Uncomplicating Prayer: Removing the Barrier and Simplifying the Conversation Between You and Godنموونە

Not long after my time of awareness, I walked my daughter through a similar journey.

“Gabby, it’s your turn to pray!” I said to my daughter as we sat around the kitchen table for our family time.

“I don’t want to!” she said. The terrified look on my eight-year-old's face shocked me as I waited for a playful retraction. But that didn’t come. She was being completely serious.

After a pause and another attempt to get her to oblige, I went ahead and invited one of my other children to pray but couldn’t shake the thought that I needed to tackle this fear right away.

After our family time that day, I tried asking her questions about her hesitancy and having her pray when we were alone. I thought that maybe she was just afraid to pray in front of others, but she would still freeze up and get upset when we were alone.

Since I’d just walked through something similar, I knew my best response to this was to talk to God about how to move my daughter from a place of fear to a place of freedom in her prayer life.

A few days later as I walked through the sunroom onto the deck, I saw something laying on the floor. This would typically not be a big deal since a house full of kids often equals random misplaced items on the floor, but this item completely stopped me in my tracks. As I looked closer, I realized it was a book that did not at all look familiar to me. I didn't recall ever purchasing this book or it being given to me. I had never seen it before. It was titled, “Prayer is for Children” I couldn’t believe my eyes. Where did this come from?

I could speculate many things about its mysterious and sudden appearance. There were many questions I could ask, but as I cracked the book open to find the very help I needed, I knew that God had placed it in front of me. He was, in His loving way, helping me teach my child how to have a conversation with her heavenly Father through this book. Everything in the book pointed to the core of what I had just learned on my prayer journey.

I was so excited, I ran downstairs and told Gabby about what had just happened and how God loved her so much that He put this book in front of us. She looked shocked when she saw the title! We started reading it that evening.

We learned a lot from that book, and although the writer crafted the text from a different theological perspective, the core message still applied. Prayer is communication with God.

Needless to say, she has come a long way in overcoming that fear of prayer, but I had to realize that simply telling her that she didn’t have to be afraid wasn’t what she needed. She needed to understand the conversational nature of prayer, and that’s just what that book taught her.

Today, I want you to consider this devotional your book-on-the-ground moment. It just happened to cross your path as you were scrolling along so that God could remind you that your conversation with Him matters, just like He did with Gabby.

Prayer isn’t about saying all the right things at the right time as much as it’s about saying something at any time. God wants you to say something to Him so that He knows He is part of a two-way conversation.

He has already started it; what will you say back?

If you enjoyed this reading plan by Rachel G. Scott, you'll love the complementary guided journal she created called,Where to GROW from Here?:A 14-day guided journal to help you grow in your walk with God.Grab your copyHERE.