Prayer

I accepted Christ when I was 8, and have enjoyed a pretty great spiritual walk since then. God has gotten a hold of me a few times before I went too far down the wrong path, and used a few really tough times to help grow my relationship with Him. But the one thing in my spiritual life I have never been good at or really even enjoyed was my prayer life. I have tried off and on to get better, but to no avail. And now with three kids, well, you know, its just tough to spend that quality time with God. Yes, if I would get off the computer and turn off the tv I would have time. So, its not really the kids fault.
Anyway, we just finished a 6 week study at church on prayer, and it caught my attention enough to actually buy the book it was based on (thanks mom). Prayer, Does it Really Make a Difference?, by Philip Yancy. I highly recommend it. He really helps to answer all the questions and struggles I have had with prayer, like, if God already knows everything, why do I need to pray? And if He already has the plan, is my prayer going to change anything? I am only a little ways thru, and it has really encouraged me to start making the effort to pray. I'm not there yet. But the past two days I have taken a few minutes to really pray for my boys and Jason. For that, I have used The Power of a Praying Parent, and Praying Wife, by Stormie Omartian. Highly recommend those too. So I figure if I blog about it, it will hold me somewhat accountable to keep it up. Between 3-4 everyday, I'm kind of tired and there is nothing on tv, so that's the time I have prayed and read more in my book, and I will try to keep it up. And I will try to blog some about what the book is teaching me. I may have to read it a few times to get it all. Today's chapter was about looking at how Jesus prayed. Its obviously important because even though Jesus knew God knew everything and already had a plan, he totally depended on it daily to survive living on this earth. I want to totally depend on it, but right now, I depend on myself. No wonder I'm tired.