Learning to Pray.

In these last few days, I have been praying quite a bit. I have two prayer journals going right now: the one that accompanies my current study in Romans, and whenever I finish that it will stay with my Bible for some one-on-one time and 'serious praying.' These are those prayers where you are just wiped; where you come at it with no organization of thought and you just lay everything out for the Lord. For me, this is usually in the morning and before bed. Also when I get some down time during the day.

Then, there is my on-the-fly prayer journal. I pray here when I am out and about, when I just say "God, Please Help. Help, Help, Help." In fact, this one calls me to meditate on His word and fix my eyes on His ways [Psalms 119 15-16]. I tend to pray in written form because I am really very easily distracted, and writing helps to keep my focused. Unless all of a sudden someone decides that a ridiculous distraction is in order, it usually works.

So here I am at the Cathedral of Notre Dame, a wonderful backdrop for trying to meditate and keep my eyes fixed; I am asking for guidance and for His light to shine in me. Not five minutes later some ridiculous french man sits next to me and with a flourish of his guitar and what I am sure he thinks is a charming "Enchante," he starts asking me questions. Well, folks - I am in the middle of some me-and-the-Father time here. Naturally, I try to be patient and gently tell this man in so many ways that I am not interested in anything he has to offer. Not conversation, not music, not anything. He is respectful enough to go away, so I continue in my thought process and literally the thing I prayed about next was that I would exemplify Christ in everything. AND THEN - WOULD YOU BELIEVE IT?! Another self-righteous charmer comes and sits down next to me. Blech. He started talking to me [I had my iPod on, which usually gives the 'I'm otherwise occupied' vibe] and again, I tried to be patient. He asked what I was doing, so I told him: "I am trying to pray to God. Unfortunately, I keep getting interrupted by distracting conversations. So I asked Him to make you go away." Finally he did.

And then I realized that even though these guys' intentions definitely were not Christlike, that I was also just given two unique opportunities to exemplify the Lord, and didn't do so well. Lesson learned - I guess I will keep working on that one!