I'm willing to try it, though!
Prayer hasn't been easy for me of late. I don't enjoy relying on God; it feels scary and uncertain. Instead, I hide my needs from Him and hope I can take care of things myself. That isn't the right way to handle life as a Christian. Where is the trust, the reliance on God, the obedience? I don't have any. So, as you might surmise, I tend to make a real mess. I desperately need new habits.
Many summers ago, I spent a few days babysitting my little second cousin. What a fun time with this active guy! He liked plonking piano keys, cooking, forts, time capsules, playing chase, pillow fights--he even liked cleanup time! Amidst all this fun, I was also given a special task: potty training.
I don't know about other potty training methods, but this little boy's mom had been working with a strategy: his bladder has to fill up sometime, so keep putting him on the potty often, and nature will do the rest. I was instructed to take him to the bathroom every 15-20 minutes. With a stack of clean clothes at the ready, I set the timer and we were off!
It was a whirlwind. He was pretty cheerful because, aside from his 3-4 potty breaks per hour, we did whatever his little heart desired. For the whole weekend, he had all my attention, and we thought up a thousand activities.
Diiiiiiing! The little kitchen timer was our only boss. Every 15-20 minutes, we heard its bell ring out, and we tromped to the potty. We only had two accidents and didn't worry over them much. One time he hid from potty time in the fort, aww! The only tough parts were when he didn't feel much like sitting on the potty but I still had to keep him upbeat, or when he pulled me from one toy/craft/game before we had a chance to clean up the last. Boy were we TIRED at the end of it all.
When his mom picked up her sleepy superhero and I whispered how well things went, she smiled.
The weekend was a success, and she later reported that he was pretty much trained up after that. No timer needed. He just kept up the good habit naturally. Wow!
Here is where my silly idea comes in. I'm not trained in prayer at all. And this trusting kind of prayer is supposed to be an all-day, everyday thing.
What if I set a timer for every 15-20 minutes, and take a minute for prayer? Could this work?! Would I eventually learn to pray naturally, without a timer, without having to feel a big inspiration to pray?
It's not that God has anything to do with a bathroom metaphor. It's more that my soul has a need to be trained. It needs God all day. And I haven't been used to having soul-and-God time throughout the day.
I wonder.
