One of the first things I do every morning is pray. After I hit the snooze on the alarm, I start my prayer in bed or I roll out, landing on my knees. My goal is to exercise discipline in my prayer life, so I do it first thing. When I pray before doing anything else, it prepares me for the day. If I oversleep and don’t leave myself enough time to pray, my day is not the same. It feels a little disjointed.
My preferred way to talk to the Lord in my morning prayers is on bended knees. When I pray during the day, I’m usually sitting or standing. Just recently I found a new way to pray!
Yesterday, I woke up with a feeling of overwhelming sorrow. When I went to bed the night before, I felt fine. This sorrowful feeling was quite strange for me. I rolled out of bed with tears flowing down my face and before I knew it, I was sobbing with intensity. What was wrong? I was missing my daughter. The previous day my husband and I had taken her to college and we both were emotionally fine. In fact, I told her that it felt like I was taking her to camp. She smiled and said, “Mom I have never gone to overnight camp.” She was right, but that’s how I felt.
I tried to pray my usual way, but I could not get the words out. I knew that if I did not get out what I was feeling, I would not be able to go about the rest of my day. Then I decided to try writing my prayer down on a pad next to my bed. This was new, but it was all I could manage at the time. As I began writing while still sobbing, I started to feel a sense of peace. I wrote the words that came to my mind.
I wrote about the sorrow and loss that I felt not having my daughter at home. I knew that God understood, because Hebrew 5:7 tells us that during the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears. What I needed most was to know that I was loved and that my Heavenly Father understood what I was going through. It was important to him because I am important to him!
While writing, I sensed the Lord’s peace. In my heart I heard his strong words that he was with me and would never leave me. Those powerful yet gentle words dried every tear and brought my heart to a place of calm.
My prayer point is this: When you cannot find words to speak because the pain is more than you can articulate… try writing. I offer this to you because it helped me find a way to cast my cares onto the Lord. If you cannot say it, write it! We are not limited to one way of praying. We connect with God through conversation; it is a dialogue. We were not made to carry our own burdens, but he can. I pray that God will meet you wherever you are and whatever you are going through.
God bless you!
