Prayer

I have been thinking about prayer a lot over the past few days.   The way we pray when we are in trouble or in need is so different from the way we pray at any other time.  We pray so much more frequently and more intensely when we are in need, when things are going well it is easier to push God to the sidelines of our lives. For the past 40 years I have been hung up on the idea of "a quiet time" spent alone with God and have been heaping guilt upon myself for the fact that I can't sit still and focus on one single thing at a time, but I suddenly realised that that is such an unrealistic expectation which we put on ourselves.  In the other important relationships in my life I speak to the people concerned everyday and about everything.  There would be something desperately wrong with my marriage if I only spoke to my husband at a set time each day and in a formal setting and it is the same with my relationship with God.  I have always talked to him as I go through my day, about  small things as well as the major things in life and I have realised that that is a healthy way to be in communion with God.  Obviously at times of trouble I spend more time praying and talking with God, just like I would sit and talk to my husband about things which concern me, but in the meantime I will continue to talk to God as part of my daily life just as I do with the rest of my family, after all that is the most important relationship in my life, and the one that all the others hinge on.