t God, like our friends, grow bored with us if we said the same things to Him over and over again?<\/p>\n

Come, Lord Jesus, be our guest, and let this food to us be blessed. Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n

You can read Katie\u2019s reflection\u00a0here<\/a>. What do you think? What repeated prayers have been means of grace over your life?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"