Devotions for the Hungry HeartSample

Title: A Hungry Heart is Praying

Devotional Content:

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I couldn’t talk well when I was young, and I’ve freely admitted that traces of my childhood speech impediment can still be heard today. (Some would say those disclosures are unnecessary. These would be the people who have heard me speak in person.) I’ve also mentioned a time or two thousand that I once had a speech therapist who worked with me in elementary school who liked to hold on to my tongue while putting me through his little speech improvement regimen. Why don’t you read that again? I’ll wait.

Gospel truth, y’all. The man would literally hold my tongue and ask me to repeat after him. Can you imagine? I remember thinking that I couldn’t talk well when I had no control of my tongue. What on earth made him think the two of us could get better results if he held on to it for me confounded mini-me. I do hope they’ve abandoned that practice.

Years later (because I am an eternal optimist), I signed up for high school Spanish. The results weren’t much better. Don’t bother asking me to roll an r. I couldn’t do it then; can’t do it to this day. I mean this in the nicest way, but if you want an r rolled, you’ll need to roll it yourself.

My peers may not have had my particular challenge, but I don’t remember Spanish coming that easy for them either. That’s understandable. Experts tell us that younger people have an easier time learning new languages. The older we are, the more challenging it is for us to learn new sentence structures and the harder it becomes for us to pronounce previously foreign sounds. It’s not impossible, mind you, just difficult.

Many of the same things can be said about learning to pray. First Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to pray without ceasing. It sounds like a tall order when we first hear it. Our sentences sound all King James textbook-y and we find ourselves stuttering and stretching for the right words. That said, I beg you not to become discouraged and quit. I doubt Spanish will ever roll off this belle’s tongue, but talking to God has become as easy as breathing in and out, and you can know this same delight. Can you imagine?

I love the LORD, because He hears My voice and my supplications. Psalm 116.1