Stop, Drop and .....Pray!

Last night I was in bed trying to pray, but not being very successful, as my mind kept clouding over with worries and stress, God placed a very interesting thought in my mind. Stop, drop and pray! Now, I know we're all heard stop, drop and roll (at least I hope you all have!), so this caught me off guard. I just thought...what? I started thinking about the meaning behind the words and of course at first I came up with the obvious, stop what you're doing, drop to your knees and pray. But something kept nagging at me, saying look deeper into what this means in your life. A few minutes later I felt the AHA moment when I figured out for me it means this: Stop worrying, drop your cares into God's hands and pray, PRAISING God. I have a really bad habit of starting to pray, then letting my mind wander with thoughts of what needs to be done, how I'm going to handle something that is going on in my life and other things like that, I go from praying one moment to being totally self absorbed into my problems, not taking them to God, but trying to solve everything myself. After I realize that I'm doing that, I will pray about it, but then completely forget to praise God for his mercy and grace. One of the books that the children have really put this into perspective for me. It's from Just the Way You Are by Max Lucado. A little girl is talking to the king, he says: "Being a king can be lonely. People act strangely around me. They ask for favors. They try to impress me. They bring me all their complaints." "But isn't that what a king is for?" asked the girl. "Certainly," responded the king, "but there are times when I just want to be with my people. There are times when I want to talk to my people-to hear about their day, to laugh a bit, to cry some. There are times when I just want to be their father." The book of course is showing us how God feels about us. Sometimes I forget that He is my father, he wants to talk to me about the good things as well as the bad, He doesn't want me to just put in my wish list of things for Him to take care of, then be on my way. So from now on, my prayer motto is...Stop, drop and PRAY!!